CLEVELAND, Ohio — In this episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast, Ethan Sands and Jimmy Watkins delve into the importance of securing the 14th roster spot, evaluating potential candidates like 2016 NBA champions Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson.

Takeaways:

  • The Cavs need to secure the 14th player on their roster.
  • Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson are both past their prime.
  • The emphasis on depth is crucial for the Cavs this season.
  • Tristan Thompson’s leadership style is more tough love compared to Kevin Love’s.
  • The Cavs’ weakest area of depth is their front court.
  • Kevin Love’s future is uncertain as he seeks a buyout.
  • Evan Mobley’s development is critical for the Cavs’ success.
  • LeBron James’ potential return to Cleveland after next season raises many questions.

Listen using the player below:

You can also listen using your preferred podcast app. Subscription information is below.

Subscribe and listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The video version of the podcast is on YouTube as well.

Transcript

NOTE: This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and could contain misspellings and errors.

Ethan Sands: What up, Cavs Nation? I’m your host, Ethan Sands, and I’m back with another episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast. And joining me today, none other than cleveland.com columnist Jimmy Watkins. And Jimmy, of course, we all know that the Cavs season is coming nearer and nearer as the schedule continues to drop in increments throughout the week. But before the season can begin, before training camp can begin, the Cavs need to secure the 14th player on their roster. And it’s a player that we know is not going to get a whole lot of run, especially knowing the depth that has already been a acquired for this roster and the importance of depth for the Cleveland Cavaliers heading into this new year and knowing how important that piece is going to be to extending their run this season and getting into a deep run into the playoffs. When it comes to trying to go after the Eastern Conference Finals and NBA Finals for this particular season, Jimmy, leadership is a big question mark when it comes to this 14th roster spot because we understood that the Cavs went and got Larry Nance Jr. To potentially fill the role of somebody like Tristan Thompson, who is a unrestricted free agent. But that does not mean that the Cavs could not keep Tristan Thompson around. My question to you, Kevin Love from the Miami Heat, who was now on the Utah Jazz and is going to try and get a buyout before the season begins. If you had to choose based on the roster construction of the Cavs right now, who are you picking, Kevin Love or Tristan Thompson to be on this squad and help lead them, Especially when we talk about their locker room presence?

Jimmy Watkins: Well, first, I I’d like to mention, as we’ve talked about before in the pod, I don’t necessarily love the idea of the Cavs using this roster spot on somebody who doesn’t have the chance to to contribute on the court. And at this point with with Chris and Thompson and Kevin Love, we’re kind of past both of their windows as potential rotation guys. I mean, Kevin Love, even with the Heat, by the end of it, had kind of fallen out of the rotation last year. There was a lot of mitigating factors. Kevin had some injuries and some personal stuff last year. His dad passed. But in general, I think the Cavs, I was looking this morning on basketball reference, both the Thunder and The Pacers went 10, 11 deep at times. I mean the Thunder played like A.J. mitchell had a bit role in the Finals. He played minutes, real minutes. He’s the 12th. He’s got the 12th most minutes on their team in the playoffs last year I still think that one of the biggest ripple effects of the new CBA is going to be an emphasis on depth. And we can’t. We’re kind of already seeing that, but it may be even in more, maybe even more. So that is not. I’m not just talking depth like, oh, you need to play more rotation guys. I just think you need to make your roster spots count because your resources are finite and injuries do happen. And your backup plan should have a backup plan if possible. So, particularly with the Cavs, their two veteran additions this offseason have been Lonzo ball, Larry Nance Jr. Both guys who have checkered recent injury histories. Obviously, Lonzo’s been hurt almost his entire career. Larry Niche Jr. Is more in recent years, has been in and out of the lineup. I think it would make sense to get someone who could play a little bit more than either of these guys. Just wanted to say that said my piece, given the choice between these two, I think there’s two key, distinct differences between these players. One is that Kevin Love can shoot and Tristan Thompson cannot. And if we get to the point where we’re break glass in the case of emergency, I’d rather have somebody who can shoot a lot like Kevin Love than someone who doesn’t, and Tristan Thompson, because, I mean, Kevin Love’s still going to move people down low. His skill grab rebounds. Tristan Thompson grabs rebounds, too. Tristan Thompson is much younger, can move better. But I don’t know that I would classify either of these dudes as defensive stalwarts at this point in their career. Tristan Thompson has more of a chance. But the other thing, and probably more pertinent to the conversation, if we’re talking about leadership and locker room policing and teaching the young guys, is what kind of style do you prefer being around the team? The last couple of years, it seems to me, in hearing guys talk about it, in seeing Tristan operate in the locker room, at times he’s more of a tough love guy. He might light a fire under you. He might call you out, he’ll tell you what you’re doing wrong. And I think Kevin Love will do those to some of that stuff, too. But he seems to be a little bit more lighthearted about it. I know I don’t know Kevin as well as I’ve seen Tristin up close, but that’s. That’s really a matter of preference. Personally. I’ve been saying for three months now that I think the Cavs need a little kick in the rear. So my preference would be light a fire under your Guy and Tristan’s been with this particular group for two years now. Kevin Love certainly knows many of the players in this roster. He was around particularly Darius Garland and Evan Mobley and Jared Allen quite a bit. But the roster has and he obviously him and Max Drew had a relationship because they both were talking about when Max came to Cleveland. He said that he was leaning on Kevin during their brief stint as Miami teammates together. So definitely familiarity and it would be an easy fit either way. But I think for what the Cavs need from a grandfather of the locker room kind of guy, I think I would lean Tristan a little bit. But Kevin can bring you a little bit more on the court. So that, that’s kind of the decision making tree I think you gotta look at here.

Ethan Sands: I think those are all interesting points, but when I, when I look at the depth chart of this roster, especially going through the 82 game season, I’m not necessarily looking for the 14th man of the roster to get a whole lot of run in the playoffs. So I’m thinking more of the grueling season that the Cavs have ahead. You mentioned the injury checkered pass of some of these guys. Lonzo ball, Larry Nance Jr. Obviously we know that the Cavs have had small injuries around the margins throughout the last couple of seasons. I think the Cavs weakest area of depth right now is their frontcourt depth. When it comes to the center position. I’m not seeing Kevin Love as a center in today’s NBA.

Jimmy Watkins: I think that’s all he is at this point. I think the older you get, the slower you get, the more you move up a position. Kevin is, he’s listed as 6, 10, that’s tall enough to be a center. Again, we’re, we’re talking about, you don’t want these guys to play, neither one of them. You don’t want them to play. But I think at this point in your case, career, Kevin Love is a stretch five and that’s kind of it. And again, rib protection bad, but. Yeah, but that’s, that’s where we are.

Ethan Sands: Well then let me put it this way. Instead, if we’re considering Kevin Lowe to be solely a stretch five, I think Tristan Thompson is a more serviceable center when it comes to the physicality of it, the rebounding aspect of it and just the effort level when it comes to what this team needs, especially when it comes to the boards. And obviously again defensively is neither of their strengths at this point in their careers. I just think the Cavs need and I’ve been preaching this all summer, so I’m not going to go away from it. The enforcer type in the center position and while Kevin Love has the brute strength to keep up with some centers, I don’t think that he has the athleticism anymore to be able to be jumping for rebounds and things of that nature. While Tristan Thompson, that’s all he is good for at this point in his career and at points throughout the season. I think you need that right? You need opportunity For Evan Mobley, who we still don’t describe as ready to play the five man, although he may have put on some weight strength this off season we have still yet to see. I think he still is a 4 at this point in his career and having a brute strength 5 or a stronger enforcer 5 like Tristan Thompson is helpful around him. Then you also talk about Larry Nance Jr. Who does not like playing the center position. So I think it would be important to keep him as comfortable as possible in the opportunity for him to continue playing the four next to Tristan Thompson. Here’s the other kicker, Jimmy as we’ve talked on this podcast at length, I like to surf the Internet for the most intel that I can find while also getting in contact with my sources and all these other things. There was a video that was posted on social media by an influencer who was at the celebrity softball game for Darius Garland and she was talking with Kenny Atkinson and Kenny was still kind of talking about Tristan Thompson in a way that felt like he was still on the team. Funny enough, the question was who on the team do you think would be best suited to go on Love Island? And of course the answer from Kenny Atkinson was Tristan Thompson. But the minor detail from this is who is still on the team. Tristan Thompson is technically not on the Cleveland Cavaliers currently because again, he’s an unrestricted free agent. The other caveat to this entire conversation is that Kevin Love, according to Jake Fisher, is looking to be in more of a glamour market if he achieves a buyout. Do we consider consider the Cleveland a glamor market at this point? Because I’m more thinking like Los Angeles and New York and obviously Cleveland is not a glamour market for anybody. Listening, thinking I was serious in that notion. I just think the Cavs storybook ending for careers might be coming full circle in multiple ways over the next coming years. So Jimmy, I wanted to get your thoughts on the market for Kevin Love and what he is going to be able to do at 36 years old in this league, if anything. And Tristan Thompson being mentioned by Kenny Atkinson, which I feel like is just a small antidote that can be taken either in or out of context by multiple people.

Jimmy Watkins: Yeah, I mean, the Kenny thing I think is just, it’s not quite next year yet, so Kenny’s thinking of his team and Tristan was on the team last year, so he can. He fits that answer. I don’t think there’s a ton to read into that though. Again, I think it’s entirely possible that Tristan comes back. Kevin loves throwing up the 2016 Cavs bat signal with the glamour market stuff. He’s got LeBron on the Lakers. He’s got Ty Lou coaching the Clippers. He’s telling one of those guys, hey, I’m looking for you. I’ll come hang out with you. I’ll be, I’ll be your locker mate, you know, if you really need me, I’ll come in, play 10 to 15 minutes. But I’m not ready to be done yet. So let me. You know, sometimes when you get towards the end of your career, sometimes it becomes like it’s just like a real life job market. It’s like as much who you know as what you know or what you can do. So I think Kevin loves trying to work his network with the glamour. Oh, he also went to UCLA and I’m sure would actually love to live in California. Who among us? But here’s the trick. Interesting thing about that is we’ve, as we’ve discussed earlier in the summer, I don’t know that LeBron can make that call for him the same way that he used to be able to. That’s kind of the whole struggle that LeBron’s going through with the Lakers right now. The Lakers are letting Luka Doncic dictate roster decisions now. Luca Doncic recruited Marcus smart. Okay. And LeBron is still in this weird, weird contract. I don’t know if I would call it a contract dispute. He’s in this weird dispute with the Lakers where he definitely, and I will call it a contract dispute because he definitely wanted his usual one plus one max, maybe even more than that. He wanted a longer term deal. And the Lakers kind of just said, I don’t know that we’re ready to do that. We want to, we don’t want to interrupt our chances to get another star around Luka in the near future here. We don’t want to eat into our cap space. And we’re the Lakers, so cap space actually means something here. And that’s kind of what set off this whole three month Instagram pout from Lebron So I don’t know that. I don’t know that Kevin Love, he certainly has an ally that plays, but like, I don’t know that he has the most important one. I don’t know that. But LeBron can come to rob Blake at this point and say, hey, can we throw Kevin Love on a minimum? Especially because again, the Lakers are another. Like, I would argue Lakers just need more talent generally. Like their, their roster is not quite there yet. So I think their last few roster spots, they even more than the Cavs need to be using that stuff on. On useful players. And by the way, it’s not just that the Lakers, like Luke Luca, recruited Marcus Smart. The Lakers also said goodbye to Brandon Goodwin to give Marcus Mar Goodwin clutch client. So there’s. That’s not the same. And then with the Clippers and they’re already so old, they, they mean they’ve got James Harden, they’ve got Kawhi Leonard, they’ve got Bradley Beal, they’ve got Chris Paul. Like, do you want to make another bet on an. On an aging event? Or at least. At least with. At least with Kevin Love, you kind of know going in like, this guy is not going to be. It would be a culture thing. It’d be a chemistry thing. And frankly, frankly, a team that has James Harden and Bradley Beal and Chris Paul. Chris Paul is just a hard guy to get along with. I think he’s a good leader. But James Harden has torched a couple cultures in his day. All right. Bradley Beal just torched the Sun’s culture. It’d be nice to have a good guy in that locker room. It’d be really nice to have a good guy in that locker room. And Kevin Love is a revered teammate everywhere he goes. I guess we could. Would we also count New York in this. In this market, I’d have to. Are you a CAA client? Kevin Love? That’s. That’s how a lot of the New York Knicks decisions get made these days. But of the. I think, I guess I would say the Clippers have the best chance. But we’re again with Tristan and Kevin. We’re approaching last stop territory. I really hope that both of them do find homes, by the way, because it is for. For two guys that are such legends for this franchise, you want to see them go out on their own terms.

Ethan Sands: A part of the conversation that we haven’t gotten to yet is the fact that both of these guys think that they can still play. And as we look back to Kevin Love 2023, when he finalized a bio with the Cavs. It was because he didn’t feel like he was getting enough playing time or Love from his situation when he was in Cleveland. So he went to Miami looking for more minutes. Didn’t necessarily get it. But I’m not going to say there are a lot of players around the league that want to play in Utah right now. George Niang just got shipped over there too. But I do, I do think when it comes to Kevin Love, I’m curious to how much he still thinks he has left in the tank because of conversations that we’ve had with Tristan, who still thinks he’s one of the best backup bigs in the league at 34 years old. And Kevin obviously having the history of wanting more playing time, wanting to get more action. The other part of this that we continue to talk about is the contract portion. Because Tristan assigned a veteran minimum. Kevin Love is not yet into his career. Right. So I do think it’s, it’s curious to see how Kevin Love would react to having that dollar sign amount next to a contract. Especially when you talk about just the impact of that on your career, what it means for the Cavs sake. Triston has come back on multiple occasions on one year deals to play here. Kevin Love left because he didn’t get enough playing time. I think that’s just something that comes to the back of my mind for this conversation about who would be more willing to be a 14th man, to be a locker room lieutenant and all of those things.

Jimmy Watkins: Can I give both of these guys a little Tristan Thompson style coaching on this then? Do you want your pride or do you want to play? Because I don’t think you can have both. And I, and I am, in Kevin Love’s case particularly, you are well past the stage of your career where you get to, where you get to dictate your destination, the type of place you’re playing and you get the role you want at this point. Look, I believe that in a regular season capacity for a team that’s competing for something a little less lofty and Kevin Love could be a rotation guy. Sure. Kevin Love is still good enough to play NBA minutes. I agree with him on that. Not in the playoffs. Not for a team that has championship aspirations. These are, these are the realities. This is what, this is. Why you left in the first place. And that’s probably, if we’re still there. That’s probably the other thing that needs to get addressed with Kevin, if he were before any sort of return would get broached, is like hey man, remember why you left in the first place. That situation is not only still here, but I would argue it’s worse for you now because the guy that was playing ahead of you, Dean Wade, he’s now a fringe rotation. He’s approaching. He’s either going to be in the rotation to start the year, but come playoff time, we’ve seen it now. Dean Wade is kind of getting squeezed out of the rotation at times. DeAndre Hunter was not here before. Larry Nance Jr. Was not here before. Larry nance Jr. Would be ahead of Kevin Love in the Cavs current rotation. That would be a very difficult pill for Kevin Love to swallow if, if in fact he’s still on the same, has the harbors the same pride and believes he can still contribute in, in some sort of role for, for a winning team. I just don’t think that like Tristan Thompson is taking the, he’s taking the opportunities that come to him at this point. Now it just so happens that it worked out that he came back to his city and an organization with which he’s very familiar, so the opportunity sort of met the need there for him. I don’t know that that’s going to happen with Kevin Love. Like how many. This, this is kind of the second. Like if he’s, he’s asking for a bout for Miami because he thinks he can still play. This is two teams now that have told you. I don’t know. And by the way, the heap had a nice off season. I like the Norman Powell move. I like Smoke on Tekio. Still not the deepest roster in the world, man. So like, if you need a, if you need a buyout to get out of there to go find rotation minutes, where do you think you’re going to find them? And this is, we’ve talked about this before with guys like Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love is not nearly the force of personality or strain on a locker room that Russell Westbrook is. But it’s like stars are often the last guys to know when they lose it. You know what I mean? That’s, that’s why I say I really, really hope that these guys get to go on their own terms. Because after a while, if you keep, if you keep doing this, it might be hard to find work.

Ethan Sands: I mean, that’s part of the reason why Tristan Thompson has played for the number of teams that he had before coming back to Cleveland kind of as a safe haven. Like, I know you guys like and enjoy what I bring to this team. And obviously Kenny Atkinson appreciates the, the Coach to player relationship and the connection piece that Tristan Thompson brings. Jimmy, I want to kind of go off script just a little bit because we were talking about LeBron a little bit, and obviously we know that LeBron just signed into his player option, $56 million around there. I want to get this takeoff and I want to get your takes on it. If the Cavs don’t get past the Eastern Conference finals next year in the 2025, 2026 season, I think it’s almost a guarantee that LeBron James comes back to Cleveland for the 2026, 2027 year, depending on what. What contract is really the question. But I do think that it’s in the air for a reunion for the Cavs and LeBron and for LeBron to end his career with the Cavs. Especially when you talk about the necessity for a championship, the hunger for a championship, and especially LeBron understanding what that would do for his legacy to go out on the mountaintop. What do you think about the potential for LeBron to come back? We’ve all obviously talked about the trade rumors and things of that nature in the buyout market for LeBron James for this season. I do not see that happening. I think he will play his last season under contract with the Lakers. What do you think about the potential for next year when he’s a free agent to come back to Cleveland? We know he’s not going to sign for the minimum, but also what do you think is feasible and what do you think the Cavs would have to lose in that case?

Jimmy Watkins: But it’s kind of just the same situation now. Same set of guys. You’re going to have to lose probably two or four guys. I think it goes beyond LeBron not going to play. I don’t know that LeBron plays for less than the max wherever he goes. Could be wrong. He could surprise us. But everything he’s done throughout his entire career has shown us that he’s not leaving money on the table. He’s always felt like he’s undervalued even on a max contract, because, yes, if we had no max contract, LeBron James would be making a whole lot more more money for most of his career than he made on the open market. All right, that’s fair. It’s a little trickier as you get older, but he’s still very good. So he’s probably still. He’s definitely still worth a max on a short term deal. But somebody would have to put some pride aside. LeBron would have to put some pride aside and take less money. Or the Cavs would have to put some pride aside and do some serious roster rejiggering to welcome him back. And there’d be some sort of admission in this that, hey, we couldn’t do it without you. And everything they’re doing right now, they are. The players were speaking openly last year. There’s always an unspoken. The Cavs are trying to do something for the first time without LeBron. They’re trying to build a contender without LeBron, which is something they have almost never done, I don’t think. I’m not gonna throw shade at the. At the mark price here. Those teams were true blue contenders. Happen to run into the greatest player of all time or one of the greatest players of all time a couple of times. But the Cavs, Jared Allen, Donovan Mitchell, Darius Galton, these guys were talking openly about, hey, we want to make a name for ourselves, for the city. Outside of LeBron James, I think Kobe Altman, given what he walked into when LeBron left the most recent time he would like GMs are prideful or precious even about the rosters. They built this team. I. I don’t think they’re as close as Kobe Altman thinks they are. But Kobe Altman has done a heck of a job building this team up. He wants to see this through. Dan Gilbert, do we need to go over it? Do we need to talk? Common Comic Sans letter. I mean, this is two times LeBron has kind of left the Cavs at the altar without much of a contingency plan. Dan Gilbert is a prideful man. He. He. I’m sure he takes pride in finding Kobe Altman and extending Kobe Altman. And this is my guy. This might look what my guy has built for. For this franchise. Be some real difficult conversation. Donovan Mitchell, you invite LeBron James back on this roster for. Even if he takes another slight step back this year, it’s LeBron’s team. Sorry, that’s just how it is viewed. And is Donovan Mitchell ready to seed that? Even if. Even if Donovan Mitchell’s still the leading scorer. Whatever. You’re the second most famous person on the team by a considerable margin. You are going to be viewed as a second banana. LeBron is. This is. LeBron’s gonna have the ball way more. You’re gonna be off ball way more. And where Evan Mobley’s gonna be by then, who knows? Like, the hierarchy of this team would be complicated. So it’s. It’s like we talk about. It’s as much a basketball question that is, is a person? People Emotional question. What can you stomach? There are a lot of Cavs fans I wrote about this early in the summer. They’re like, hey, we’re good. We would rather watch this homegrown team, Boston and Mitchell keep taking the steps, the incremental steps required to get to a championship, than just grab LeBron and then go feel like we’re at his mercy again. And LeBron gets to save the day again. It would be a great ending for LeBron’s career. I’m sure it’s in the back of his mind, especially as he’s mad at the Lakers, right? He’s definitely thinking about, what am I doing next year. These guys are pissing me off. And the Cavs are always a natural fit, but it is certainly not that simple. And if the Cavs fall short of the Finals or the conference finals, whatever, again this year, someone’s asking, it might be me. Someone’s asking Kobe Altman about it, and I’m getting my popcorn ready when that question arises.

Ethan Sands: Two kind of big things off of this. You alluded to it there, Jimmy Donovan Mitchell is working so hard to get Evan Mobley ready to be a star in this league. He’s already the number two right now, right? He’s trying to get him to be the number one guy on this team. And we’ve had this conversation literally earlier this week. It is already hard enough for Evan Mobley to be a star next to Donovan Mitchell. Throw in LeBron James into that conversation, and it becomes exceedingly more difficult for Evan Mobley, especially because you can no longer hide in the shadows, right? There has been the conversation of Evan Mobley wants to be too perfect.

Jimmy Watkins: He.

Ethan Sands: He wants to make the right play every single time down the floor, that he cannot make a mistake or something is going to happen internally with LeBron James on this roster potentially in the next couple of seasons. You are under a microscope for everything you do because it’s either going to be, well, LeBron’s here, so the number two man is Donovan, the number three man is Evan, or LeBron’s here, the number two man is Evan Mobley. Like, that would be an insane topic of discussion when you talk about how Evan Mobley’s importance would rise. It already is rising, but to a different standard, to a different level. If LeBron was in Cleveland again, the second piece of this, and we talked about this a little bit earlier on into the summer, I think this is a tryout for who the Cavs value more between Max Drus and DeAndre Hunter, because one, as a small forward position. But two, understanding that LeBron isn’t doing the motion offense things that Kenny Atkinson wants to do. He’s not getting up and down the floor the same way that he used to do. He’s not setting pin down and flying up like Max Strust does. Right? So, so can LeBron mimic what DeAndre Hunter does off the bench, but not off the bench? Because we know LeBron is not going to be on the bench for any reason. Like to me it means like it would show. And my prediction for this would be that if all things burn up and the Cavs don’t get where they want to and LeBron James ends up coming or saying that he wants to end his career in Cleveland, Max Drew stays and DeAndre Hunter does not. Because you can then put Max Drus on the bench and be like, hey, arguably the greatest player of all time is coming back. I know we told you that you were going to be the starter on this team. That’s not how we going to win a championship on this roster. And then DeAndre Hunter, who also has a larger contract then Max Strus gets X out because you understand that DeAndre Hunter and LeBron James are more comparable mid range game getting to the basket. And it’s crazy to think about it that way, but I just think that’s how I would see it playing out if we got to this point. And we’re obviously looking way, way into the future at this point.

Jimmy Watkins: I think LeBron role in Kenny’s motion, like LeBron just has the ball. You give LeBron ball at the elbow and it’s on the onus is on everyone else to move around. I mean we’re asking guys, we’re asking. It’s more like, hey Donovan, how you feel about doing, doing some running? Darius DeAndre. I could see DeAndre Hunter like DeAndre. Basically every player like DeAndre Hunter just becomes 3 and D guy. Once LeBron shows up, I think he could excel in that role. We probably want to. He would want to have the ball a little more. And let’s not forget but this, by the time this all happens, LeBron will be what, 41, 42. Like he’s going to need people to take to take over the ball handling duties from him. Like I think he’d be. It’s less LeBron. Everyone stands around and watches LeBron drive. It’s more LeBron has the ball in the post and everyone else is moving around him and he plays point guard from, from that perspective. But they wouldn’t. He would. I would. I’m sure they would limit his minutes in the regular season. The Lakers have not actually been doing a ton of that because they’ve relied on him so heavily. Like, that’s another underrated part of LeBron’s longevity. Like, he’s kind of still playing heavy minutes. It’s nuts. But that would probably change here. And the Cavs would. And you. When LeBron comes, you fit. You fit around him. Like, the onus is on everyone else to change. It’s not. It’s never on LeBron. My question would be with LeBron, and let’s say DeAndre Hunter’s out. Jared. Jared Allen would almost certainly be out. LeBron. LeBron Donovan, Max Struse. Like, these leftover. Like, what’s the defense looking like? The leftover. LeBron was excellent on defense in the back half of last season. I don’t know how long that’s going to last. I don’t know how long he’s going to be able to do that. Even now, he can kind of only do it in spurts, but Evan Mobley can only cover for so much. As we learned last year during the playoffs, the roster is currently constructed. Needed more defense, playable defense. Sorry as a coral, but that’s why Lonzo Ball is here. And you’re not like, Lonzo Ball can stay on the court. Well, if he. If he’s able to stay on the court. He will. He will be able. He will be playable is how I should phrase that. It would. It’s a defensive wrinkle as well. You obviously have to reorient your offense, but, like, who. Who then guards the best player? I guess if Lonzo’s still here and that you would hope that he’s still here. Although if he has a good year, I don’t know that you’re going to be able to. That $10 million option. Oh, that’s. That’s a team option, isn’t it? Man, that’s a good contract. That’s a good contract. So, yeah, there. I guess there’s your answer. You. You would need to count even more on Lonzo, but I don’t like doing that either. So it’s. It’s. It’s comp. The basketball fit is super complicated. The locker room fit, the hierarchy fit is super complicated. And I still think they should do it because it’s LeBron James.

Ethan Sands: I think this is another hard conversation that the Cavs are going to have. Obviously, there’s a. Projecting into the future a whole bunch because we still have the entirety of the 20252026 season, but if things go awry, we’re already having these conversations for those tuning in into the summertime to find out what’s going to happen. But as Jimmy was saying as we were talking about the Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson dynamic, I do think that the Cavs need to look at other options as well as Jimmy was talking about for this 14th roster spot, especially in a break glass in case of emergency. Here are some of the NBA free agents still unrestricted that are available right now on the market. And Jimmy, I’m not going to even have you go into who you think the Cavs should go get because we’ve done that at an abundance already this summer. I’m going to name these off and we’ll get out of here. So at the center position, players that are still available Bismack, Biombo, Taj Gibson, Al Horford, Kai Jones, Yandre Jordan, Alex Lynn and of course Tristan Thompson. At the power forward spot, pressure Echua Bo Bo, James Johnson, Trey Lyles, Markeith Morris, Miles Norris, Alex Reese, J.T. thor and P.J. tucker. At the small forward position, Marcus Bagley, Keon Brooks, Amir Coffey, Tory Craig, Jay Crowder, Javante Green just got picked up so he’s no longer on this list. Kevin Knox, Cody Martin, Jalen Martin, Cam Radish and Matt Ryan. At the shooting guard position, Malik Beasley, Alec Burks, Josh Christopher and Johnny Davis. Then you got Bones Hyland, Damian Lee, Gary Payton II traveling Queen. And then you also have Malcolm Brogdon, Markel Foltz, ready, Jackson, Corey Joseph, Mac McClun, Patty Mills, Cameron Payne, Ben Simmons, Russell Westbrook and Delon Wright. These are all players that are still on the market. Could pose some interest for the Cavs. And as we know, the Cavs like to make this 14th roster spot decision later into the summer. So we’re still getting those decisions made Even as the 20252026 schedule is being released. And of course the Cavs still have that 15th man roster spot open for potential deals mid season. Also notable, the Cavs still have to finalize their third two way spot as well, even though the Cleveland Charge just signed Tristan and Aruna and traded for him in that capacity as well. So that was a mouthful. Let us know in subtext who you think the Cavs should go get with the 14th man roster spot or who they should get between Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson or what you think about the LeBron James conversation that we had on today’s podcast. But with all that being said, that’ll wrap up today’s episode of the Juan and Gold Talk podcast. But remember to become a KAZ insider and interact with Chris, me and Jimmy by subscribing to Subtext. Tomorrow is is going to be a hey Chris day, so get in your questions and we will have a full on conversation when Chris returns tomorrow. So to do so, sign up for a 14 day free trial or visit cleveland.comcavs and click on the blue bar at the top of the page. If you don’t like it, that’s a promise. All you have to do is text the word stop. It’s easy, but we can tell you that the people who sign up stick around because this is the best way to get insider coverage on the Cavs from me, Chris and Jimmy. This isn’t just our podcast, it’s your podcast and the only way to have your voice heard is through Subtext. Y’ all be safe. We out.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.