LeBron James: Why Doesn’t He Just Take Over?
By Evan Massey
Why doesn’t LeBron James just take over for the Cleveland Cavaliers with their early struggles?
The Cleveland Cavaliers are off to a rough 1-3 start to the season, but that type of start is to be expected with 10 brand new faces on a roster. It’s never easy for a team to come completely together right off the bat with that many new people, and especially not when they are trying to figure out how to balance having three stars on the roster as well.
Despite their slow start, LeBron James has chosen not to take over games and win them by himself, but rather to trust his teammates and continue being a playmaker for them.
Why has James decided not to just take games over by himself and try to win them single-handedly for his team?
Check out James’ statistics throughout the Cavaliers’ first four games so far this season:
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/6/2014.
Quite simply, he understands that the Cavaliers are not going to win a championship if he’s the guy that has to take over every game and win it by himself. He’s more than capable of doing that here and there, but that is not the way that the Cavaliers want to win basketball games.
James has had to win too many games by himself throughout his career, and he realized down in Miami that he couldn’t do it alone. This past year in the NBA Finals was a prime example of that, as both Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh practically disappeared and the San Antonio Spurs were able to dismantle the Heat and embarrass them. Cleveland has plenty of talent to win games as a team, and James sees that potential.
Unfortunately, getting the entire team to buy into that system might be a bit difficult for James. There have been reports that there is some unrest already growing in the Cavaliers’ locker room, and that Kyrie Irving and James have already had a conversation about the struggles. Conversations are a good thing, but the unrest and disappointment will continue adding up if the Cavaliers are unable to get themselves back on track soon.
Cleveland is going to need James to be a bit more aggressive down the stretch of game, even though his desire for teamwork is a mature one. The team will continue coming together with more experience, but until then they need their star power to carry them. Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving are trying to change up their game to fit in with having two other stars around them.
Not only are the stars trying to figure out how to change their games a bit, the bench group is trying to figure out how to play with their new teammates and what their roles are going to be.
There are a lot more factors involved with the Cavaliers’ early struggles than record suggests, and they will come out of the early struggles just fine. Cleveland has way too much potential on the roster to keep struggling too much longer. Many are making arguments that the team has had preseason and practices to prepare with each other, but nothing is the same as a legitimate NBA game in the regular season.
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So with all that being said, there are plenty of reasons why James isn’t just taking games over. Does he need to be more aggressive when his team is in a tight game down the stretch? Absolutely. As the best player on his team, it is his duty to do everything he can and have the green light to close out the game down the stretch.
While these are all concerning issues right now for the Cavaliers, they won’t be around too much longer. The players are smart enough to figure out how to play in the first few weeks, and there aren’t many teams in the league that have more total talent. Cleveland’s bench could step up a bit, but the chemistry needs to improve first and foremost.