Should Jaylon Tyson Move Into the Starting Lineup? And What the Cleveland Cavaliers Miss Most Without Jarrett Allen

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On today's show, the calves have a number of things they need to figure out before the

end of the regular season.

Jalen Tyson's role is near the top at list.

We'll discuss why on this edition of Lockdown Cavs.

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We will be discussing the role of Jalen Tyson and whether or not it's time for Kenny

Mackinson to maybe reconsider that ideal starting lineup.

I don't know if he's going to do that, but it's a conversation worth having.

Jared Allen not going to play on Friday against the Dallas Mavericks.

And we'll talk about why the Cavs miss and why it's important that he gets back sooner

and later.

And then we will also talk about what's upcoming for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

But I wanted to begin today's show by focusing on Jalen Tyson because Tyson didn't have

a very good game against your Orlando magic on Wednesday night.

And is this the reason why they lost?

No, I don't think so.

I'm not trying to pin blame on Jalen Tyson who has largely been very, very good for the

Cavs.

But it got me to thinking about what the Cavs are asking of him and what his role looks

like right now because he has been somebody that has been, if you look at the entirety

of this season, he's been one of the better players of Cavs.

He has, I think, surprised a lot of people, myself included it.

I did not think that he would be able to shoot the basketball at the level that he has

shown.

He's capable of shooting the basketball.

I think he has grown tremendously as a defender.

Like if you think about what he looks like defensively back on opening night in New York

where he picked up four fouls defending Jalen Brunson in like 18 minutes of play.

So what he is now as a defensive player, I'm not going to sit here and say that he's

some all defense type of guy.

But I think it's fair to say that he has improved quite a bit on that under the floor.

And the question has crossed my mind, maybe not as much recently since the Cavs have made

these trades.

But the question at times this season has crossed my mind.

Where would the Cavs be without Jalen Tyson?

And we won't ever know what the answer to that question is.

And I think you could realistically ask that about everybody, but like where would the

Cavs be without doubt of the Mitchell and the answer is a lot worse off than they are.

And you could say that with Jared Allen with Evan Mobley.

But like Jalen Tyson was not expected to be this year.

What he has been, he has been a pleasant surprise to everybody.

And he has been somebody that went from at the start of the season, okay, you know, when

the Cavs get fully healthy, does he fit in?

Like does he have minutes?

Can he find a way on the floor?

Does he going to be able to be trusted enough to be that energy guy coming off the bench

that maybe if you need four minutes and a half of energy, can Jalen Tyson provide that

to now me talking about the Cavs need to figure out this out because he's become, I think

too important to the Cavs for them to kind of move forward with the status quo.

And you might ask, well, what are you talking about here?

And the conversation that always pops up here is the starting lineup.

And if you listen to this show, you know where I stand on things.

I think Dean Wade at the starting small forward spot gives the Cavs their highest defensive

upside.

He's the best perimeter defender they have.

I think he's a tremendous matchup on several of the guys that the Cavs could see in the

playoffs.

Cade Cunningham, Jalen Brunson, Jalen Brown or Jason Tatum.

I think Dean Wade is the best option to defend all of those guys.

And me saying that is looking at that on the surface level.

Which is I do think, you know, and we're going to dig deeper here.

But part of that is I just think that that fits best.

But I do think that because of what we have seen over the past 15 games, we might have

to dig a little bit deeper.

And obviously Dean has been in and out of the lineups because of ankle injuries.

So it's not as if he has played in all 15 in these games while Jalen Tyson has played

in all 15 of these games.

And the games that Dean has been available for the most part, not all of them.

But for the most part, Jalen has come off the bench.

And when Dean has been out, Jalen has been in the starting lineup.

So like I said, they have played 15 games since the debut of Dennis Rooter and Keanuels.

That was the game against the Clippers back on, I believe it was February the 4th was the

first time that those two played, James Harden had not yet played for the Cavs.

He would not debut until the Cavs played a few days later in Sacramento.

But this was that game is a good place to go back to because that was where the team very clearly changed.

Just like fundamentally what this group was was different on that night than it was at any point before.

So since then that going starting with that game, the Cavs have played 15 times with this new look roster.

And again, not everybody has been available for all of these games.

Obviously, James didn't play in that game and he has missed some time because of a finger injury.

And Keanuels has missed a little bit of time because of his own finger injury.

And just like the Cavs have not had their full complement of players for very many of these games.

Like it was the Thunder game, I think the next game as well.

And like they've had guys in and out of the lineup for most of the other games.

But Jalen has had his role fluctuate quite a bit.

He's started at times, he's come off the bench at times.

On Wednesday night against Orlando, he came off the bench and I don't think he played well.

And that has been kind of consistent with who he's been off the bench.

And there are numbers that back this up.

But I think if you watch the games, you've also noticed that he looks like a different guy when he's in the starting lineup,

when he's out there for the beginning of a game.

And it's not to say that he's not capable of having good games off the bench because that's not true.

But he has recently and really for the entire season too.

But recently he has been a better player when he's been in the starting lineup.

So Jalen in the seven games since because Cavs had played 15, like I said, he has started eight of them.

The Cavs are six and two in those eight games.

And that's not like a super, like that is not entirely dependent on this.

Those wins are against the Clippers.

Very good one.

The Kings not impressive there.

The Denver Noggets, which was a good win.

Washington, nothing special.

They lost to Milwaukee.

They lost to Detroit, although Jalen played while in that game.

They beat Brooklyn, nothing special.

And then they beat Detroit with Jalen in the starting lineup.

And then the other seven games Jalen came off the bench.

And when Tyson has been in the starting lineup,

he's been a better basketball player.

He's scoring 13 points a game on just over 10 shots a game.

So it's not like crazy efficiency, but it's good enough.

But when he comes off the bench, his production just is significantly different.

So obviously the minutes when you're coming off the bench,

the minutes are going to be a little bit less.

So like your points per game, your rebounds per game, stuff like that

is naturally going to dip a little bit because the less opportunity,

that's not necessarily always a reflection of how well or not well you are playing.

Because that's more of an opportunity cost type thing.

But in the games that he's coming off the bench in those seven games,

he's averaging just a smidge over, I think it's like 8.2 points per game

on just under eight fuel gold times per game.

So he's not been efficient.

He's shooting around 43%.

I believe it is from the floor in those seven games.

Now, all of this is a small sample size and there could be other things here at play.

But I like this to me is just something that I think it's easy to look at and say,

OK, well, what is this worth changing?

And then he's shooting 33% on threes in the seven games that he has come off the bench

since February 4th.

Now his three point shooting is down a little bit,

but he's shooting 43%.

I believe it is in the games that he has started,

which is down from his full season mark.

And I do wonder if there's a bit of a quote unquote rookie wall for Jalen Tyson.

Obviously, he's not a rookie, but he's played in 61 games.

There's been no point in his basketball career in which he's played this many basketball games

at this intensity level, like this is just for him uncharted territory.

And I call it a rookie wall because yes, he's in the second year, but last year he kind of,

I don't want to say took a red shirt year, but he wasn't a factor.

He didn't have a rookie wall to run into because he wasn't part of the rotation.

So I do think that could be something that's playing into it.

But I think when you combine that with the fact that his role is fluctuating

the way that it is, and there's this data that tells us that he's a better basketball player

when he's in the starting lineup.

And the Cavs have been awesome when he started this year.

They've been awesome when Dean Wade has started this year too.

It's when like they've not been as good as they could be, but like they're the analytics,

say both of those guys are good starters.

I do still believe that having Dean in the starting lineup,

especially when the Cavs are at full strength elsewhere,

does give them the highest defensive upside.

I think that he is a better defensive player than Jalen.

I think Jalen is a better offensive player.

You know, part of my rationale for this is, well, even if Dean has some things

that could be better on the offensive end of the floor,

the Cavs ultimately have, when they're healthy, James Hardin and Donovan Mitchell

and Evan Mobley and Jared Allen on the floor, like I could be that, that's stretching it,

but you could have a replacement level basketball player as the starting small forward.

And that offense should still be awesome because of how good those other four guys are.

That's sort of the point that I'm making here, but I don't know at this point,

if Jalen is not going to be able to be a playoff caliber player coming off the bench,

because the data and again, it's a small sample size type thing,

but the data so far that we have kind of presents that he's not,

like if you're Kenny Ackinson and you're making lineup decisions for the postseason,

based upon what we have seen over the past 15 games,

Jalen Tyson's not going to get a ton of minutes,

partially because of how he's played coming off the bench,

and partially because of how good Keon Ellis has been.

And I'm not saying that he shouldn't play because I don't,

this is closer to me making an argument for him to be in the starting lineup

than it is for me to say he shouldn't be playing,

but they need to figure this out because part of the reasoning here,

behind me thinking Dean Wade should be the starting small forward,

is okay, you can bring Jalen Tyson off the bench,

and if Jalen Tyson is still going to be that same guy coming off the bench,

I think that makes more sense.

But if Jalen Tyson is not going to be the same guy coming off the bench

that he has been in the starting lineup for the majority of this year,

then I think it becomes a different conversation.

Then it's a different story where, okay, if they don't,

if they're not getting the best version of Jalen off the bench,

can they get the best version of Dean off the bench

and the best version of Jalen in the starting lineup?

What does that do for this roster?

And the Cavs don't have a lot of time to tinker with this,

to try and figure this out, like they have to,

Keon Ellis and Keon only gets one shot here to pull the right levers.

Like, and you have to pull them correctly,

or this is a team that's not going to go to the finals,

which has to be the goal at this point.

So the thinking here has to be,

how can you maximize everybody?

And I still think the Cavs are at their best defensively

when Dean Wade's at small four

to alongside Evan Motley and Jared Allen.

Like, that's not going to change.

But I don't know if the Cavs,

and I don't know anymore, based on the data that we have,

if the Cavs are at their best,

when they're not getting the best out of Jalen Tyson.

And maybe some of it's been mitigated

because of how good Keon Ellis has been at times.

Like, I do think part of the reason why Jalen only played

17 minutes against Orlando is because Keon Ellis played 31 minutes.

And there's not necessarily a lot of room for them

to both play heavy minutes.

And as of late, Keon has been better than Jalen.

Like the last two games that Keon has played have been awesome.

He scored 20 plus in both of them.

He's hit, I believe, five threes in both of them.

Like, he's just been fantastic.

And that has nothing to do with Jalen.

And I think that's part of the reason why Jalen Tyson did not play

in the fourth quarter at all against Orlando on Wednesday night.

But I think overall, just like the thing

to come away with this is on paper,

it still probably makes sense for Dean

Wade to be the starting small forward.

But basketball games aren't played on paper.

And if this team is not able to get the most out of Jalen Tyson

and the most out of Dean Wade and the most out of Keon Ellis

with what this is right now in terms of how their lineups are structured

and who's starting and who's coming off the bench,

then maybe you have to figure out ways as opposed

to finding the highest defensive upside.

Maybe you have to figure out ways to just maximize

everybody who can.

And I personally, because of how good he has been this year,

especially shooting the basketball, personally,

I think maximizing what Jalen Tyson can be

should be a very important thing for this Cavs team

between now and the end of the regular season.

Because the Cavs, to get to where they want to go,

Jalen Tyson is not the most important player on this team

he's far from it.

But he's one of the more important role players that they have.

They need him to be awesome.

He's a guy that can swing games in the postseason.

And if that means he needs to start,

then maybe it is something the Cavs do need to consider.

No, Jalen is not going to play on Friday night against Dallas.

Cavs miss him, and more importantly,

they miss the opportunities of playing alongside him.

We'll talk about that next right here.

Unlocked on Cavs.

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Jared Allen is not gonna play on Friday night

for the Caves as they are in Dallas taking on the Mavericks

for the second of the short two game road trip.

And the Caves missed Jared Allen.

There's no secret to that.

He's not played since last Tuesday

that would have been March 3rd, I believe, the date.

So now he's been 10 days sideline with this knee 10 tonight.

This last game he played was the home game against Detroit.

I thought overall in that game, he looked exhausted,

which, you know, it was their eighth game in 12 days.

So I think that there may have been something to that.

After the game, Kenyak and Sin said that he bumped knees

and we've not gotten an official status update

from the Caves since which I do think is a good sign.

Kenyak has said that he hasn't,

he's not viewing this as a long-term injury

by any stretch of the imagination.

And he did tell ESPN,

that's what they said on the broadcast on Wednesday night,

that Jared wasn't far away from being it back on the floor.

ESPN even went as far as saying,

he could potentially play on Friday.

Now at this point, again, as of 8.30 on Thursday evening,

we know Jared Allen is not playing on Friday.

He was ruled out on the injury report

that came out at 5.45 on Thursday evening.

But the Caves missed Jared Allen.

Like there's no secret to that.

If you watch the Caves lately and listen,

I think Thomas Bryant has done a very admirable job

filling in.

I think that the minutes he's given the Caves

as a third big have been extremely valuable.

And I think that if you want to think about that

a little bit more, think about how differently we would have felt

if last year, Tristan Thompson were pressed into the action

that Thomas Bryant has been pressed into.

Like that has been a big upgrade for the Caves

that we probably don't talk about enough.

We probably don't give Thomas Bryant enough credit

for the guy that he's been.

But ultimately, he's not Jared Allen.

He's got a very different skill set.

He's a very different player.

And Jared Allen is a significantly better player

than Thomas Bryant.

And that is not shade at Thomas Bryant.

Jared Allen is just an all-star caliber big.

And Thomas Bryant is not quite on that level.

But the thing that the Caves miss,

even more than actually having Jared Allen on the floor,

while they miss him defensively,

they have missed him offensively.

Like they're just a better team when Jared Allen is available.

But the thing that they've actually missed

is their ability to get time with Jared Allen on the floor.

Because for the Caves, they get to where they want to go to.

They need to be healthy.

And I sort of think that this Caves team

is like a really finely tuned sports car.

That those cars, when they're clicking,

when they're going, it's awesome, right?

Like, feel like you can just fly around on the highway,

like nothing can go wrong.

And then when there's one minor problem,

everything becomes a big hassle.

And that's kind of what I feel like the Caves are to an extent.

When they're fully healthy, which I guess, technically,

we've not actually even seen this year,

because Max Truce has not played yet.

And he has been ruled out for Friday's game as well.

Again, I think Sunday could be his season debut.

But we'll have to wait and see if that happens.

But it's almost with that.

It has almost been like the Caves have been driving around

with the gas cap unhooked.

And so your check engine lights on,

but the car's running fine.

But it's almost as if, when one thing goes wrong,

the, because of how this roster is built,

when one thing goes wrong, it can be hard for them

to not overcompensate in other areas, if you will.

And I think that has been one of the things

that the Caves have struggled with lately.

They are a better team when they have two bigs on the floor.

Like the data suggests that, in ultimately two,

we need to see, and I don't want to call this group

the core four.

So I'll call it the big four, I guess,

of Donovan and James and Evan and Jared.

We need to see them play basketball together.

Now, they've played, since the trades,

they have played together for 76 possessions

according to cleaning the glass.

That's not a lot of time.

Now, the numbers have been fantastic.

I don't think they're worth diving into too far

because 76 possessions is such a small sample size.

But the Caves are like, their net rating is like plus 32,

or something ridiculous, when that group is on the floor.

They've had three different lineups of that being the case,

and they've all just been killer.

And that, to me, is not a surprise,

but that data is just not enough of a sample size

to sit here and say, oh, yeah,

they don't need to figure these things out.

Like, they'll just be fine.

Like, no, I think that it is very important,

and I have talked about this.

Talked about it a little bit

on the two big questions,

the additional Octum Caves earlier on Thursday.

They need these wraps together.

They need to learn and grow together,

and they need to build a camaraderie

and team chemistry and stuff like that on the floor,

because you might sit here and think,

okay, that's stuff, how much does that actually matter?

And I get it because that stuff might not always

be quantifiable, but we are, when we get to the playoffs,

part of the reason why you look at the Indiana Pacers last year

that had success, why they have success,

because that team had been together.

That's not the only reason they had success, obviously.

But part of the reason why they've had successes,

that team has been together.

Think about the New York Knicks last year,

and they got to the conference finals,

and we could talk about that maybe being a fluky run,

but that was a team that had been together.

Yes, they traded for Carl and Thetowns before the season,

but they had built up 82 games playing basketball together.

Boston Celtics, and I know that they lost last year

in the second round and whatnot,

but part of the reason why they were so good

is because they had continuity.

And even think back to the Cavs last year,

at the start of the season, they started off 15 and 0,

and it was surprising to everybody.

Nobody expected them to be 15 and 0,

especially with a new coach.

But you know what, didn't change

between the year before JB Bickerstaff's final year in Cleveland

and Kenny Atkinson's first year in Cleveland, the roster.

The Cavs just ran things back,

and that's part of the reason why they were so good

is they had continuity.

The Cavs don't have that.

Like yes, Evan Mobley, and Donovan Mitchell,

and Jared Allen, and Dean Wade, and Max Trues,

and Sam Merrill have all played a lot of basketball together.

They have, but James Hardin hasn't played with them.

KNL hasn't played with them.

Dennis Schroeder hasn't played with them.

Jalen Tyson really hasn't played a lot of basketball

with these groups.

Like they need these final 15 games to figure things out.

And they need Jared Allen, or I guess 16 games, excuse me.

They need Jared Allen to be on the floor for some of them.

And again, health should be the priority here.

Like you do want to, if you're the Cavs,

you want to make sure that you are healthy

going into the post season because we saw last year,

what can happen when you're not healthy in the post season.

You, your run ends before you think it should.

And the Cavs want to avoid that this year.

But they also need to figure out who they are.

I think a little bit better before they get in the post season.

And they might need to do so a little bit more defensively

than they do offensively.

And having Jared Allen out there

is a really, really big part of that.

So Kenny Atkinson did tell ESPN, again, on Wednesday

that Alan was close that he could play Friday.

He's not playing on Friday, but hopefully for the Cavs sake.

That means he's back on the floor

when the Cavs returned home and take on the Dallas Mavericks

on Sunday.

Now, the Cavs have an easy schedule

over these next couple of games.

They need to rack up some wins.

They need to build confidence.

And I think they'll be able to do it.

We'll talk about that briefly here next right here.

Unlocked on Cavs.

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Thank you again for checking out Lockdown Calfs today.

And thank you for checking out Lockdown Calfs

every single day.

You can find us on Apple Spotify

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Including Cavalier should rack up quite a few wins

over the next 10 or so days.

They don't play an above 500 opponent till March 24th.

That's when the Orlando Magic come to town

and even that game, the magic are on the second game

of the back to back.

The calves I do think should win at least their next five

and probably their next six games

before they run into any schedule this advantage

or any game against the good team.

So they play Dallas on Friday.

The Mavericks are actually playing the Memphis Grizzlies

on Thursday in Memphis.

So that will be a second night of the back to back

from Mavericks who are not very good.

I don't know who will be available for Dallas

in that game.

We will have to wait and see.

But this is a game that the calves should win.

Truthfully, shouldn't have much of an issue winning.

They're injury report.

Yes, they don't have Jared Allen.

They don't have Max Truce, but James Hardin's gonna play.

Don't have a Michelle's gonna play.

I have a Moby's gonna play it like this is a night on Friday

in another nationally televised spot

where the calves should go out there and truthfully,

they if they're play serious, they should look awesome

and they should roll the Dallas Mavericks.

Then they see the same Dallas team again on Sunday.

For Dallas, that'll be the third game in four days.

And the fact that it's an afternoon spot for them

after back to back, the calves should have very little problem

winning that game on Sunday at home as well.

Then they go on the road.

Milwaukee should win that game.

They should.

Milwaukee's bad right now.

They were playing good basketball.

Last time the calves played them,

they're not playing good basketball right now.

Chicago is trying to lose basketball games.

New Orleans is not trying to lose basketball games

and they've been a little bit better lately,

but they're not a good basketball team.

And then after that, you look and say, okay,

Orlando comes to town.

The calves will be rested.

The magic will be on the back to back.

Then Miami for a couple.

But the calves have an opportunity here.

And I know that we had the conversation earlier

on Thursday about seating and that stuff matters here.

But the calves should have the opportunity.

If they take things seriously, if they get healthy,

if they figure things out, they should win a lot of these games.

They should.

They are one of the better teams in basketball.

I think that we're going to see that in the postseason

when that arrives.

But I do think it's important.

And I know that sometimes March basketball

can be a little fake, but I think it's important

for the calves to kind of step on the gas here.

And I made the analogy to a sports car earlier.

Well, let's see what this team can do.

Even if it's against bad teams,

I think it'd be a good thing to see

what this calves team is exactly capable of

between now and the end of the regular season.

And I think this is a really good stretch

for that to be on display.

So that's going to do it for this edition

of Lockdown Caves.

I appreciate everybody.

They made Lockdown Caves their first listen today

and makes Lockdown Caves their first listen

every single day.

You can find this show anywhere you get your podcasts.

That's Apple, that's Spotify, that's on YouTube as well.

And if you are watching the show on YouTube, please do me a favor.

It thumbs up button for me and click the notification bell

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And make sure you're subscribed wherever you might be listening

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And I will be back talking to you

after the calves take on the Dallas Mavericks.

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