Transcription
On today's show, the Cavs first round series against the Toronto Raptors is one they should win, and it's one they will win if these three matchups go their way. I'll tell you about them on this edition of Locked on Cavs.
You are Locked On Cavs, your daily Cleveland Cavaliers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Hi again everybody. My name is Danny Cunningham and I cover the Cleveland Cavaliers over at my Substack the Inside Shot and you're listening to another edition of Locked on Cavs where on today's show we will be discussing who should have an opportunity to defend Brandon Ingram for the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Evan Mobley versus Scotty Barnes battle that is impending.
But we begin with some of the matchups that I think could define the upcoming best of seven first round series between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Toronto Raptors. The series of course will begin on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 right here in Cleveland, Ohio at Rocket Arena. And the thing that I am going to have my eye on on Saturday afternoon when the ball is thrown in the air and the NBA playoffs get underway in Cleveland, Ohio is who's going to be defending Donovan Mitchell. Because Donovan is, in my opinion, far and away the best player in this series. And maybe later on this week, I'll do an exercise about how many Cavs players would be drafted. Like if you just lined up these teams, all 30 players from I think the Raptors have 15 guys. Um, all 30 players from each team and pick them like pick teams like you're in on the playground, right? Donovan is the first pick and I don't think there's much debate for that. Now, we can have debate like, okay, where does Evan Mobley go? Where does James Harden go? Where does Scotty Barnes go? But Donovan Mitchell is the first pick in this series. He's the best player in this series. He's had the best year of any player in this series. That's why I think who defends him, how Toronto decides to line up defensively against the Cavs is a really important thing to watch for. And unless the Raptors have a way to slow down Donovan Mitchell, I don't see how they're winning this series. If they do slow down Donovan Mitchell, then I think this series becomes much more interesting and the Cavs then become put on upset alert.
But we have seen Donovan, particularly in some early rounds in the past, be a playoff riser. He's been somebody that has played his best basketball in the playoffs. Like he is, I can almost guarantee you he's going to go off for 30 points on Saturday because that's what Donovan Mitchell does in game one of postseason series. He goes and he gets 30 because he knows that's what he needs to do to set a tone in his series. That's who Donovan Mitchell has consistently been. Go look up how many consecutive game ones Donovan Mitchell has scored at least 30 points in. And he does it typically very efficiently as well. So with him being the best player in this series, I do wonder are the Toronto Raptors going to just opt to put Scotty Barnes on him? Because Scotty is the best defender the Raptors have. He's probably going to make an all-defense team. He will I I think almost certainly receive votes for defensive player of the year. He's going to come nowhere near winning defensive player of the year because I expect Victor Wembanyama to win that award unanimously in all likelihood. Um, so Scotty's not going to win that, but he will probably be on ballots and he will be an all-defense player and he deserves those things. He's had a very, very good year, particularly on the defensive end of the floor. So, are the Raptors going to opt to defend Donovan Mitchell with their best defender? You would think on paper that's something that makes sense, but then you start looking at some of the other matchups and that's where the Cavs could start to have some advantages. And Donovan has not had necessarily a ton of success individually against Scotty Barnes. He hasn't needed to because over the past couple of years the Raptors have not been a very good basketball team. So I don't know that that's necessarily something that is worth looking at too deeply. But I do wonder if Scotty is defending Donovan that is still one a battle I would expect Donovan Mitchell to win because Donovan is a better offensive player than Scotty Barnes is a defensive player. Even though Scotty's good, Donovan is just the elite of the elite on that end of the floor.
So, let's say that the Raptors decide to use Scotty Barnes on Donovan Mitchell, which I don't think would be their worst strategy in the world. That would basically be Toronto saying, "You know what? We are going to do everything we can to stop Donovan Mitchell. And if we lose this series, it's because we lost this series to James Harden and to Evan Mobley, which I don't think is a great strategy, but it could potentially be a better strategy than say, "Hey, Donovan, go beat us, right?" Because Donovan is of those three players, he's the best one. So, let's say Scotty's on Donovan. How does that shift matchups elsewhere? Because I would expect that the Toronto Raptors and this is pending Immanuel Quickley's health because it was announced on Monday that he's got a mild hamstring strain and he has been dealing with plantar fasciitis in one of his feet throughout the latter portions of this season. He's not been himself. And if Quickley is not himself, I do think that changes things in Cleveland's favor quite a bit because Quickley has had a really strong year on both ends of the floor. He's a been a a good point of attack defender. He's been somebody that's been really good at causing turnovers, which is why the Raptors lead the NBA in fast break points per game because Immanuel Quickley can help to do that. Now, he doesn't do that alone obviously, but he's been part of that. It's not as if despite being an undersized guard, because he's about Darius Garland size, but despite being an undersized guard, he's not been a bad defender. But if you put Scotty Barnes on Donovan Mitchell and the Raptors say they start Quickley, RJ Barrett, Scotty Barnes, um, Brandon Ingram, and Jakob Poeltl, I just wonder how else you can match up in other places because Jakob Poeltl is a seven-footer, but I think that he is somebody that is most likely going to struggle against a healthy version of Jarrett Allen. Now, if Jarrett Allen does not look healthy, that conversation changes. I've not thought that in the Toronto Raptors games I've watched lately. I've not been impressed with Jakob Poeltl. Like go back and watch the game they played against the Knicks last week. Jakob Poeltl was I thought very, very poor in that game.
Colin Murray-Boyle is an undersized center. He was a first-round pick. I think he went 20th overall this past year. Maybe 19th somewhere that or maybe he was ninth. I'm thinking Jalen Duren went ninth the year before. But Murray-Boyle was the ninth overall pick for the Raptors this year. And he's come on really strong lately. Now we'll see what it looks like in the playoffs, but they play him at a small-ball center. The problem is he's around six foot seven, six foot eight. So he is undersized there. And if the Raptors opt to go there, the Cavs are going to have a significant size advantage where how are they if Scotty Barnes is defending Donovan Mitchell, how are they going to line up defensively elsewhere? Because if Jakob Poeltl's on the floor, we will talk about whether or not I think he can stay on the floor for Toronto. I foresee the Cavs just running a ton of James Harden, Jarrett Allen pick and roll. And if the Raptors want to switch one through five, Jakob Poeltl is not going to have a very fun time defending James Harden or for that matter Donovan Mitchell because the Cavs will run things that way as well. If the Raptors are not switching one through five, which I would not expect them to do, I'm not sure that Jakob Poeltl is going to be able to defend that pick and roll action over and over and over again. And furthermore, let's say they try and hide Immanuel Quickley on Dean Wade, which is what if I were the Toronto Raptors, I would probably try and do even though Wade has a significant size advantage. Wade is a good enough screen setter that Immanuel Quickley is going to be involved in just about every action imaginable. Like the Cavs are going to, and we've seen this in the playoffs with Cavs, with other teams, it becomes less about how good is your best player compared to how bad is your worst player. Um, that's offensively and defensively. And the Cavs are going to try and force the weak link defensively from Toronto into action over and over and over again because that is how you find playoff success. That is historically what James Harden-led teams have done too. Think back to some of those Houston Rockets teams that maybe you could make the case were a Chris Paul hamstring injury away from winning the championship back in 2018. What was what was that team famous for other than missing 27 consecutive threes and switching everything defensively? It was James Harden would run high screenery role with Clint Capela over and over and over again. He would pick out the weak defender on the other team. That guy is going to have to try and defend James Harden in this series. It's going to be that guy is going to have to try and defend James Harden. That guy is going to have to try and defend Donovan Mitchell. And I'm not sure how Toronto is going to be able to do that.
Now, you would look at some of their personnel and think, okay, RJ Barrett is of good size. Brandon Ingram is 6'9, 6'10. He is of good size. Obviously Scotty Barnes is 6'8, 6'7, somewhere in that range. Like he is of good size and very strong guy. So you would think, okay, those guys are switchable, but they're also undersized and I think susceptible to the Cavs having some success in some similar ways as to what the Cavs were able to do against the Atlanta Hawks last Wednesday in that game that we all thought at the time and certainly felt like it at the time was a playoff preview for the Cleveland Cavaliers. So, I do wonder, especially if they put Scotty Barnes on Donovan Mitchell, where you could make the case that Scotty Barnes defending Dean Wade as a guy that could try and help off might be the best plan of attack for the Toronto Raptors. Because if he's on Donovan Mitchell, I'm just not sure that the Raptors are going to have enough other defensive pieces to slow down Cleveland's offense. And you might be think sitting there thinking, Danny, what are you talking about? The Raptors were the number five defense in basketball. And you're right about that. The Raptors have the strength of their team has been who they've been defensively. However, however, I don't know how real that defense number is. They are fifth defensively and that's tough to do and the Cavs have not been nearly as good defensively as the Raptors throughout the course of this regular season. However, against top 10 teams, this is according to Pivot, which the Cavs of course are a top 10 team, the Toronto Raptors allow 19 points per 100 possessions. That's not good at all. You might imagine that is not good. That is far away from the number five ranked unit they are from the full season. They fall off a cliff defensively when they face really, really good teams. Furthermore, and this is maybe not as much part of this discussion, when the Raptors play top 10 teams, their offense also falls off a cliff. They score 110.4 points per 100 possessions, which ranks 27th in the NBA against opposing top 10 teams. They are 18th in net rating against opponents that are in the top 10 in terms of winning percentage and net rating in the NBA for the season. The Cavs obviously qualify as part of that. And also like the thing that I do think you should look at if you're a Cavs fan say okay yes their defense is really good but the Cavs offensively have been so elite and they've done it too for the most part against good teams because since the trade deadline the Cavs are in the top 10 both on offense and defense against top 10 teams. The Raptors are 23rd on offense against top 10 teams since the trade deadline. And they're 17th on defense against top 10 teams since the trade deadline. The Cavs have the seventh defense against top 10 teams, which the Raptors are not. So that maybe is a little bit apples to oranges here because the Raptors don't actually qualify as a top 10 team, but they're seventh in defense and ninth in offense for the full season. And obviously they're top 10 in both for since the trade deadline as well. So, I do look at this and say the Cavs have the ability, I think more so, to take down Toronto's defense than the Raptors do to slow down Cleveland's offense. Donovan Mitchell is a big part of that. He's going to have to go out and have a great series, and I would expect him to have a great series. And if the Raptors want to use Scotty Barnes on him, and maybe they will, I just think Cleveland has enough other answers to figure out Toronto's defense. And I also think it's worth noting here too that the Raptors might not be at full strength because of this Immanuel Quickley injury. And that lineup for them has been really good offensively. It's not been very good defensively. Um, they've been good defensively with some other lineups like Jamal Shad has been somebody who despite being undersized has been somebody that has helped them defensively. Jalen Duren has had a good year. Um, obviously O.G. Anunoby who I already mentioned, he's had a really strong year. So, like the Raptors can play very switchable units, but I just look at it and say I don't know that they have enough guys to stop all of the firepower because if they want to allocate Scotty Barnes on Donovan or even on James Harden because that could make some sense, too, then I just think the Cavs have a significant size advantage because then you're asking Brandon Ingram or RJ Barrett to defend Evan Mobley and I just don't think that's going to go very well for the Raptors. So, if the Cavs win Donovan Mitchell's matchup, which I think everybody should expect them to do, they should be able to dominate offensively in this series. And I think that's part of the reason why this team is such a big favorite going into this series.
Now, the Scotty Barnes and Evan Mobley matchup is the one that everyone's going to have their popcorn ready for, right? Let's talk through it and I'll tell you why. Despite how good Scotty was earlier this season, most of the season, they've been a lot closer than you might think. We'll do that next right here on Locked on Cavs. But first, today's show is brought to you by TurboTax. It's tax time. But for a lot of us, the old way of doing taxes is a lot. Trying to book an appointment that's not the most convenient. Sitting in a waiting room with a stack of papers, emailing back and forth, and wondering if they really get your situation. But this year, you're getting a major upgrade. In it, TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. You can meet face-to-face with a real tax expert and your documents get uploaded straight to your TurboTax app on the spot. Just like that, you're done. Your TurboTax expert works to get you every dollar you deserve while you get real-time notifications as you go about your day. It's a relief of walking in and meeting a real person and walking out knowing that your taxes are being handled right. So, head to TurboTax.com/local to find a store near you and book your appointment today. Thank you again for making this edition of Locked on Cavs your first watch on YouTube or your first listen wherever you might get your podcast. And if that's you, you might want to check out the Locked On Cavs Everyday Club get you ad-free versions of the show plus members-only Discord access as well. You can check out the link in the show notes if you would like to learn more.
And the evidently Scotty Barnes matchup is the one that instantly popped into my mind when we found out that the Boston Celtics had beat the Orlando Magic and that meant the Toronto Raptors were coming to Cleveland because these two are always going to be compared to each other, right? They were part of the same draft class. Scotty Barnes won the rookie of the year award and by the justification of many Cavs fans did so unjustly, right? Evan Mobley is a real rookie of the year from that year. That stuff is always in the past. I don't know how much of a grudge if at all Evan Mobley holds over that. But these two because they're the same draft class, because they're both all-defense caliber players. Scotty Barnes made an all-star team first. Evan Mobley made an all-NBA team first. Um, they're always going to be compared and judged against each other. And this year, Scotty Barnes, if you take the full scope of the season, Scotty Barnes had a better season than Evan Mobley. He got off to an awesome start. He was a really, really good player. He was a very deserving all-star this year. Like he had a terrific season. He was from start to finish the better overall player than Evan Mobley. However, if you look at who Evan has been since Christmas, you can make a case that Evan has been the better player than Scotty. And the Cavs, I don't know that they need him to be a better player than Scotty in this series to win, but I do think this matchup is an interesting one because the Raptors need Scotty Barnes to be their best player in order to get to anywhere they want to go. And he is their best player. I think he's a better player than Brandon Ingram. Um, it looks differently and Brandon Ingram is going to probably carry a heavier offensive load than Scotty Barnes will just because of the nature of their games. But I think overall, and I think Raptors fans would probably agree with this, and if not, I'm sure they'll be in the comments of this video because that's what Raptors fans do. Um, please tell me if I'm wrong. Tell me if Brandon Ingram is a better basketball player than Scotty Barnes. But I would be surprised if any of you um think that, but I do think that Scotty had a better year than Evan. However, since Christmas, the numbers are a lot closer and in some key areas kind of favor Evan. So post-Christmas, Scotty Barnes is averaging 17 points, seven rebounds, six and a half assists, 1.3 blocks, 1.5 steals per game, doing so on 50.8% from the floor, an effective field goal percentage of 53. So those are solid numbers. You'd like to see that effective field goal percentage be a little bit higher. He's shooting around 30% on the season from beyond the three-point arc. He, like Evan this year, has not been much of a threat beyond the arc. And I do think that is something that will help the Cavs and that is something we will talk about coming up a little bit later as well too.
And since Evan Mobley I took the Christmas Day game and the Houston game out of this. Now Evan had a really good game on Christmas that might have actually boosted his numbers but he only played 20 minutes and he was on a minute restriction for those games. So I did take them out just for the sake of the minute restriction skewing things. So, since December 29th, Evan Mobley is averaging 18 points, nine rebounds, three and a half assists, two blocks per game on 60.9 effective field goal percentage and 58% from the floor. So, he has been the more efficient offensive player than Scotty Barnes. Other roles are much different obviously and I think that's a little unfair to Scotty because he is asked to be the number two for Toronto's offense and Evan Mobley right now is the number three and much more of a play finisher than a play starter that Scotty Barnes is. But the point being here is if these guys are the same exact guys that they have been basically since Christmas, if Evan Mobley is exactly who Evan Mobley has been since Christmas, and if Scotty Barnes is exactly who Scotty Barnes has been since Christmas. And I'm talking on both ends of the floor because I do think Evan has played at an all-defense level. I'm not sure he's going to finish on an all-defense team, but he has played at an all-defense level, I think, throughout the entire season. I think he's been arguably just as good as he was last year defensively. And I don't think that the Cavs defensive issues have been because of Evan Mobley. But if these guys are exactly who they have been since the start of January for all intents and purposes, that really favors the Cavs because I think the Raptors need Scotty Barnes to take a significant step up in order if they want to win this series. Scotty Barnes probably needs to be the second best player. I'm not sure that he's going to be. I'm not sure that he's capable of doing that. But if that's who he is, then Toronto might have a chance here. Now, if he's not that, then I think the avenues for the Raptors to win four games in seven tries starts to get pretty narrow against the Cavs. And I do think how these two and how often they defend each other is going to be an interesting subplot to this because I wonder if what we saw the Cavs do defensively against the Atlanta Hawks last Wednesday, I'm not talking about Friday game, I'm talking about the Wednesday game they played in Cleveland against Atlanta where they had what I expect to be their starting five for game one on the floor. I wonder if that well that was not done with Toronto in mind because at that point it felt very unlikely that this would be a series that we would be talking about and I'm still a little surprised truthfully that this is a series that we're talking about. But I do wonder if the way the Cavs lined up defensively could be something similar. Now, I know that these two teams are different, but we saw Evan Mobley defend Jalen Johnson. Can we see him defend Scotty Barnes? Are we going to see Dean Wade defend Brandon Ingram? We'll talk about that in a second. Where are we going to see James Harden? Could the Cavs try and hide him on a bigger player at times? Like I do wonder if what we saw the Cavs do against the Atlanta Hawks. And the the Raptors are not nearly as good of a shooting team as the Hawks are, but they also don't have a player on the floor that is as bad of a shooter as Dyson Daniels is. So, I do think things have to be a little bit different defensively for the Cavs, but I am fascinated to see how they line up. And I do wonder if they put Evan Mobley on Scotty Barnes and kind of have him be the guy to try and shut down. I maybe would call Scotty Barnes Toronto's primary offensive hub. I know he's not their point guard, but six and a half assists a game. Like I wonder if instead of having Evan be somebody that helps off somebody that can't shoot. Although Scotty Barnes is somebody that you don't have to defend very far away from the basket because he's not a high percentage three-point shooter. I do wonder if that's something that we can look at and say, you know what, it makes sense for the Cavs to line up in that way on the defensive end of the floor.
Now, who defends Brandon Ingram? Can Jakob Poeltl stay on the floor for the Raptors? And how can the Cavs take advantage of Toronto being a bad three-point shooting team? We'll talk about those things next right here on Locked on Cavs. But first, today's show is brought to you by Rocket Money. You ever open your bank account and think, "Where did all my money go?" Well, you're not alone. We've all been there before. Keeping track of subscriptions, spendings, bills, all of it can get overwhelming pretty quickly. Well, that's where Rocket Money comes in because they're helping you take control of your finances all in one place. Tracks all your subscriptions in one spot. And it can even help cancel the ones that you don't need with just a few taps. It automatically categorizes your spending so you can actually see where your money is going. Plus, you can set budgets, get alerts, and stay on top of upcoming bills. Makes everything feel more organized and it gives you a clearer picture of your finances from day to day. You're not going to be kept in the dark. You're going to know exactly where your money is going and why it's going to those places. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Let RocketMoney help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at rocketmoney.com/lockedon today. That's rocketmoney.com/lockedon. Loc. Again, rocketmoney.com/lockedon. Help. Let RocketMoney help you reach your financial goals faster again today at rocketmoney.com/lockedon.
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Thank you again for making this edition of Locked on Cavs your first watch on YouTube or your first listen anywhere you might get your podcast. And one of the other matchups I'm very interested in seeing is how do the Cavaliers defend Brandon Ingram? I think they have a couple of different ways that they could try and attack this. However, I think Dean Wade is the right call here. And Dean has had some success defending Brandon Ingram in the past. And Ingram is not the most dynamic player. I don't think that he's the best athlete. He's not super explosive. He is somebody that has made a living in the NBA hitting some tough shots. He's a guy that has a bit of an old-school game. He's going to take mid-range jumper after mid-range jumper. And if you go back and watch the game that the Cavs played in Toronto against the Raptors, which I do not believe Dean Wade was available for, Brandon Ingram went off for 30-plus points and he did so mostly on a diet of mid-rangers. And sometimes that's going to beat you. And I would not be surprised that if in this series the Toronto Raptors win a game or maybe even two games because Brandon Ingram just simply has a night where he can't miss, where the ball is just continuing to go in the rim and sometimes there's nothing you can do about it. But I do think that Dean Wade with his length, with his athleticism, with his ability to stay in front, I think is the perfect guy for them to throw at Brandon Ingram. And I would be surprised as of Monday evening, I would be surprised if Dean Wade is not the guy that the Cavs opt to use as their first option defending Brandon Ingram. Now, that does not mean Wade is going to be the only guy that gets a crack at it. He's not going to be the only guy that defends Ingram because I would expect that Ingram is probably going to play 35, 36, 37 minutes a game in this playoff series because it's the playoffs and the better players play much more often in the postseason than they do the regular season. I would also, for the record, expect to see Donovan Mitchell's minutes go up. Evan Mobley, James Harden kind of already plays 36, 37 minutes a night. Maybe his minutes get above 40, but I would expect that to be um the case on both sides here. And Dean is not going to play 36 minutes in games. Like that is not who Dean is. The Cavs are going to try different options on Brandon Ingram. So, while I would expect Wade to be the first pick, I also think Jalen Tyson should get a crack at it. Now, Tyson is not as lengthy as Wade is. He's not as big as Wade is. Tyson is around 6'7. Dean Wade is 6'9 and he has longer arms and he is somebody that has a proven track record of being able to slow down guys like this. But I do think Jalen Tyson is somebody that can also fit the bill here. And Tyson, the way that he could defend Ingram is a little bit different. He's going to have to do it with physicality. He's going to have to do it with peskiness where he's going to be more of a thorn in the side of Brandon Ingram than Dean Wade will be. Now, that doesn't mean it's going to be better or worse. It could be the exact same. It could be better. It could be worse. I don't know what it's going to look like, but I do know that Tyson defending Ingram will look different than Wade defending Ingram. I think both guys could have some success. I think we might see Max Strus on him as well. I don't love that matchup as much. Although I do think because Max hasn't necessarily been awesome in terms of foot speed lately, Ingram is not somebody that I look at and think, yeah, he's going to beat you with quickness. He's going to beat you by shooting over the top. So that could be something that while maybe Max is a bit undersized for this matchup, that could be something that I look at and say, "Okay, maybe it makes sense to give him a try there." So I think those are the three guys that we will at times see defend Brandon Ingram, and I think those are the guys that make the most sense. Ingram's gonna have a couple of good games in this series. He also might have a couple of bad games in the series. He's coming off of an Eastern Conference player of the week honor that he deserves. He's been awesome lately for the Raptors. And job number one defensively for the Cavs is slowing down Brandon Ingram.
Now, I will say that the Cavs do have a bit of a defensive advantage. Now, I talked about their numbers against top 10 teams in the NBA and that they've actually been a good defense when the stakes have been a little bit higher, which is true, and that's part of the reason why I think it's fair to expect more out of this Cleveland defense in the postseason than what we saw in the regular season. They have shown, just the evidence we have, they've shown that they can rise to the moment a little bit. Now, we have to see it for an extended stretch. How does how does it look when every team is a top 10 team or at least a borderline top 10 team? We don't know that. We know what it looks like in these little random one-off segments, right? Or sample sizes. But the fact that the Raptors do not possess the ability to truly take advantage of Cleveland's defensive Achilles' heel, which is defending the three-point arc. The Cavs have been bad defending the three-point arc all year. And the Raptors are not a team that shoots a lot of them. I believe they're 26th in three-point attempts per game. They're 21st in three-point shooting percentage. They're not a team that gets them up from beyond the arc. And if you're the Cavs, and that is part of the reason why this bracket breaking the way it has for the Cavs is everything they could have possibly wanted because the Raptors are a team. Again, I don't want to sit here and say, you know, overlook the Raptors. Let's look ahead to the Pistons in the second round. That's not fair. That's not what I'm about. But if you look at the Raptors and the Pistons, both of them are not teams that shoot a lot of threes. Like Toronto is 21st in three-point percentage. Detroit is 17th in three-point percentage. The Raptors, they are 26th in three-point attempts. The Pistons are 29th in three-point attempts. So, it's not just that this is a series that I do think is a good matchup for the Cavs. I kind of look at the Raptors as a light version of the Detroit Pistons. They're not as good as Detroit, not close to Detroit, but I think that stylistically, and it's not the same. I think the Raptors have more size. I don't think they have a wing defender that is as good as Ausar Thompson. They certainly don't have um a big that is as offensively talented as Jalen Duren is. And they don't have a Cade Cunningham. Like Cade Cunningham would far and away be the best player on the Toronto Raptors, but I look at this and say the Cavs are in a really good spot because they have two teams potentially. Again, not trying to look ahead here, but it start with with Toronto and they're not a team that is built to take advantage of where Cleveland is weak. And I think the Cavs are even kind of built to take advantage of where the Raptors are strong. And I think that's a really good thing. So, if you're looking at this matchup from a Cavs perspective, I think there's a lot to be encouraged about.
And then Jakob Poeltl is the other guy I wanted to talk about. I don't think he's been very good for Toronto lately. Um, the games I've watched, I have been thoroughly unimpressed with him. And I do think that Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, this is a series, while maybe not as pronounced as Atlanta would have been with a size advantage for the Cavs, this is a series that those two should have very, very good offensive series for the Cavs. And Jakob Poeltl I don't think can defend the pick and roll against Jarrett Allen and James Harden. I don't think that he can defend in space against Evan Mobley when the Cavs play with Mobley at center if Poeltl's on the floor for that. So I do think that while Scotty Barnes, Brandon Ingram, a couple of really good players, I think that there are a few areas the Cavs really have advantages in and some of these matchups that I've talked about today. I think if the Cavs win those matchups, I have a really difficult time seeing the Cavs not win this series.
So, that's going to do it for this edition of Locked on Cavs. You can find this show anywhere you get your podcast. That's Apple, that's Spotify, that's on YouTube as well. Please do me a favor. Make sure you're subscribed wherever you might be listening to the show and on YouTube as we get out of here. Hit that thumbs up button for me and click that notification bell if you've not done so already. The plan is to have a couple of guests lined up this week. Couple of special ones. Don't want to spoil it, but hoping to have a couple of special guests, including one one guy that might be pretty involved with uh national playoff coverage across the NBA. Not going to tell you who it is, but keep an eye out for some important episodes of Locked on Cavs coming your way the rest of this week. And I'll be back tomorrow talking more about the Cleveland Cavaliers.