What's wrong with the Cavs
AT the start of the season there was plenty of speculation and anticipation about how the new look Cleveland Cavaliers would fare in this year’s 2017-18 NBA season.
The departure of Kyrie Irving left a void, but many hoped that it was nothing that Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder and the mercurial Derrick Rose could not fill.
Things were understandably bit rocky at the start of the season but they were on a roll in October and November.
The return of Thomas from an injury was touted to be a soothing salve to their woes, but the opposite has now happened.
The Cavs are 3-7 in their last 10 games, and their past three performances were the most worrying.
They lost to their rivals Golden State Warriors, barely got past the lowly Orlando Magic and got massacred by the retooled Oklahoma City Thunder, giving up 148 points! What’s wrong? AGENDA. It seems like Coach Tyrone Lue’s cryptic comment a few games back about everyone needing to forget their agendas sheds light on what’s happening.
Thomas is apparently in search of a multi-million dollar long term contract and to secure that, he needs to get his shots and score.
But at 5’8’’ he’s a liability on the defensive end and you could see that in the loss to the Thunder where Russell Westbrook just repeatedly went past him to the hoop like he was
wet laundry flapping in the wind. Plus, there’s no chemistry on the floor. Kevin Love has not been getting his touches and he’s terribly undersized at the center position.
JR Smith has griped about initially losing his starting position at the 2 guard position and has not been playing well.
And if you want to talk about agendas, if you are to believe the rumors it seems like Lebron James has one of his own too.
It’s not too late as the Cavs can always move and trade players in order to fix the problem and the deadline is still on Feb. 8.
They need a rim protector and a beast on the defensive end.
There a couple of prospects on the horizon, one of which is De Andre Jordan.
They could always let go of Tristan Thompson or even Kevin Love in exchange for another franchise player like Anthony Davis.
But you see, to sweeten the deal most teams apparently also want the Cavs’ 1st round draft pick next season and this is where the agenda issue finds application.
It was rumored that team owner Dan Gilbert wants a commitment from James that he will remain so that he can rebuild a team around him because if James is leaving then there would be no point in that.
The question is whether or not to trade for players that would help James win that championship this year or if James is leaving anyway, and things are not salvageable then they can opt to hang on to that 1st round draft pick and move on to the postLebron James era.