LeBron Riles Front Office After Cavs Slump
The Cavaliers are slumping. Plain and simple. They’ve lost eight of their last sixteen games, beginning with a 16-point rout from the Detroit Pistons. In their last ten, they’ve lost six. It’s simply uncharacteristic of them. In light of it all, LeBron James has gotten rather vocal. And if there’s anyone who knows when something’s ailing his team, it’s King James.
This past Monday, the Cavs fell to a New Orleans squad that didn’t even have its best player, Anthony Davis. After the game, James had some sharp words about his team’s struggles. “We top-heavy as s–t,” he said. “We need a f—ing playmaker,” he continued. “It’s been a s—ty 2017 so far.”
The following day he tweeted this:
“I not mad or upset at management cause Griff and staff have done a great job, I just feel we still need to improve in order to repeat…”
In a separate interview that same week, Cavs GM David Griffin told The Vertical: “If you don’t capitalize on the years he has left, then shame on us.” And honestly, he’s right. James just turned 32 on December 30. He’s not getting any younger. Remember what happened last time the Cavs couldn’t bring someone in to help him out? ‘The Decision’ happened, and he left. I’m not saying that’s going to happen this time around. In fact, there’s really no way he will leave Cleveland. But it just speaks volumes to the dilemma this team faces.
Let’s look at the numbers. The best teams in the league right now, record-wise, are the Warriors and the Spurs. They’re also two of the deepest teams in the NBA. It is no coincidence that each has seven different players averaging more than two assists per game. The Cavs? They have two: LeBron and Kyrie Irving. Without depth, they won’t be able to beat the Spurs or Warriors through four quarters. They’ve simply got to improve.
Here’s perhaps the most telling indication of the Cavs’ needs: last year LeBron is averaging 37.6 minutes per game. That is the highest in the league. And Kyrie’s 35.2 minutes aren’t much lower. Compare that to the Spurs and Warriors. Kevin Durant is averaging 34.2 minutes a game; Steph Curry, 33.5. The Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge are the only players on the whole team playing more than 30 minutes; that’s 33.5 for Leonard, and 32.3 for Aldridge. Meanwhile the Cavs are wearing down their best players at an unhealthy rate. They’ve got to be aware of that.
LeBron said it best when he said this:
“For the most part, all championship-contending teams has got guys that are ready to step in. Knock on wood, what if [Irving] goes down? For two weeks. Let’s say two. What if I went down for three weeks?”
In the last three seasons since LeBron’s return, Cleveland has gone 4-18 without him in the game. If Irving went out? They’d be toast as toast gets. Now here’s the rub. The Cavs are committed to $127.5 million in salaries and $27 million in luxury taxes for 2016-17. That is the highest payroll in the league. Moreover, they have spent more than any other NBA team over the three-year span. So it’s clear that team owner Dan Gilbert has been committed to building around King James since his return.
This past Wednesday, GM Griffin said, “”The comment about the organization being complacent I think is really misguided. Organizationally, there is absolutely no lack of clarity on what our goal set is. We are here to win championships… Anyone insinuating that this organization is about anything other than that would deeply upset me because ownership has invested in this at an absolutely historic level.”
And he’s not wrong. The Cavs are on the brink of spending the most money in the history of an NBA team. In fact, they were two deals shy of being among the New York Yankees and LA Dodgers in highest spending teams in American sports history. So Griffin is right; ownership has invested in the Cavs at a historic level.
Gilbert echoed those sentiments when he said, “We’re committed. We’re all-in. … When you invest in something like a sports franchise and you’re in for so much … [if] you, at the margins, start pulling back, I think that may be foolish on a lot of fronts.” So it’s not for want of more awareness. This team has their eye on the ball. But it’s got to be the right ball. They’ve got to find the right players.
A slump is a slump. And the Cavs are going to find ways to win through it all. They’re still heavily favored to win the East and return to the Finals. Their top three players are playing at high levels game in and game out. But there’s got to be more support from the bottom up.
Add to that the emerging story of Carmelo Anthony, and you’ve got one heck of a question mark for Cleveland. This past week, the Cavs rejected a proposed trade by the Knicks that would have exchanged Melo for Kevin Love. Good thing Cleveland rejected it. Kevin Love has been an integral force for this team. He leads them in rebounds. He’s a solid presence as a shooter and down low. What they need is another big man. And sure, maybe a player to come off the bench and make plays. But giving away Kevin Love would not solve that problem; it might even make it worse.
So where does that leave LeBron and company? Well Griffin met with James and separately with the team as a whole. They’re addressing the issues. They’re thinking about it, weighing LeBron’s comments and concerns. In the mean time, the current players just need to get better. Plain and simple. And Tyron Lue has got to figure a way to balance the minutes. Otherwise his stars will really be sweating come playoff time.
