What is wrong with Cleveland? While We’re Waiting

Happy Tuesday WFNY!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas/Holidays. I had a great time spending a week with family back in my hometown. From a sports perspective, however, it hasn’t been a great couple of weeks since my last WWW.

This is truly the plight of the Cleveland sports fan. We start with a foundation of hope, we build expectations, we get the slightest glimmer of optimism, and then the hammer of doom and dysfunction comes slamming down on us, crushing our skulls into pieces and shattering us as a fanbase into numerous sects.

I guess we can start with the Browns. The Cleveland professional football team was 7-4 this season. Sure, it was a weak schedule and the Browns were lucky to win a couple of those games, but still, in the NFL every win counts. Seven and four. And then, like Cinderella changing back into her simple rags at midnight, the team transformed back into the Cleveland Browns down the stretch losing five straight amidst injury, turmoil, and controversy.

Sigh.

It’s all so freaking familiar. I wrote back when the Hoyer/Manziel debate was red hot that this was my biggest fear. And now it’s become reality. The Browns are now back to a situation where it feels like the team is improving, but they are still a rudderless ship without a QB. It’s frustrating.

But if we go back to the start, I said everything begins with a foundation of hope, so it’s time to start rebuilding that foundation. There are many positives from this season. Most of the Browns’ starters are pretty good. I would say the starting units, not counting QB, are above average NFL quality. The problem is depth. Every team in the NFL has injuries. You need depth to be able to overcome them and not let them sink your team. The Browns need to upgrade the right side of the offensive line, they need a top WR who can stay eligible to play, and they need a QB. Beyond that, I think building depth is all that is needed.

I don’t know if the Browns will find their QB next year or not. But I’m tired of being angry, frustrated, and embarrassed. So I’m choosing to focus on the fact that as poorly as the season ended, this 7-9 season was still a massive improvement. Next year the Browns can come back healthy and motivated (and hopefully without some teammates who are nothing but distractions and embarrassments to themselves, their teammates, and the fans) and build on this foundation.

As for the Cavaliers…..

It was a tough week for the Cavs. Losing Anderson Varejao creates a hole that cannot be filled by anyone currently on the roster. That much is abundantly clear. But the thing is, it’s not like the Cavaliers were playing great basketball, particularly defensively, even with Andy. And as frustrating as the Christmas day loss to Miami was, that was nothing compared to getting destroyed at home by the Pistons. What on earth is going on?

It’s so easy to just shrug your shoulders, throw your hands in the air, and say “This is so Cleveland”. And in some way, it does kind of feel like LeBron leaving just sucked the air out of the franchise and now that he’s back, there’s no more air left to breathe. It reminds me a bit of The Office. When Jim Halpert left the Scranton branch to get away from Pam Beesly, it changed the dynamic. And then when Jim returned to Scranton, he was there in body but not in spirit. He may have been back in the Scranton building, but he was with Karen, not Pam.

When Jim and Pam finally had their heart to heart to discuss their past, they had the following exchange:

Jim: The real reason I went to Stamford is because I wanted to be… not here.
Pam: I know.
Jim: And even though I came back, I just feel like I never really.. came back.
Pam: Well I wish you would.

And that’s how I feel about LeBron James right now. I wish he would come all the way back. Because right now, it sure doesn’t feel like he’s all in on this team. He said a lot about bringing his experiences with Miami to Cleveland. Perhaps he meant that more literally than we realized.

If you recall, when LeBron went to Miami, the Heat struggled early and word started leaking out of LeBron’s camp about his frustrations with Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. History is repeating itself. Now we’re suddenly hearing reports that LeBron isn’t connecting with David Blatt. There’s one key difference, though. The Heat had Pat Riley to stop the controversy before it even started.

The Cavaliers look like cowards with the way they have and continue to undermine Blatt’s authority as coach. It started when they brought in the runner up to Blatt, Tyronn Lue, and made him the highest paid assistant in the NBA. And guess what? Some of the players seem to be gravitating to Lue instead of Blatt. And now when rumors are swirling about the Cavaliers’ front office’s “concern” about Blatt’s ability to reach the players (after only two months on the job), where is the strong organization to put out these fires before they burn uncontrollably? All it takes is picking up a phone, calling their friends in the media that they leak info to, and telling them not only are the rumors of their concern not true, but there is absolutely NO WAY the Cavaliers will be making any changes at head coach.

That’s it. With that, the rumors go away, the media stops asking questions about it, and LeBron and the rest of the Cavaliers will have to rally around Blatt. That’s how Miami handled the situation. Yet the Cavaliers seem to be allowing this to fester and grow. And I suspect that’s because they might really be concerned. And I’m not sure they know how to handle this situation. Cleveland teams don’t excel at being patient and building up the authority of their coaches. They don’t have the resolve of someone like Pat Riley to tell the players to, more or less, stop complaining and start listening to their coach.

If anyone thinks David Blatt can’t coach, they are fooling themselves. But it takes more than the coach. The players have to buy in and listen to him. They have to respect the coach and they have to trust him. Respect and trust have to be earned, though. Yet it’s hard to build those qualities in just a couple of months. That’s why everyone says catchphrases like “these things take time”. It’s because they do. Everyone seems to have let their own expectations spiral out of control. And so now, suddenly 18-12 doesn’t feel good. Even though they were 10-20 a year ago. And 7-23 the year before that. And 13-17 the year before that. And 8-22 before that. You get the point.

Sure, having LeBron, Kyrie, and Love raised expectations, but so many players on this team playing significant minutes were on those lousy teams. Kevin Love comes from a history of lousy teams. You have to learn how to win and you have to build chemistry as a team and you have to develop trust in your coach. And all of those things take time.

I don’t think the Cavaliers are going to fire David Blatt any time soon. That’s not really my issue. My issue is with the way the organization has allowed these rumors to swell. That’s what bothers me. It makes them look like a weak organization, bending to the will of their players because they are scared of losing them. I wish there was someone, anyone in the organization who could sit down with LeBron and tell him he needs to at least try giving his coach a chance. Run his offense, learn his system. LeBron came here to be a leader and lead this franchise to great heights. If he buys in, everyone else will follow.

I haven’t seen much leadership from LeBron, though. I would argue we’ve seen more leadership from Kyrie Irving in his willingness to acquiesce the offense to LeBron and to commit himself more on defense. Meanwhile, we’ve seen half hearted defense from LeBron while even admitting himself he has been in “chill mode”. Is that what he learned in Miami?

I don’t say all this because I don’t want LeBron on the Cavaliers or because I wish he never would have come back. Those things aren’t true. I’m ecstatic he’s back. I just want him to come all the way back. I want the real LeBron James, not this weird version of himself that we’ve seen so far. It just doesn’t feel right.

When LeBron went to Miami, he played that bizarre villain role for his first season. Maybe he’s just not good at adapting to new teams. It took him time to adjust, and maybe now he’s just struggling to re-adjust to being back home. And that might just be another one of those things that take time. LeBron will be fine. The Cavaliers will be fine. That’s the foundation of hope that I’m clinging to right now.