LOVELAND MAGAZINE

News and Events from the Loveland, Ohio Area

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Since 2004

Tag: nba

  • All new episode: The Queen City Sports Podcast by Chris Ball & Mark Raines – Reds Smash the Cardinals, Cleveland Cavaliers Have a Big Week, and Bronny James is Drafted

    All new episode: The Queen City Sports Podcast by Chris Ball & Mark Raines – Reds Smash the Cardinals, Cleveland Cavaliers Have a Big Week, and Bronny James is Drafted

    by Chris Ball & Mark Raines

    Loveland, Ohio – In this week’s podcast episode, we talk more about the Reds and what factors are preventing them from consistently playing as well as they did on Thursday night, beating the rival St. Louis Cardinals 11-4. We also discuss the Cavaliers’ signing of head coach Kenny Atkinson and the challenges he faces in getting the team ready for the 2024-2025 season. We also break down the impact of the Cavaliers’ first round draft pick Jaylon Tyson and discuss what the Lakers’ will do now that they’ve drafted Bronny James, LeBron James’ son.

    All this and more on The Queen City Sports Podcast, take a listen and don’t forget to leave your comments and feedback!

     

    For further reference, the article discussed in the podcast regarding the evolution of pitching in major league baseball can be accessed by clicking here. You can see the post laying out all of the injuries that the Atlanta Braves have suffered, and overcome, by clicking here.

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    Hey readers… have an opinion about sports? How about a topic you’d like to see written about in Loveland Magazine or a thought about one of our articles?

    Just need to vent and get out your frustration about the Reds, Bengals, or any other sports issues?

    Feel free to share with an email to lovelandmagazinesports@gmail.com!

    We would love to hear from our readers, and we thank you for your support and engagement.

    Also, don’t forget to follow us at The Loveland Sports Desk at the below links:

    For Facebook, click here.

    For X, click here.

    For Instagram, click here. 

    Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.

  • The Cavaliers Draft Jaylon Tyson and Welcome New Head Coach Kenny Atkinson

    The Cavaliers Draft Jaylon Tyson and Welcome New Head Coach Kenny Atkinson

    by Chris Ball

    Loveland, Ohio – With the 20th overall pick in the NBA Draft on Wednesday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers selected Jaylon Tyson, a small forward out of California. He is 6-6, 218 pounds and averaged 19.6 points per game, 6.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.2 steals last year for the Golden Bears. He’s known for his athleticism and the ability to create his own shot, two things that are going to be absolutely key in new coach’s Kenny Atkinson’s offense, discussed more below.

    The Cavaliers have lacked a true scorer and shot creator at the small forward position recently. Issac Okoro has improved but not necessarily taken the next step to make him a true threat offensively, though he defends at an elite level. Tyson, on the other hand, already has a very polished offensive game at the collegiate level he shoots the ball well, with splits of .465/.360/.796 across the board. In the future he and Okoro could pack a good change up playing off of one another situationally until we see more from Jaylon on the defensive end.

    At 6-6 there have been some concerns expressed about his size as an offense first small forward, but he does have a 6-8 wingspan. And the hope is that offensively he can use his athleticism to create enough space to counter any potential size advantage for the man guarding him.

    Below are some of the draft grades that sportswriters have given the pick:

    As you can see, the grades include quite a range, but those from writers who regularly cover the Cavaliers tend to be more optimistic about what Jaylon Tyson can bring to the team in the coming years. Some have dubbed the pick a “reach” for Cleveland but you could understand why the team might believe that a player like Jaylon is a good fit for their team at pick 20, given the boxes he could end up checking at the small forward position. And his play in college isn’t necessarily indicative of how he would translate to the NBA game. That’s much different than what he’ll be asked to do with the Cavaliers.

    As Danny Cunningham breaks down for the Locked On Cavs Podcast, Tyson was basically Cal’s entire offense and was asked to handle the ball, create his own shot, and be the primary weapon on offense. And The Golden Bears didn’t exactly have the type of team to allow him to boost his level of play, as they finished 13-19 with Tyson being the team’s leading scorer by more than 5 points per game.

    It’s also been reported that Cleveland has reached a 5-year agreement with Kenny Atkinson, former Golden State Warriors assistant coach, to be their next head coach. Atkinson has head coaching experience, most recently with the Brooklyn Nets where he took over a 20-win team and tuned them around into a playoff birth just two seasons later. Granted, his tenure for the Nets didn’t end on the best of terms, but managing that team with disgruntled superstars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant could not have been an easy task.

    The expectation is that Atkinson will bring a faster-paced motion offense to the Cavaliers that could really open up the scoring opportunities for players like Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland (if he’s not traded). His Nets teams ran fast and took their share of shots from behind the arc, something a team comprised of smaller guards who have the ability to be deadly from distance could execute with deadly precision. During his time in Brooklyn, he helped guide and develop young players like D’Angelo Russell and Spencer Dinwiddie, not to mention current Cavaliers Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen. And the hope is that he can continue that development with the Cavs own developing players like Garland, Evan Mobley and Isaac Okoro.

    Atkinson does face a test going forward, especially in addressing how Cleveland’s roster is constructed. The Cavaliers are a team with plenty of questions including the status of Donovan Mitchell’s extension and his interplay with whomever he pairs with at the other guard position, whether it be Darius Garland or someone else. The positional overlap among the Cavs’ big men Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, is another wrinkle to parse out for next season. And then putting the complimentary pieces in the right place to implement a high tempo offense.

    While previous head coach JB Bickerstaff deserves a great deal of credit for his ability to rebuild the Cavaliers, there were reports that he’d lost the locker room, and at times the Cavaliers offense looked mired in molasses. And so it will be very exciting to see Kenny Atkinson’s ability to get the team under control and refocus them on competing in an Eastern Conference that has suddenly become very top heavy. The NBA Champion Boston Celtics obviously showed how dominant they could be, but the New York Knicks made massive moves this week, trading for Mikal Bridges and signing OG Anunoby.

    Kenny Atkinson is a welcome addition to the Cavaliers but it looks like he will have precious little time to catch his breath before this team once again plunges headlong into another quest for a deeper playoff run in 2024-2025.

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    Hey readers… have an opinion about sports? How about a topic you’d like to see written about in Loveland Magazine or a thought about one of our articles?

    Just need to vent and get out your frustration about the Reds, Bengals, or any other sports issues?

    Feel free to share with an email to lovelandmagazinesports@gmail.com!

    Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.

  • Special Announcement: The Loveland Magazine Sports Desk!

    Special Announcement: The Loveland Magazine Sports Desk!

    by Chris Ball

    Loveland, Ohio – Loveland Magazine is very excited to announce that we are expanding our sports social media experience to encompass Facebook, X, and even Instagram.

    After you are done browsing our hard-hitting sports articles at Loveland Magazine, head on over to The Loveland Magazine Sports Desk. There, across all three platforms, we will be bringing you some more concise and up-to-the-minute updates on all of the sports teams you follow every day. Whether you’re watching a Reds or Bengals game in real-time and want to weigh in, or if you drop by the day after the game to check in on what happened and give your thoughts, you now have three more ways to get into the game and get the discussion going! We also look forward to bringing you local Loveland sports stories about all your hometown teams, including Loveland football and more.

    We appreciate your ongoing support and comments, so look forward to seeing you across the social media universe!

    To follow The Loveland Magazine Sports Desk on Facebook, click here.

    To get into the game on X, give us a follow by clicking here.

    Instagram is also a great way to post pictures of local Loveland sports, and we hope to have more content there very soon, but for now feel free to check in on our progress and give us a follow at this link.

    However you get in contact with us, we are happy to have you and look forward to a lot of fun together this summer and onward.

    Hey readers… have an opinion about sports? How about a topic you’d like to see written about in Loveland Magazine or a thought about one of our articles?

    Just need to vent and get out your frustration about the Reds, Bengals, or any other sports issues?

    Feel free to share with an email to lovelandmagazinesports@gmail.com!

    Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.

  • The JB Bickerstaff Era Comes To An End For The Cavaliers

    The JB Bickerstaff Era Comes To An End For The Cavaliers

    Photo – https://www.nba.com/cavaliers/roster

    by Chris Ball

    JB Bickerstaff inherited a Cavaliers team that was reeling after the firing of Jon Beilein midway through the 2019-20 season. After his hiring, Bickerstaff helped turn the Cavaliers around and get them on a path to winning. Overall, he had a 170-159 regular season record. He and the Cavaliers recorded at least 44 wins in each of the his last three years with the team. As the coach he improved the Cleveland’s record each year he was at the helm. The team was 19-46 in 2019-20; but improved to 22-50 in 2020-21; 44-38 in 2021-22 and 51-31 in 2022-23).

    In the postseason though, his record fell to just 6-11 despite leading the Cavaliers to the playoffs in back to back years in 2023 and 2024. 2024 marked the team’s best result during Bickerstaff’s tenure where they advanced to the Eastern Conference Semifinals for the first time since 2018.

    And to be clear, Bickerstaff should not be viewed as a scapegoat for the shortcomings of the Cavaliers this year. Injuries plagued this team for so much of the season. The signings of Max Strus and especially Georges Niang did not work out as planned. There was only so much a coach could do to keep this team afloat.

    But in the end, for all of Bickerstaff’s successes (and there were many), there were still significant questions about his ability to take the Cavaliers to the next level even when this team was healthy. There were issues as to whether he could control the locker room and make his star players, including Donovan Mitchell, happy. While Cavaliers executive Koby Altman properly emphasized JBB’s success in developing the Cavaliers’ young players, he also acknowledged that a fresh approach was necessary. This isn’t an unreasonable position to take, given how the Eastern Conference is improving with the likes of the Magic and Knicks and how the teams at the top like the Celtics don’t look to be falling off anytime soon. The Cavaliers have established, veteran players but need to find the best way to harness their varying skills and strengths and break through and become serious NBA Finals contenders. And that won’t be easy given the Cavaliers’ current roster construction.

    Both Mitchell and Darius Garland are undersized guards. Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley are big men that take up a large amount of space in the post and, as of yet, Mobley hasn’t developed an outside game that will allow him to score reliably away from the basket. So with both men in the game the paint is a very crowded place to operate. The Cavaliers also lack a dynamic wing that can create, which is a staple of the most successful NBA offenses in this era.

    Speaking of roster construction, the offseason is shaping up to be an interesting one for the Cavs’ backcourt. There have been ultimatums bandied about that if the Cavaliers do sign Donovan Mitchell long term that Darius Garland would then demand a trade. In the past, Garland has shown that he has the ability to score at a high volume, but this year injuries certainly impacted his game after having his jaw wired shut and losing significant weight. Yet, even after returning and having time to collect himself, DG’s game simply was not there. In the playoffs, with Mitchell either hurt, hobbling or exhausted (from being the team’s only real scorer) Garland could only manage 15.7 PPG on 14 shots per game. As a comparison, with Joel Embiid not playing his best for the 76ers, Tyrese Maxey averaged 29.8 PPG to carry his share of the scoring for his team.

    As sad as it may be to admit, the Cavaliers’ futures rides on the decision of Donovan Mitchell alone. The dismissal of J.B. Bickerstaff is proof enough of that. While Garland is a good player, if the choice is between him or Mitchell, that isn’t even really a choice. If the Cavaliers are going to have any real success in the future, Donovan Mitchell is realistically the only one who can be relied on to take this team on his back and get the job done.

    Turning to the early potential candidates to replace Bickerstaff going forward, the names floated so far include David Adelman, Nuggets assistant, Frank Vogel, former Pacers and Lakers head coach, and even podcaster JJ Reddick. Whichever coach is hired, the Cavaliers will look a lot different in the 2024-2025 season and if Mitchell is still on the team the ultimate challenge will be putting the right pieces in place to give him what he needs to make a deep playoff run. Continuing to develop Evan Mobley on offense should be a top priority. He is certainly capable of scoring at a high volume as game 5 in the playoffs showed us all this year. If Isaac Okoro can somehow be coaxed to bring a consistent shot to bear, he could be a crucial piece in the lineup given his ability to lock down the oppositions’ best players on defense.

    There is plenty of uncertainty for this team in the months to come, and so much depends on the long term signing of Donovan Mitchell. If he stays with the Cavaliers and they hire the right coach, they have the players to take major steps forward. But until then there are many pieces that have to fall into place, and at the moment it’s a game of “wait and see.”

    Hey readers… have an opinion about sports? How about a topic you’d like to see written about in Loveland Magazine or a thought about one of our articles?

    Just need to vent and get out your frustration about the Reds, Bengals, or any other sports issues?

    Feel free to share with an email to LovelandSportsGuy@gmail.com!

    We would love to hear from our readers, and we thank you for your support and engagement.

    Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.