Cavs: the Podcast

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Fresh from the CtB podcast resort, Nate Smith, Dani Socher, and Chris Francis pay homage to the classic PBS television program, "The McLaughlin Group" with their own, wacky, loosely scripted version of the show, except better... because it's the Cavs' Edition. That's right, Chris plays "moderator" to two of the "giants" in Cavs media, Nate and Dani... who go hea...

The ole' ball coach Nate Smith called a trade rumor audible and rounded up CtB veterans Elijah Kim and Chris Francis to discuss the recent Ben Simmons talk that has swept up NBA fans. The CtB trio does a deep dive into the possibilities (or improbabilities?)... with Nate dropping a deep cut Kenny Rogers and Michael Jordan reference that caught youngins' by surprise! The trio also lightly t...

Elijah Kim and Chris Francis reflect upon the biggest NBA news of the weekend, the Cavs trading hometown son and de facto team leader Larry Nance, Jr. to the Portland Trailblazers in a three team trade that brings over the sharp shooting big Lauri Markannen, who fell out of favor with the Chicago Bulls and their new front office regime. Eli and Chris cover all aspects of the trade, what the Cavs l...

Nate Smith and Adam Cathcart make a Transatlantic connection for this week's podcast to go over all the latest Cavs news. First we take on Chris Fedor's "maybe trade Larry" Article on Cleveland.com, and examine Nance's role on the Cavs. Then we go through the Central Division and see if the Cavs can go better than 4-8 next year. We discussed the Cavs' surprising success aga...

Wednesday night, Evan Mobley, Isaac Okoro, and the Cavs earned their first victory of the summer with a dominant third quarter performance to put away the Jalen Suggs led Orlando Magic 94-84. The ole ball coach Nate Smith made the call to the bullpen and brought Elijah Kim and Chris Francis off the bench to do a deep dive on the young Summer League Cavaliers now that they've reach the halfway...

Nate rounds up CtB vets Eli and Chris for a draft/free agency spectacular! The Evan Mobley pick, the Ricky Rubio trade, the Jarrett Allen signing, NBA free agency, they cover it all… including a free agency signing of their own! That's right, CtB is joining the Fansided podcast network and Minute Media! We celebrated by going deep on the Cavs penchant for centers and guards as if they're t...

The ole’ ball coach Nate Smith rounds up Eli and Chris for a Cavs the Podcast double album entitled, “Larry Nance: if he’s not a Cav, what’s the point?” Nate’s stirring soliloquy on the virtues of Larry Nance Jr. will melt even the most jaded of Cavs fans’ hearts. On a slightly more serious note, the trio also covers everything else under the basketball sun at the CtB “beach side” podcast studio i...

Elijah Kim and Chris Francis stole the keys to the CtB Podcast lair, which led promptly to a 2021 NBA Draft extravaganza! With the ole' ball coach Nate Smith in Dan Gilbert/Wizard of Oz mode, CtB veterans Eli and Chris take charge to check in with a live update on Team USA's final game against Spain before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Then they break down the Bucks' victory in Game 5 of th...

On this hot midsummer night, with only two weeks until the 2021 NBA Draft, Nate Smith, Elijah Kim, and Chris Francis gathered in the global CtB bunker to process the Cavs’ news which seems to be the current hot topic among NBA circles: are the Cavs trading Collin Sexton? According  to reports, the Cavs and Knicks seemed to have serious discussions on trading the 22 year old guard but the talks bro...

Cavs-mas came late in the evening as the Cavs were able to move up to the third pick in a loaded 2021 NBA draft. Nate Smith gathers Elijah Kim and Chris Francis to Santa's studio to break down the monumental night. They dive into the possibilities which are seemingly endless. They also continue a fantastic discussion regarding Ben Simmons, with a hat tip to CtB veteran Ben Werth. They also bre...

'Twas the night before Cavs-mas... Yes, Virginia, the draft lottery  has really been the Cavalier Christmas over the last couple years. As such, Nate, Eli, and Chris gathered in Santa's podcast studio, hoping to cook up some Cavs-mas magic on Cavs-mas eve. The trio discussed their hopes and fears for the draft, the prospects they have their eyes on, and the possibilities that exist should...

On day three of the 2020-21 NBA Playoffs, the ole' ball coach Nate Smith brings together grizzled veteran Elijah Kim and the rookie Chris Francis to wrap up what has been one of the weirdest seasons in Cavs' history. It started with the the joy of seeing Cavs' basketball after the long dark night of the COVID cancellation and NBA bubble, then after a decent start of the season, the cra...

The Cleveland Cavaliers took the best team in the Association, the  Phoenix Suns, into an overtime battle, finally running out of gas at the  end 134-118. The Cavs were greatly undermanned with only a seven man  rotation, but that didn’t stop Isaac “Ice” Okoro, who went toe-to-toe  with one of the brightest young stars in the NBA, Devin Booker. Ice  turned in a career performance tonight with 32 p...

The Cavs hosted the Bulls Wednesday night with a new coach at the helm (at least for one night). Greg Buckner, a longtime assistant, got his first shot at being in charge... and his team responded with a wire-to-wire impressive victory over the team just ahead of them in the race for the play in tournament. Sexland led the way with 55 points on blistering 19-30 shooting (7-9 from deep), and the Ca...

Old friends Nate and EvilGenius squeezes into the podcast booth and looked over the games and more importantly the coming decisions for Cleveland this week and into the future. We discussed whether Andre Drummond would get moved this week, whether we'd see much movement in general, if we'll ever see Kevin Love in a Cavs game again, and the big decisions the Cavs would have to make this off...

This podcast starts with some devastating news we received Saturday afternoon. Our friend, podcaster, and contributor Ryan Yankee passed away Friday night from heart failure. We will share more news when I have it, and a more fitting tribute to Ryan in the coming days. I'm still raw from the loss. Ryan is someone who'd contributed to the CtB community pretty regularly in the past couple ye...

David Wood and Nate Smith dared enter the realm of the podcast booth to talk about the Cavs and a variety of other topics. They hit on why the Cavs need to just let it rip from deep, how great Dylan Windler (the South Paw Ginger Kyle Korver ) is, Isaac Okoro , how the Cavs are great at post entry passes, who deserves to be in the All-Star game, why Sexton doesn't need to think as much, why Tra...

Cavs looked much more prolific from three in this one: 10-32 to the Bucks' 7-22. It was a marked improvement to Wednesday's 10 free throw night, but while the Cavs improved in offensive diversity, they regressed in rebounding: losing that battle 54-36. Between that and trying to stop Giannis (33/12/4) and his ability to take three steps on every dribble, it was tough for the Cavs to keep p...

The Cavs rolled into Madison Square Garden Friday, clearly thinking they could just flip the switch on the Knicks, yet they found themselves outworked, outplayed and outhustled on defense for one of the few times this season. Not to mention, they had real issues hitting shots both in and out of transition. It’s hard to win games where you log a 33 point half of basketball, or shoot 35% from the fi...

Tom and Nate hopped in the booth to instapod and gush over what we just saw: the best performance in the best game by a Cav since the James' trip to La La land. We explored the meaning of "Scary Hours" like two Dads would do and dreamed about whether the Cavs should cash some chips in to chase a playoff spot this season. Collin Sexton might have stolen his new nickname from Drake and t...

Any time you Podcast with Tom Pestak, It's like you're waking up Bucky Barnes from the cryo chamber as you fill him in on everything that's happened in the NBA since the last time he was on a podcast. Wednesday night was no different, Elijah Kim and Nate Smith filled him in on today's blockbuster trades, out of which the Cavs acquired Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince. It was certai...

The Cavs ran out of gas against Orlando for the second game in a row, Wednesday. A consistent theme of this game was injuries, as the Cavs were down six guys going into the night, and could be down seven after an ankle injury to Dameyan Dotson limited him to just 15 minutes. But the worst injury of the game came on a fairly innocuous play in the first quarter when Markelle Fultz blew his ACL drivi...

After a late scratch by Joel Embiid, the Cavs boat raced the unsuspecting Sixers Sunday, and posted another monster second quarter (35 points) to spring to a 14 point halftime lead. They won the final two quarters as well, with their lead ballooning to as much 32 points in a game that may open some eyes around the Association. If there is one thing that has excited Cavs fans in this 3-0 start it&#...

Frohe Weihnachten, Cavs fans!. It's a Christmas Miracle! Ben Werth joined Nate Smith in the podcast booth after a three year absence! Ben, a resident of Germany joined us from Berlin, and we talked all things Cavaliers. The biggest discussion: what will the starting lineup look like. We both concluded that if the Cavs want to win, they'll start Cedi and Okoro over Sexton or Garland (we wer...