Fun fact: a LeBron James team hasn’t been under .500 this late in the season since his rookie (2003-04) year. That’s mind-boggling when you consider the personnel in Cleveland. A recent report from Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com sheds some light on their interteam snafus, and reveals that Cavs players have been openly questioning — to opponents even — the tactics employed by first-year head coach David Blatt — he who was ushered to the sideline last night in a somewhat aggressive move by ‘Bron.
Windhorst, who has covered James for years, goes through the growing list of issues with the Cavs, and highlights how far they’ve fallen since preseason prognosticators made them title favorites before the season began. Then, he wrote the below gem, which can only make the sideline seat of Blatt that much squishier:
It isn’t just the casinos that are agape at how this is playing out — the Cavs were 4-15 in their past 19 games against the spread coming in to Tuesday — so are league scouts, executives and rival players.
They see players appearing to run different plays than the bench calls, see assistant coach Tyronn Lue calling timeouts literally behind Blatt’s back during games, and hear Cavs players openly talking about coaching issues with opposing players and personnel. Not once, not twice, but frequently over the past several months.
For weeks now, the small talk when league personnel run into each other at college games, airports or pregame meals has frequently started with: “What the hell is going on in Cleveland?”
Whoa. Lue, the de facto associate head coach who was in the running for the top job before GM David Griffin and owner Dan Gilbert chose lauded European coach Blatt, is calling plays behind Blatt’s back from the sidelines? This comes after LeBron’s basically hijacked the offense, preferring his usual spot as a point-forward rather than mixing it up in the post.
There’s also the weird offensive struggles of Love this season, where it can seem sometimes like he’s wasted in Blatt’s LeBron’s system.
We’ve already detailed Love’s issues on defense, which have percolated to the surface on occasion, specifically last night, but it’s his offense that had one veteran NBA coach Windhorst spoke with, bewildered:
“I’ve seen Kevin fall down with the ball more times this season than the rest of his career combined because he’s always in positions where he’s uncomfortable and he’s forced into trying to make some sort of move to get a shot, and that has never been his game. They almost never put him in position to get the ball that he did in his last few years in Minnesota and I can’t figure out why.”
Thankfully, Kyrie Irving hasn’t made any headlines recently with regards to the coach, but to insert J.R. Smith into this boiling situation likely does nothing to ameliorate the situation.
The Cavs, losers of their last six, and nine of their last 10, are one of the worst defensive teams in the league, and the turmoil between the players and their coach continues to simmer. Once it reaches a boiling point, management’s sorta kinda backing of Blatt could likely wan, and Lue might be calling plays out front.
Do this year’s struggles with a new coach sound familiar? They should. James and Erik Spoelstra often appeared at odds when James first arrived in Miami, and everybody was wondering when Spoelstra would get canned so Pat Riley could move back downstairs and onto the sidelines.
But James and Spoelstra weathered the storm and won two titles while going to the NBA Finals in four straight seasons. LeBron eventually learned to trust the helmsman, and while there’s precedent, it’s still unclear whether he will come around on Blatt, too. Right now, a title isn’t even on the radar in Cleveland; the Cavs just need a win to stop the bleeding.
In the meantime, we’ll continue to rubberneck as the Titanic inches closer to the iceberg.
(ESPN.com)
Will the Cavs implode before its all said and done?
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