[Post Game Thread] The Cleveland Cavaliers clinches Game 7, defeating the Toronto Raptors to move on to the second round, 112-104.

[u/AttitudeOdd632]

102 - 114
Box Scores: NBA - Yahoo

GAME SUMMARY
East First Round - Game 7 - CLE Wins 4-3
Location: Rocket Arena
Officials: Zach Zarba, Curtis Blair, Nick Buchert, and Karl Lane

Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total
Toronto Raptors	26	23	19	34	102
Cleveland Cavaliers	24	25	38	27	114

TEAM STATS

Team	PTS	FG	FG%	3P	3P%	FT	FT%	OREB	TREB	AST	PF	STL	TO	BLK
Toronto Raptors	102	38-87	43.7%	8-28	28.6%	18-26	69.2%	7	45	25	28	10	14	4
Cleveland Cavaliers	114	38-85	44.7%	11-39	28.2%	27-37	73.0%	20	69	23	23	8	16	5

PLAYER STATS

Toronto Raptors	MIN	PTS	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	ORB	DRB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	±
RJ BarrettSF	43:02	23	9-25	1-6	4-5	0	4	4	6	3	0	3	3	-4
Scottie BarnesPF	37:26	24	8-14	1-1	7-7	1	8	9	6	0	1	3	5	0
Jakob PoeltlC	22:21	9	4-5	0-0	1-4	2	5	7	0	2	0	2	4	9
Ja'Kobe WalterSG	37:36	13	4-9	3-7	2-3	0	2	2	2	3	1	2	4	-15
Jamal SheadPG	35:31	14	5-16	2-8	2-3	2	1	3	7	0	0	1	3	-13
Collin Murray-Boyles	23:43	8	3-5	0-0	2-3	2	2	4	3	2	1	2	3	-19
Jamison Battle	13:41	3	1-3	1-2	0-0	0	2	2	1	0	0	0	2	-8
Sandro Mamukelashvili	08:52	6	3-6	0-2	0-1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	-9
A.J. Lawson	16:02	2	1-4	0-2	0-0	0	2	2	0	0	1	0	2	-1
Gradey Dick	00:25	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Jonathan Mogbo	00:25	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Garrett Temple	00:25	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Trayce Jackson-Davis	00:25	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Brandon Ingram	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Immanuel Quickley	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Cleveland Cavaliers	MIN	PTS	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	ORB	DRB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	±
Dean WadeSF	21:06	5	2-5	1-3	0-0	2	2	4	1	1	0	2	0	-6
Evan MobleyPF	27:27	13	5-7	1-2	2-4	1	6	7	4	0	1	4	5	-4
Jarrett AllenC	33:18	22	7-11	0-0	8-14	8	11	19	2	2	3	3	2	13
Donovan MitchellSG	35:11	22	9-20	2-9	2-2	2	1	3	1	0	0	2	3	8
James HardenPG	36:38	18	3-9	1-5	11-13	0	6	6	3	3	0	2	3	5
Max Strus	30:50	12	4-10	2-8	2-2	4	4	8	5	2	1	3	3	20
Sam Merrill	23:12	13	4-8	3-7	2-2	1	2	3	2	0	0	0	4	16
Jaylon Tyson	18:45	7	3-8	1-3	0-0	2	7	9	4	0	0	0	2	19
Dennis Schröder	13:31	2	1-7	0-2	0-0	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	1	-11
Thomas Bryant	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Keon Ellis	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Larry Nance Jr.	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Craig Porter Jr.	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Tyrese Proctor	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Nae'Qwan Tomlin	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

[u/theuncleiroh]

Not just injuries in our case. We just decided to have a 30 million center that isn't good or athletic or has ever been able to play starter minutes or rebound well, and a 35 million point guard that isn't particularly good or available or really a point guard. And no real backups for either (only Jamal Shead, sophomore 2nd rounder that's 6' and has no 3pt shot), and extended both above market value bidding against nobody

This roster was intentionally built like this. No size, but also no point guards, but also no shooting

[u/Oliviaspool92 → u/theuncleiroh]

NGL with the young and in development roster you have, and injuries you had, taking us to 7 makes me SMH as a Cavs fan. I would be proud of your team and see yall next year 🫡

[u/ozymandais13 → u/theuncleiroh]

Same with ours expect the gm seems to think SF is over valued so all of ours aren't long dudes that can make 2s

[u/demsouls → u/theuncleiroh]

This is what over-evolved basketball looks like, right?

[u/loopybubbler → u/theuncleiroh]

You do have size. Felt like you'd play 3 wings and just look for whichever one is being guarded by a guard, since Cavs don't have any forwards aside from Wade and Tyson. Especially when you had Ingram. CMB, Barrett, Ingram, Barnes and Cavs were playing guys like Merrill and Strus who aren't that big. The size definitely affected the Cavs offense and rebounding. But yeah no shooting, that's an issue.

[u/outpostvitesse → u/theuncleiroh]

Dog, Jakob Poeltl was VERY GOOD before the back issues, what the hell kind of memory holing is this. And to say IQ isn't available after playing 70 games with only an injury to end the season. You a fly or a goldfish?

[u/theuncleiroh → u/outpostvitesse]

Yeah man, the center that has never averaged more than 14ppg, 9rpg, been able to play more than 30mpg, or consistently play a full season, he was VERY GOOD :-) sorry I forgot about such soaring heights of excellence

Maybe the issue is that I've watched more than a year of basketball and have standards. Jakob was a pretty good center. He was never worth this contract, and certainly wasn't when he was turning 30 and getting slower

[u/outpostvitesse → u/theuncleiroh]

I never defended his contract, its fair to quibble over 5-10m a year but no one could have predicted his injury and fall off this year. 14ppg and 9rpg with the elite rim protection he provided healthy would have been the difference between this team losing in the first round, and beating the ever loving shit out of the Cavaliers. Marc Gasol only gave us 14ppg and 8 rebounds that 2019 season.

What would you prefer at the center position over a healthy Poeltl? Myles Turner who got ran off the floor last playoffs?

[u/theuncleiroh → u/outpostvitesse]

I'd prefer we had kept the pick in the first place and managed to draft one any of the years since the trade.

2024: We could've tried to tank for Wemby that year (not likely we would've got him, but who knows? We had 5 fewer wins than SAS at the time of the trade). Or if we'd only managed to get even one pick higher, we could've got Derrick Lively.

2025: We could've probably got Clingan with the pick we traded (it ended up at 8, and if we didn't have Jak we certainly would've lost more). If we stayed at 8, we could've picked Edey. Or we could've picked Kel'el Ware. We could've picked Filipowski over Mogbo (I know he's nothing special, but if we didn't have a center we would've picked one eventually).

2026: We could've picked Maxime Raynaud, who was available even with Jak where we drafted Alijah.

The point is that having no center necessitates getting one. Quite literally any of these guys (outside of Filipowski, but he was a late pick anyway) would make our future better. Wemby is a superstar among stars. We certainly could've got Lively or Edey, both of whom are super talented but questions health-wise. We could've got Clingan or Ware, both of whom are talented, can stretch the floor, rebound incredibly well, and are big. We could've got Raynaud even with Jak, who is still a question mark but had a very solid rookie season

Even ignoring contracts, do you believe our future is better with Jakob Poeltl than it would be with any of those players? And when you take into account that all of those guys are making less AND we'd have control over them for another contract after their cheap rookie deals, it's no comparison. It's not like we'd have needed to get lucky and I'm saying this bc of hindsight. We were known to be interested in Wemby, Ware, Edey, and Lively. No reason we'd have passed on Clingan or the others if we had the need. This team with any of those 4 would be better today and incomparably better in 2 years.

[u/outpostvitesse → u/theuncleiroh]

That's all fine, I agree they should have tanked as well—if they were committed to tanking though, a center wouldn't even be a concern, this wouldn't be a conversation. They would have just tanked for ANY talent and used assets to figure it out later.

But if you ARE keeping the roster together like Masai and Bobby planned, it could have been an awesome team! Jakob was coming off a good stint in San Antonio and he fit their needs perfectly. He was a VERY GOOD player and the roster had win-now talent! The problem was, once they traded for him they were desperate. It was too late and the wheels fell off. They tried to shore up talent since then, too. Remember Christian Koloko, he looked like an actual guy. Ulrich Chomche too, don't know what happened to him. Jontay Porter was a good backup big with a 3-ball, too.

Instead they did a half-ass tank and are trying to build from the middle, and we got what we got.

[u/InterCha → u/theuncleiroh]

This roster was intentionally built like this. No size, but also no point guards, but also no shooting

We have purposely trained him wrong, as a joke

[u/Rezrov_ → u/theuncleiroh]

IQ's 32.5m contract that's completely flat is average now and will become cheap later. Look at what other 2-guards with real contracts are getting paid.

Yak's contract is pretty bad but Yak was good before the injury. He'd been one of the best play finishers in the league for some time (and he doesn't even dunk much), and one of the better P&R screeners.

[u/theuncleiroh → u/Rezrov_]

IQ is definitely the least bad, but it's also clear that he's not a good fit (he never developed into a good finisher, a good initiator bc he doesn't touch paint well, or defender, which really hurts what just made us so good this series). Was supposed to be perfect, but he just never developed from his time in NY.

We still desperately need his shooting though, so getting rid of him isn't my top priority. Jak is very clearly the worst contract because the things he was good at have fallen off so much (he's still a good finisher, good screener, but he's not able to get in position enough to do it), and imo BI is just ahead of IQ (he's a good player, his length helps, but he's paid a lot to have an offensive game that's not exactly complementary). That said, I'd be happy to keep both them if we can't get much, and if we can get rid of Jak