Cavs News: LeBron James Thinks Team Is ‘Very Fragile’
By Evan Massey
LeBron James is concerned with the Cleveland Cavaliers and believes that the team is fragile.
When the Cleveland Cavaliers signed LeBron James and then acquired Kevin Love from the Minnesota Timberwolves, many immediately crowned them as the favorites in the Eastern Conference. That hasn’t been the case through the first 12 games of the season, and they are only 5-7 and are coming off of a terrible choke loss to the Toronto Raptors.
Following the loss to the Raptors, James talked about feeling that his team was fragile and voiced a lot of concern.
"“We’re a very fragile team right now. Well, we were a fragile team from the beginning. Any little adversity hits us, we just shell up. That’s something that will come with experience.”"
"“This is not even the lowest it’s going to get for us. You guys know, the lowest it can get is up 17 in the fourth quarter of Game 2 of the Finals and losing. It can get that low. Or being up 2-1 and going to Game 4 and lose three straight in the Finals. That’s very low. So, I’m very optimistic. I’m very positive. More positive than I thought I would be right now, so, we look at what we did wrong, things that we did well and get ready for Orlando coming in on Monday.”"
There are plenty of reasons to support James’ claims that the Cavaliers are fragile, and there may not be a way for them to fix things without making a move or two.
Quite simply, the coaching has not been all that good and it has been obvious that James isn’t happy with David Blatt so far. The bench has been even worse, and there is absolutely no depth beyond the starting lineup outside of Dion Waiters and Tristan Thompson. Add on to those points that the stars haven’t been playing well together, and the Cavaliers are in a world of hurt early on this season.
James and company have plenty of time to right the ship, but there is a lot of work to be done. They need to start with figuring out how to get “The Big Three” playing well together, and then the bench has to be improved.
Waiters needs to figure out how to play his game coming off of the bench with the second unit, and he has to up his scoring. Thompson needs to take more of a leadership role as well, and his offense will need to improve along with Waiters to give the Cavaliers some type of a bench scoring effort. Mike Miller was expected to be a big pickup, and the Cavaliers need him to figure out how to get back to being a legitimate scorer and shooter.
Most importantly, Kevin Love needs to figure out how to fit in with the new situation that he is in. He has struggled so far with the new role that he has with two other superstars beside him, and simply hasn’t been able to put up the type of production that many expected to see from him this year.
Neither James or Kyrie Irving have played their games either, and there is a lot of inconsistency coming from the players who were supposed to lead the way to get the Cavaliers on track.
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Needless to say, things are not going well early on for Cleveland and they need to figure out their identity soon. They don’t have a ton of time to waste if they truly want to make a run at being the number one seed in the playoffs, and that opportunity may not come even if they turn things around immediately. That being said, it’s too early for the Cavaliers to think about the playoffs with the way that they have been playing.
If the Cavaliers want to get back on track now, they’ll need to consider making some major changes. Whether that means making a trade or bringing one of their stars off of the bench with the second unit and allowing them to play more aggressively, Blatt needs to figure out what changes to be made. There is a lot of concern surrounding the Cavaliers’ organization right now now, and rightfully so.