For most NBA teams, starting the season 3-5 is something of a concern, but seeing as how there are 82 games in a regular season, it’s not the end of the world. But the Cleveland Cavaliers are not most teams, so their 3-5 start to the year has been the focus of intense scrutiny from basically everywhere.
Among the list of people trying to diagnose Cavaliers’ issues is Cleveland native Charles Oakley, and he thinks he knows the exact moment where things went wrong for the franchise.
To Oakley, things went awry when the team got rid of Kyrie Irving, which prevented the team from having a star next to LeBron James. For that reason, this year’s squad reminds Oakley a lot of the Cavaliers teams from LeBron’s first stint in Cleveland.
Cle Cavaliers problem is it's back to the LeBron early career he's the superstar in lot of role-players Kyrie was The X Factor
— Charles Oakley (@CharlesOakley34) November 2, 2017
You can make the argument that this year’s roster is better than any of the ones that LeBron had from 2003-10, but as the league has become more star-centric, having a team that doesn’t have a few stars is something of a death knell. The team has Kevin Love and Isaiah Thomas, but the former has his limitations and the latter is still sidelined as he’s recovering from his hip injury.
Beyond that, Cleveland’s roster is composed of a bunch of (admittedly good) role players. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and there are still 74 more games before the postseason starts, but if Oakley’s diagnosis is correct, it’s something that can’t be resolved with the team’s current roster.
