When LeBron speaks, Cavs usually listen

When All-Star/general manager/de facto owner LeBron James makes an announcement, the Cavaliers usually rush to service him like a butler afraid of losing his job.

James made one of those 6.9 on the Richter scale announcements after the Cavaliers lost, 124-122, to the New Orleans Pelicans on Jan. 23.

“We need a (expletive) playmaker,” James told a captivated group of reporters after the game.

It would seem that there was

enough playmaking and not enough defense if the Cavs scored 122 points and still lost, but the point is the King has spoken and when the King speaks, David Griffin, the real general manager, usually listens. Just ask David Blatt.

James never outright demanded Blatt be fired as Cavs head coach a year ago, but it was abundantly clear LeBron was not president of the David Blatt fan club.

Ironically, the coach that replaced Blatt, Tyronn Lue, can stand up to James. Lue said he learned while playing for Phil Jackson and the Lakers by observing how Jackson would get on Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal when necessary.

“You always want to try to improve your team, no matter if you’re great or not,” Lue said on Jan. 25 before the Cavs game with the Sacramento Kings. “Golden State won 73 games last year and they added Kevin Durant. You always want to

get better and we see teams getting better, but we have enough on this team to win a championship.

“If we can get better, I know Griff is going to make us better. We have a good team. We just have to start playing better. No excuses.”

James toned down his rhetoric on Twitter the next day, but his message was the same; the Cavaliers as currently constructed are not good enough to repeat as NBA champions.

“I not mad or upset at management cause Griff and staff have done a great job,” James tweeted. “I just feel we still need to improve in order to repeat if that’s what we wanna do.”

It was a smooth move by James — keep the pressure on management while coming across as sympathetic to Griffin’s plight.

The NBA trade deadline is 3 p.m., Feb. 23. Griffin can’t simply go on Craigslist and click on the Point Guard category to find help for the Cavaliers very thin backcourt — a backcourt made thinner by the thumb injury to J.R. Smith.

The Cavs are in this situation

because they let Matthew Dellavedova go to the Milwaukee Bucks in free agency and because just before the start of training camp Mo Williams decided to have knee surgery. Williams never played this year and has since been traded to Atlanta for shooting guard Kyle Korver.

The Cavaliers’ payroll is a league-high $127.6 million. In addition, team owner Dan Gilbert owes another $27 million in luxury tax.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are reportedly interested in trading point guard Ricky Rubio, but he is making more than $14 million and since the Cavs are already thin on the bench it would be difficult for Griffin to conjure a trade that would satisfy Minnesota even if money wasn’t a factor.

“(The Spurs) have bodies,” James said during his rant in New Orleans. “For the most part, all championship-contending teams have got guys that are ready to step in. Knock on wood, what if (Kyrie Irving) goes down? For two weeks. Let’s say two. What if I went

down for three weeks?

“I don’t know what we got to offer. I just know me, personally, I don’t got no time to waste. I’ll be 33 in the winter, and I ain’t got time to waste. I just hope that we’re not satisfied as an organization.”

James has played in the NBA Finals six straight times – four with the Miami Heat and the last two with the Cavaliers. His Heat teams won the title in his middle two years in Miami and the Cavaliers beat Golden State dramatically in seven games last June.

James is chasing Michael Jordan’s ghost, he has said more than once. Jordan is alive and well. James is referring to Jordan’s basketball ghost and the six championships Jordan won with the Chicago Bulls.

Playing in the Finals six straight times and winning three championships means James also lost three times. He knows that ghost will be harder to catch if the Cavs come up short again.