LeBron James is a confident individual and it is easy to see why. He is the best player and centerpiece of the reigning NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers, and without him, the franchise certainly would not have claimed the 2016 title. However, James’ team is struggling mightily, at least by their standards, right now and there is tangible doubt concerning Cleveland’s stranglehold on the Eastern Conference.
On Thursday, James did what he could to dispel that worry, indicating to Cleveland.com that he believes the Cavs “have a good chance to win it all.” That isn’t news in and of itself because, well, Cleveland obviously has a chance to win the title. LeBron went on to shed a bit more light, though, and projected a bit of intrigue on the situation. James, when prompted about the recent struggles, reportedly said, “I’ve got the answer. I’m not giving it to you. But I’ve got the answer why I feel like we’ve got a great chance.”
This is eerily similar to Tyronn Lue’s declaration that he had something of a secret plan to fix Cleveland’s defense. Sure, it could be a lot of smoke and mirrors from both men, but in the same breath, it seems quite likely that the Cavaliers have something in the tank that they have not deployed down the stretch of the season, especially when it comes to preventing the opposition from scoring with regularity.
There is only so much LeBron James can do on his own to aid in Cleveland’s resurrection from struggling squad to full-blown championship contender. With that said, everything revolves around LeBron within that organization and, until the Cavaliers fall to an Eastern Conference opponent, it seems relatively safe to pencil the team into the NBA Finals. As we saw less than a year ago, anything can happen at that point.
