The Cleveland Cavaliers are struggling in the opening movements of the 2017 NBA season. They can’t defend, and injuries have kept them from being at full strength right away.
But LeBron James says the team isn’t waiting around for Isaiah Thomas to come back and make everything better. In fact, he said the Cavs can’t rely on any one player to make things right.
“We can’t rely on just one person,” James told reporters on Thursday according to ESPN. “We can’t rely on just one person for us to be as good as we want to be, whether it’s IT or myself or Tristan [Thompson] being out. We have guys who have to step up.”
One thing James stressed to reporters is that the team is not waiting around for Thomas to run the point and make everything better. That’s an astute observation when it comes to Thomas’ notably lackluster defense, but LeBron says it’s more than that. Thomas will not be a savior once he finally plays for the Cavs, and LeBron thinks that’s perfectly fine, because the team doesn’t want him to join the team before he’s fit.
“To be honest, I don’t think it’s too much expected [of Thomas],” James said before shootaround Thursday morning, ahead of the Cavaliers’ game against the Houston Rockets. “I don’t think we’re relying on IT to come back. We want him to take his time. When he feels he’s ready, he’s going to fit right in.
It’s a good perspective to have, but it also means the fix needs to come with the Cavs’ current roster. LeBron says that no one player can fix this Cleveland team, and right now he’s carrying a lot of the load to mixed results. How a team suddenly stops playing the worst defense in NBA history is not really clear, but it probably starts there if you want to fix this thing.
