LeBron James “won’t hesitate to make the appropriate business decision” following 2014-15
December 30, 2014
Ram Jam: Cleveland State Falls to VCU
December 30, 2014It was pretty well expected that the Cleveland Cavaliers would experience some growing pains on the court in the first half of this season. With ten new players (tops in the league) and a first-time NBA head coach, there were bound to be some head-scratching and off nights. Look no further than Sunday against Detroit and December 17 against Atlanta. With a .600 winning percentage against the 12th toughest strength of schedule (third most difficult among winning teams all while playing in the East), the Cavaliers are still on pace to win 49 games and grab the fifth seed at this rumbling, bumbling, stumbling pace. With a reasonable expectation of marginal improvement in the second half of the season, this team would win about 55 games and be in the discussion for home-court advantage in the first round.
With all of this being said, the whispers have started and the hot takes have started baking regarding David Blatt’s job security. Among them are Brian Windhorst and Marc Stein’s report on Monday that depicts Cavalier players that are tuning out Blatt, instead having a better line of communication with lead assistant Tyronn Lue. Aside from that, LeBron James has been a little cryptic and cold at times with his responses regarding decision making and strategy.
“I’m past those days where I have to ask,” James said earlier this year regarding the potential for going off-script.
As bad as the Cavaliers looked on Sunday and have similarly looked at some dark, effortless moments of this early season, I challenge you to show me a team that is clearly better than the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference or is likely to be come playoff time.
As bad as the Cavaliers looked on Sunday and have similarly looked at some dark, effortless moments of this early season, I challenge you to show me a team that is clearly better than the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference or is likely to be come playoff time. Despite Toronto, Atlanta, Washington, and Chicago all having better records at this point, the Cavaliers have beaten each of them through the first 30 games (Toronto twice), and they are 5-3 overall against the top four seeds. That’s not to say that any of these teams aren’t capable of taking out an off-guard Cavalier team, but I wouldn’t bet against playoff LeBron against those teams.
Which brings us to the crux of the issue: LeBron James. This isn’t to say that James is the only reason that the Cavaliers are underperforming, far from it. However, James doesn’t seem overly concerned about the state of his team right now. I use that phrasing intentionally, and I don’t mean it to sound as if James doesn’t care. This is LeBron James’ team. Any dissension from the head coach’s objectives, any appearance of giving up, any rift among the ranks would start and end with No. 23. This team was assembled in this manner only because of LeBron James. With that comes plenty of burden and responsibility, but it’s not something that James shies away from, nor should he.
My theory, right or not, is that LeBron’s “chill mode” is more real than most of us realize. James has been through this before, the team-building, the necessary bumps in the road to forge a team for the playoffs. He recalls being the alpha and the omega in five previous playoff runs here in Cleveland. He also remembers how each of those ended: without a championship with LeBron absolutely drained from carrying the star burden alone. James doesn’t have to do that now with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. However, these two have only played meaningful basketball for USA Basketball in their professional careers. It would make sense for James to encourage those two to take a heavier role in these formative regular season games. So far, I’ve been very impressed with Kyrie Irving’s effort from start to finish at both ends of the floors in games. He’s working to get others involved early, and he’s not afraid at all to take shots late in the game even with James on the floor. Kevin Love has gotten off to some nice starts and is pulling down rebounds, but I’ve been disappointed in his performances in the second, third, and fourth quarters as well as his interior defense and defensive rebounding. Love is dependent upon perimeter players to feed him in the post and run pick and rolls with him, and that has to improve too.
We all know the bench, filled with veterans, has been short and disappointing as well. I could go on and on, splitting out blame sector by sector. What it shows is that the cause for success or failure can be and usually is so much more than a head coach.
From the moment Tyronn Lue was added to the staff as a highly-paid assistant, as a friend of LeBron James and finalist in the coaching search that led to Blatt, it was inevitable at the first sign of trouble that his name would come up. Lue’s study under Doc Rivers and Tom Thibodeau’s defensive teachings are intriguing, but we’ve yet to see them break through with these Cavaliers, sitting at 22nd in defensive rating and 25th in defensive field goal percentage. As many on Twitter pointed out, the pick and roll approach differs vastly from Lue’s background, so perhaps it’s a need for more of Lue’s fingerprints on that side of the ball.
The Cavaliers have had three different coaches in three seasons. Outside of Gregg Poppovich and Doc Rivers, nearly every NBA coach is doubted on an almost annual basis. Because of that and the high turnover, this is undeniably a players and a stars league. Erik Spoelstra didn’t suddenly become an average coach when LeBron James left anymore than he became an elite coach while LeBron was there.
This isn’t to Blatt off scot-free, however. Improvement starts with Love’s involvement on offense. The Cavaliers rank fourth in offensive efficiency, 11th in assists, and fourth in free throws per field goal attempt, but Kevin Love’s performance is tapering off after the first quarter. The Cavs need to prevent Love from just becoming a spot-up shooter in the latter portions of the game. That means, offensive movement must continue throughout. More pick-and-rolls and less isolation1. Depending on Lue’s current involvement in the defense right now, he needs to be handed the keys if he doesn’t already have them. Finally, Blatt must work on finding a consistent rotation as best he can. That’s going to be easier said than done, given the roller coaster performances at shooting guard and the injury to Varejao. Riding the hot hand occasionally is fine, but overuse of that strategy might put players on pins and needles that they may get the quick hook for a miscue.
This is a players’ league. Shuffling coach for a fourth time in three years will only cause instability. David Blatt’s been a winner everywhere he’s went. It’s time for the Cavalier players to acknowledge that if they haven’t already and give the effort to match it.
- That’s a two-way street, Blatt has to call it and LeBron and/or Kyrie have to not break off the possession. [↩]
23 Comments
http://www.arcticblubber.com/gallery/d/725-1/55822231.jpg
Why is he dressed like Rex Ryan?
Dear Jesus,
While I completely understand there are millions of people starving in the world, injustices around every corner and blatant violations of civil liberties occurring but I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you for helping Kirk write this article of actual sanity.
Amen.
1. LeBron is definitely in COMPLETE #chillmode. This is not 2010 Miami in which he went every game at 130%, was completely gassed by the finals when he got run by the Mavs and felt the world crash down on him. He’s not going to do that again.
2. This team is losing because of it’s defense which we ALL KNEW WAS GOING TO BE ATROCIOUS.
3. This team is missing two starters in the last two games and lost. WOW.
But none of these are good enough headlines for ESPN.
Seriously what happened to Windhorst? Did he binge on Crispy Cremes, fall into a diabetic coma, and now someone else is sending on garbage reports with his name on it?
In the fear of perpetuating more of this, I even feel badly reading (and now commenting) on such drummed up garbage.
That’s is, and always will be, a resounding NO.
#Chillmode is unacceptable when you’re down one Varejao and one Kyrie.
He can “chill” at another time, but for now he is expected to lead this decimated team. (I figure out of 15 players, Varejao is out and Kyrie is half-out, so that makes 10%)
+1 on chill mode. He’s definitely letting the kids figure it out, and he’s willing to have the team look bad at times to send the message home. I mean, he has off games too sometimes, but there’s no question he’s both saving his energy and forcing the other players on the team to learn to play together. He mentioned bad habits several times early in the season, and standing around watching the superstar play is one of them.
Not even a little!
A professional athlete shouldn’t have a chill mode period.
Michael Jordan approves this post. Looks at LBJ…
The Spurs seem to make it work quite well.
The only quibble I have is that missing Varejao is something that should have been entirely predictable and accounted for. The organization seems to have been trying to bring in a defensive presence to help out, but they had to have known that when Varejao inevitably missed a huge chunk of games, the defense was going to be absolutely pitiful.
This isn’t an “aw shucks, we lost” with Varejao out. This is a huge problem that needs to be solved. I’m not sure if even Popovich could get this roster to play enough defense, so I’m not putting much on Blatt, but they’ve got to do something.
Chillmode is acceptable at any point before mid-April. They’re frustrating to watch, but these games simply don’t matter enough. What’s unacceptable are the signs that they might not be able to ramp it back up when the playoffs start.
Cavs and Spurs aren’t even close to a comparison.
I was reading Sam Amico’s take on the situation (he may not ever break a story, but at least he’s measured and reasonable in his thoughts) and I was struck by something he wrote:
“Back in 2010, the same website that wrote about Blatt’s supposed problems with the Cavs wrote another story: It was about Heat coach Erik Spoelstra’s supposed problems with his own team (which also included LeBron James). The story read almost exactly the same. The Heat, to that point, had underachieved a little. The speculation was that Heat president Pat Riley would fire Spoelstra and coach himself. It never happened. Instead, Spoelstra led the Heat to four straight Finals and remains Miami’s coach today.”
It led me to take a little a little history tour of the mothership’s 2010 Heat coverage. I found these amusing, given the outcome: (and “bumpgate” is an especially tasty morsel of media hype)
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/truehoop/miamiheat/news/story?id=5862172
http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/index?id=5875356
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamiheat/post/_/id/1807/spoelstra-watch-alert-level-bumped-up
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamiheat/post/_/id/1860/the-heat-cant-afford-to-coddle-lebron-james
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5864576
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamiheat/post/_/id/1843/is-d-wade-calling-for-an-iso-offense
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamiheat/post/_/id/1821/whats-behind-wades-struggles
Agreed 200% on the “it’s December and Andy is hurt” contingency plan completely not in place for this year.
Even with Varejao our interior defense was worst in the league.
This problem only gets solved through trade.
Through trade you say? Yes and here’s what is gonna hurt; Dion is your most valuable trade chip but also your most productive bench scorer.
Teams know this. David Griffin here’s your barrel, bend over please.
I’ll worry about #chillmode if he’s still cruising after the all star break.
+1,000,000
Like I said; “David Blatt Finding Way in NBA Season” is nowhere near the click generator headline that “DAVID BLATT ON HOTSEAT AS CAVS TEAM BEGINS TO TUNE HIM OUT”.
Good thing the Cavs’ GM isn’t a legendary former coach!
Dump Waiters and his sub-replacement play for the first competent big man you can get your hands on. Pay for his busride out of town. I’ll be shocked if you can get anyything even useful for him.
I don’t think I was comparing the Cavs and Spurs. Just demonstrating that a chill mode is a perfectly acceptable plan for some NBA teams. The Cavs may not be one of those teams, but having a chill mode isn’t unacceptable across the board, period.
Maybe I should have referred to this Cavs team.
Wow! That’s funny. I’m ready to fire Blatt right NOW!!! But before I fire Blatt, where’s David Griffin? You know, the guy who could have stuck with a youth movement for Blatt but gambled everything instead. Blatt needed a young team to coach, instead he got Lebron James and Kevin Love in “chill mode” chucking up 3 point bricks w/ the team following. No matter who’s on the court, the look is uncoached and undisciplined, like a pickup game. In the offseason, Griffen should have stocked the team w/ affordble, yet physical and nasty 4 & 5’s. Instead, he lets go of HAWES and Zeller with no replacements! What?!! Andy V should have been traded years ago, but once Bron Bron comes to town, we sign him to a 3 year extension?!! I cringe every time I see Trisan with a Cavs uniform on!!! This team needs tough love and fast! They need to fire Blatt ASAP and either promote coach Lue or see if Mark Jackson would come in. Secondly, that George Karl as team President is sounding REALLY good right now. Third, it’s time to deal away some of Lebron’s over the hill buddies and bring in hungry players that will frankly make him feel uncomfortable, i.e. Lance Stephenson. Jame Jones?!! LOL You have a young Center sitting on the bench that is a real “5” that could really help in Alex Kirk but he never gets played! Why? Because Blatt likes playing small ball out on the perimeter that doesn’t work here and is getting us killed! No real Center and nothing inside the paint, just living and dying by 3 point bricks! OH MY!!!