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Cue the Germans!

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Ho ho ho, welcome to the Fear the Fro podcast,
Max Struce. Holy shit, what an evening. Was

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there a more satisfying regular season game
than this? Certainly not for Max Struce. There

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is no other place to begin but the marquee free
agent acquisition of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

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Now much maligned as he may have been over the
course of these several months with the Cleveland

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Cavaliers due to his shooting splits he showcased
tonight. Exactly. What it is about Max Struce

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that makes him so magnificent as a contributing
member of this Cavalier squad. Take away the

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final stat line, the 21-4-4. What is really
more majestic here is the manner in which it

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came tonight. Max Struce in the first half was
imposing his will on the defensive end. Multiple

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times he sent guys packing. But beyond that,
the fourth quarter rolls around. and Max Struess

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is a house on fire. Five three-pointers, five
of his 70% three-point shooting, seven makes

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tonight. However, four of those came in a 67-second
span in which Max Struess humiliated on repeat,

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Tim Hardaway Jr., Luca Doncic. Tim Hardaway
Jr. than Tim Hardaway Jr. again. This is what

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I would recommend to all of you. You don't even
get to see the true majesty of it. It's not

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just that Max Struse hits the full court game
winner on Luka Doncic. What happened after

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Kyrie Irving committed that inbound violation?
The Cavalier broadcast clipped the play that

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they ran. You saw Max elevate and hit the shot
on the Cavs broadcast but really all you got

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out of that was knowing that Luca was pissed
about something because he was clearly scapegoating

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some teammates. MVP am I right? If you go back
and watch the Mavericks version of the broadcast

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what you'll see is Max come running across the
paint and Jared Allen giving Luca a screen

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that gave Max just enough time to catch the
ball, release it and nail that corner three.

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And that stretch of four triples obviously that
is the story of the game. But this fourth quarter

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was one which took what would have been a crushing
collapse by the Cavaliers after blowing open

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the game in the first half, the second quarter
specifically. The Cavaliers at one point with

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three minutes left in the second quarter, they
had hit seven of nine three-pointers that they

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put up. Blew it open, 15-point lead. It would
get whittled down due to 14 points in the final

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three minutes of the first half by Luka, including
four triples. But how satisfying is it to look?

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At the end of that first half, when Luca poured
in 14 points and 3 minutes, not knowing that

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the end outcome was to be that Max Struus would
outdo him, pouring in 15 points, all of which

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came from behind the line and one of which came
from behind halfcourt. Anything you can do.

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Doc, you want to take it? We can play VATTER.
See, for once, his excuses are coming in handy.

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Now brace yourselves, Cavs fans. In any game
that ends... this incredibly for us or terribly

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for them, you're going to get a lot of excuses.
And I've already seen it from Mavericks fans

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saying, oh, it should have been a jump ball
when they tackled Darius Garland or, or that

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was a foul by Max Truss when Kyrie Irving hooked
his arm or, oh, Jared Allen, that should have

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been an and one from PJ Washington, which I
guess would have given them time to collect

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themselves. So they didn't just give Max Truss
an unimpeded run-up into his three quarter

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court bomb. Now the reality is, if you continue
to allow Tim Hardaway Jr. to pick up a guy

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who has made his last two, his last three, his
last four three-point attempts in a row, Not

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two, not three, not four. I don't have much
sympathy for you. Jason Kidd was watching a

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double-digit lead get cut down to four points
in a matter of seconds and he just sat there

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saying, I don't give a shit. Now when the whole
run kicked off from Max Truce, It came off

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a situation where he set a top of the circle
screen for Donovan Mitchell, who came over,

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and Tim Hardaway Jr. decided to try to go over
top of the screen. In the process, he stumbled,

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but to me, the clear call there was, Luca should
have rotated to stay along with Strews. Instead,

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nobody did, and he had enough time to get a
shot off while Tim Hardaway Jr. just blll

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But I'm not Steve Jones, so what the fuck do
I know? The second one, clearly that was a

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situation where the Cavaliers had a chance to
run a play. Max came running across the paint.

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Allen set that screen, so good execution. Don
Cich blamed his teammates, of course. That's

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what happens. And then the next two after that,
a drop pass from Darius Garland that Tim Hardaway

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Jr. couldn't close on. Donovan Mitchell assisted
on three of the four three-pointers for Max

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Struce in that stretch. but Tim Hardaway Jr.
just not a strong enough defender to make the

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looks be difficult enough, and sometimes when
you're hot, you're hot. However, having him

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in there late in the game seems questionable,
giving the information I'm about to provide

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you. Over the course of this entire season,
there is one member of the Mavericks rotation

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that has a positive plus minus playing alongside
Tim Hardaway Jr., and that is the newly acquired

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Daniel Gafford. He's nearly a plus 10, except
everybody else who matters. It's the opposite.

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Kyrie is a plus 8 without Hardaway Jr. Luke
is a plus 12 without him. PJ Washington newly

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acquired plus 11 and Josh Green a plus 12 without
him. Nobody seems to play better when that

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man is on the floor except for Max Strews tonight.
So here's a fun stat to share with you. Now

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there have been seven men in the NBA who have
gone at least five for five from outside the

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arc in a quarter of basketball. three sets of
teammates. We have Keegan Murray and Malik

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Monk, both have done it for the Kings. We have
Boyan Bogdanovich and Jalen Brunson, both have

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done it for the Knicks. And we have Steph Curry
and Klay Thompson, both have done it for the

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Warriors. But none of those men have gone a
perfect five for five or better from outside

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the arc in the fourth quarter. Max Truce is
the only man to achieve that feat. Now every

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single time that has happened, unsurprisingly,
given the statistical improbability of doing

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that, Those teams have won those games. A perfect
7-0. Now the last time somebody did what Max

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did in the fourth quarter of a game, prior to
this season, was December of 2022 in a game

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where DeAngelo Russell hit six three-pointers
in a victory over the Utah Jazz. Let's hear

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from Max Struess himself, shall we? This a post-game
interview clip. I think this might be McNuggets.

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I don't know for sure, but I got the recording
from Spencer Davies. on the Cavs Insider YouTube

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page. You should all follow that. Sometimes
he even beats the Cavs posting of interview

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clips. 59 foot buzzer beat his second longest.
I heard it was 60. Why you cut me short, man?

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60 foot buzzer beat his second longest in NBA
history right there? Yeah, that's what they

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just told me back there. So pretty cool. But
if it ain't first, you're last, in the great

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words of Ricky Bobby. Who was first place if
Max is second since 1979, 1980? That would

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be Devonte Graham, who hit one from just a foot
longer, 61 feet. Tim McMahon has a post saying

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it's 59 feet. Max seems to believe that somebody
told him it was 60 regardless. Another interesting

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nugget revealed in that post game interview
is that he hit an even longer buzzer beater

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with his Division 2 school, Lewis, before he
went on to play at DePaul. So Max Truce, no

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stranger to that type of situation. However,
it probably only emerged tonight due to Donovan

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Mitchell being out of the game. One other thing.
If we're going to nitpick how that final possession

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played out. I don't know that the Mavericks
anticipated scoring with any time left on the

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clock, but I thought they should have pressed
up on the inbounds. It did not seem particularly

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difficult for Evan Mobley to be able to toss
that ball to Struz who could load up in motion

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and get a fairly clean look off. The odds of
it going in are minimal, but I did not like

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how they defended that at all. And they set
up Luka Doncic to be on that poster, to be

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in that moment of history. forever after what
should be a game where he's celebrated. Losing

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a game where your team has less turnovers than
the star player of the other squad. Only five

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Maverick turnovers. Donovan Mitchell alone had
seven turnovers. Only seven teams this season

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have lost a game where they've had five or fewer
turnovers. It just doesn't happen. And if I

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tell you that Luca and Kyrie are going to combine
for 75 points and their splits are going to

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be 50, 60, 3, 100 and... 59-55-100. Who loses
that game? It just doesn't happen. So there's

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things to nitpick, but tonight is not going
to be that night. Tonight is going to be the

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night that we acknowledge that despite allowing
Luca to score 45 points, something he's done

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13 times during his NBA career, we are one of
just two of those 13 games which resulted in

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a loss. The other being the LA Clippers. We
got a much needed win. Hopefully one that propels

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us to victory tomorrow on vibes alone and Mike
Mascalla got bought out tonight. Who knows,

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maybe a buyout target for the Cavaliers. I could
get on board with that. I wanna play you JB

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celebrating Max Struce's performance in his
post game presser, some comments from the coach.

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What he did tonight was absolutely ridiculous.
Come back in that fourth quarter for us to

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be down the way we were. But that's who Max
is. And it's as simple sometimes as chasing

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down a loose ball or, you know, making an extra
rotation. Like, Max never quits. And, you know,

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we were down, and he had the same mentality.
He wasn't going to quit. And he just kept making

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play after play after play on both ends. Now,
you deserve to hear the calls from the Mavericks

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announcers. I'm going to give you those now.
Cleba closes out, but Struce still drills the

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three. They just got an inbounds violation.
I left that in there. And now off the inbound.

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Strews again.

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It's a bad call. You got to be ready though
to defend. Struce looking to go three for three

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on threes. Big time shot making. Mitchell in
the open court. Now to Garland. Struce wants

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it. He's got it. What is happening?

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Now one play that was incredibly pivotal that
didn't involve making a 3 pointer came with

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roughly a minute left in the 4th quarter as
Darius Garland failed to score at the rim and

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fell to the floor by the stanchion looking hurt
which took him out of the play. It gave the

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Mavericks a 5 on 4 advantage with a trailing
by 2 points and Kyrie Irving pressing looking

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to score. Max Truss managed to get in front
of him to cut off his angle and in trying to

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draw a defensive foul. Kyrie Irving used his
inside arm to hook Max. Max smartly just put

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his arms up so that the referees could see what
was happening and he was whistled for a second

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turnover. Now Kyrie Irving was incredible. In
the third quarter he scored 12, in the fourth

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quarter he scored 10. He got 22 of his 30 points
in the second half. But two critical turnovers

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late in the fourth quarter. One on the inbound
violation which you could say is Tim Hardaway

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Jr.'s fault or you could Regardless, nobody
but Kyrie is to blame for the offensive foul

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late in the game. And now he falls to 5 and
6 since departing the Cavaliers against his

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former team. He split the series with the Celtics,
he split the series with the Brooklyn Nets,

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and this was his first outing as a member of
the Dallas Mavericks and the Cavaliers come

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away victorious. Which I am pretty happy about.
I've always been somewhat conflicted on the

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subject of Kyrie Irm. It should be pointed out,
he and Luca both stuck around to sign autographs

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after what must have been a crushing loss. So
credit to them. It does soften my cold dead

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heart a little bit. And in terms of just fandom
in general, without him we don't win a title.

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And in that way, it's the same way that I didn't
understand how people could be upset with LeBron

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after he came back and we won a title for what
he did when he departed the first time. I do

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have a friend I work with who still just doesn't
like him. because of the decision. And I could

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never grasp how he couldn't get past that after
he returned here to play for Dan Gilbert and

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help us win a title. I just wanna say time out.
Time out, time out!

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That, by the way, is Donovan as Darius Garland
was being tackled and he was trying to get

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a timeout called. He succeeded, by the way.
So that effort was not for nothing. But back

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to Kyrie. He's a part of one of the happiest
memories of my life. And that will always be

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with me. The fact that he left on bad terms,
that always rubbed me raw. But regardless of

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that, I would say that he's probably the third
greatest cab of all time. I would put Mark

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Price above him. Longer tenure. Didn't leave
under auspicious. circumstances and was just

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as impactful in building a team which very well
could have won a title if not for Michael Jordan.

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So to me, Mark Price is still the second greatest
cavalier of all time. I realize for some people

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they would make the argument, well Kyrie's clearly
a better player and I think that's true. But

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to me, greatest in a franchise's history means
with that team. Not their greatest career or

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the greatest talent, but the greatest contributions
to a team. I think Kyrie also there's something

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to be said for the fact that he was the beneficiary
of LeBron being there. Before LeBron arrived,

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we achieved no team success with Kyrie there.
So I'm not going to hold it against Mark Price

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that he didn't have the benefit of playing against
or alongside rather perhaps the greatest to

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ever do it. But this isn't about slandering
Kyrie. I'm happy we got the victory over him.

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I'm happy we got the victory over Luca. And
ultimately on a night where the Knicks fall.

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The Cavaliers need every win they can because
Milwaukee seems to be pulling it together and

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it is critical to stay in that 2-3 slot. Whether
we're second, whether we're third, a four game

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cushion over the Knicks is valuable. What happens
with the Sixers is worth monitoring. Joel Embiid

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could be back by late March, which would get
him a little bit of a ramp up even before the

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playoffs. And after losing two games to the
Sixers in recent memory without Joel Embiid,

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I don't want anything to do with them. Now,
despite most of this game being about Max Truce,

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we do need to spend some time on some other
positive developments. George Yang is starting

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to turn things around. Now, I've been conflicted
about JB's apparent preference of George Yang

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over Dean Waite. It kind of seems like from
the point that Evan Mobley came back, while

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Dean was good enough to fill in as the starter
when Mobley was out, with Mobley back, I think

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he sees a bit of redundancy in them, that Evan
is just a more elite version of what Dean's

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very good at. So Dean has been not only removed
from the starter spot, but also kind of positioned

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below George Yang. And I know he does come into
the game before him sometimes, but the way

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that JB is using the rotation right now, he's
essentially getting three, three and a half

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minutes in the middle of the first, and then
just being sent to the pine when George comes

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in, never to be seen from again. The minutes
feel kind of tokenish and almost meaningless.

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And I assume... He's playing him because he
doesn't want to take him totally out of the

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rotation, but it doesn't feel like his results
on the court even give him a longer leash.

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It feels like JB is pretty much locked in to
this minute structure that he has and whether

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Dean is contributing or not contributing, I'm
not confident that he's going to remain on

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the court in favor of George Nyang. Now, to
George's credit, a man who started 1 for 15

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from outside the arc to begin the month has
largely turned it around in these last few

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games. And not just with the 3 point shooting.
He's 8 for 14 over these last 4 games. But

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over the last 3 games, he's added 4, 5 rebounds,
he's doing his part to help on the glass and

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while he'll never be a lockdown defender, the
Cavaliers have started after this game where

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they knocked down 23s on 40 attempts. The one
thing you can guarantee about George Yang is

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if you give him a look he's going to put it
up. And he hit some pivotal buckets in that

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second quarter. when the Cavaliers blew it open
and expanded the lead to 15 points despite

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the fact that dwindled as time went along. Now
a ton of discussion has been committed to rotations

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and why JB has yet to go back to the injury
lineup. We don't even see Wade Acoro and Struce

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play alongside one another. We see some Wade
Acoro and Laverte but those 3 guys who sat

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in the starting lineup together we really don't
see them. log minutes collectively. They've

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only logged 31, 32 minutes since Darius Garland's
return. So, minable time on the court together.

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And Spencer Davies put that question to JB in
pregame availability before the Mavericks game

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tonight. Yeah, I mean, again, it's one of those
things that you're kind of juggling because

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of, obviously started with minute restrictions
and how you're working through those things.

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And then, you know, working a 10 man rotation,
you know, makes it a little bit difficult as

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well. But you know, we'll get there and it's
one of those things where, you know, we're

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not jumping the gun, you know, like we understand
what's in front of us, how we're gonna improve,

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how we're gonna get there, but we also do a
lot of studying on our lineups and those types

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of things to get those combinations the way
that we want them. And again, we'll get there

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with time. I would be curious to hear what he's
told the guys in terms of how he deploys them.

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I would love to hear from Dean in terms of...
you know, what has he told him about what his

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role is moving forward? Because in a way it
does kind of just feel like he's a cushion

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between when he wants to get Yang out on the
court so that he gets time to play with both

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Donovan and Jared and then also Mobley and Garland.
It feels like he just buys those first few

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minutes and then Dean gets a quick hook. But
another storyline that has existed over the

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course of the last week has of course been Darius
Garland taking a lot of bullets. Amongst Cavs

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fans for his failure to return to the form that
we've come to expect and Donovan Mitchell hearing

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it, seeing it on social media spoke out in defense
of his friend. He had this to say. The kid

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has done a lot here, so much. For it to be devalued
all for a few games is complete bullshit. It's

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not fair to him. He's done so much for us as
a team. Before I got here, while I've been

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here, he's going to get back to his form. The
kid is 24 years old. It's not always easy to

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figure out a fit. He's done a phenomenal job
of it and will continue to get back to it.

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Come play off time, he'll be right there with
us. We have his back. So it's obvious Donovan

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sees that Darius has now become the target amongst
Cavs fans. And you know, to start the season,

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it was Allen, then it became Bickerstaff, then
it became Evan Mobley. Now we're on Darius.

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And that's not to say that the criticisms aren't
valid. Absolutely they are. I'm not discarding

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anything that's happened. The offense has gotten
worse since he's returned. We're putting up

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less three-pointers. We score less points as
a whole. Really the only area analytically

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that has improved is our defensive rating and
that's largely because Evan Mobley has gotten

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back into the fold. I agree that the offense
hasn't looked as fluid, as explosive out of

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the gates. We haven't put up as many three-pointers
as when Darius and Evan were out. Contextually,

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we just have to acknowledge a couple things.
When we plop Dean and Okoro, Merrill, into

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big minute rolls, we ask them to essentially
do one thing. Take the shots that were open

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without discretion and move the ball if they're
not there. We don't ask them to have a floor

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game. We don't ask them to run pick and roll.
We don't ask them to lob alley oops. Those

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are all things in Darius's bag. We're taking
a much more complex. much more developed player

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and trying to plug him into a hole that was
being filled by a fairly one or two dimensional

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type guy. I'm not trying to discount a coro
there but offensively still the majority of

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his damage comes in transition or taking spot
up threes. I mean he's only taken two mid-range

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shots now. He's made two mid-range shots the
whole season one of them coming tonight. So

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I just don't know. What we get out of dwelling
on the fact that Darius isn't playing like

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the Darius we know. It's obvious. He was 2 of
10 tonight. But we can't sit here and play

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both sides of the fence. Do you want him to
fall in line in the offense that was so effective

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in his absence? Or do you want him to play for
the 21 and 8 that you were used to before?

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I realize you probably want both. But here's
what I would say. It may not be possible in

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a situation where we want to take the ball out
of his hands more, where we want him to pass

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it faster, or shoot it faster, or dribble less.
There may be some compromise on that front.

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There certainly will be a learning curve. If
what you really want, because what I hear from

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people is that they want us to play like we
did during that injury stretch. I think that's

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what we all want. But it seems like those same
people aren't willing to ride out the growing

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pains that it may take. to change the way an
all-star level talent like Darius Garland has

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played for the majority of his career. The man
deserves a little grace. And not because you

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owe him anything or because you owe Donovan
anything. Nobody comes to the internet for

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positivity. And if there's any remaining professional
athlete who thinks Twitter is redeemable, well

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then my pussy is in the bio. People will frame
it as this whole like optimism versus pessimism

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thing. There's plenty of pessimism deep inside
my soul every day when I wake up and I say,

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what are we here for really? I sit in front
of this computer. I'm talking to no one. Does

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my life even have meaning? Is anybody listening?
But I do my absolute best not to let it seep

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into my fandom because that's supposed to provide
me joy, not make me want to kill myself. What

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Max did tonight was transcendent. It was maybe
a once in a lifetime experience. And if your

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enjoyment of that was diminished, by the fact
that Darius Garland was 2 for 10, well then

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you may be a lost cause. It's possible. I said
before Evan and Darius come back, all I want

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is a huge sample of data where the core four
is healthy and playing together, playoffs included.

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I want them to be healthy throughout this whole
stretch and through an entire playoff series.

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And then we'll have a huge sample of data to
make meaningful conclusions about, okay, is

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this team making any progress? Are we better
suited? Playing with less overall talent perhaps,

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but in a system that maximizes their strengths,
like what we did during that injury stretch

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there. All those things are valid. I haven't
closed my mind off to any of them. What I do

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think is that being able to assemble this much
talent on the roster is damn near impossible

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in the modern NBA. So again, I reiterate, I
wanna give it every opportunity to work. And

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the fact that we're doing it, from the number
2 seed right now is incredible in and of itself.

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I don't think that should be taken for granted.
So in any case, this was an unbelievable night.

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Max Druse, one of the best games I've ever witnessed
and I'm grateful for all of you who have chosen

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to share it with me, Bob Schmidt, voice of Fox
Sports Radio on the Fear the Fro podcast. If

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00:24:30,509 --> 00:24:36,013
you want to be a part of the podcast, go to
CavsPod.com, click talk to Bob, submit your

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00:24:36,033 --> 00:24:40,894
comments. your questions, the things you disagree
with, maybe you hate Darius Garland, you can

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00:24:40,934 --> 00:24:45,779
tell me there, maybe you love Max Struce, you
can tell me there. And if you haven't left

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a rating or a view, please, if you're so inclined,
those things are huge in terms of putting this

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podcast in front of more people's eyes, in front
of more people's ears. This is the Fear the

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Feral Podcast. We'll be back with more Cavalier
Talk next time.

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Laverne, lot of them over here. This has been
Fear the Fro. If you like the show, subscribe

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