Anyone who believed the Cleveland Cavaliers would have it easy contending for the title this season were either kidding themselves or didn’t pay attention to the Miami Heat’s arc earlier this decade.
However, despite plenty of basketball still left to be played, it’s hard to ignore some of the concerns the Cavaliers already face.
When you watch Cleveland play right now, you get flashbacks to LeBron James’ teams in his first go-around with the Cavaliers. That’s not what he signed up for.
This was supposed to be a young, budding team with two superstars in Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love flanking him and easing his burden as he reached the end of his prime.
Instead, it’s a team that constantly needs James to save it – just like they did in his first tenure. But James can’t bring this team deep into the playoffs by himself, let alone to a championship
.
For one, James is older, with plenty of minutes logged on his indestructible body. He’s averaging his second-lowest scoring mark
with 25.2 points per game. Only his rookie season saw him score less. He can’t produce 40 points every fifth game like he seemed to do so effortlessly in his first stint with Cleveland.
But he’s also smart enough now to recognise he can’t do it solo. He changed as a player during his days in Miami and it’s not a coincidence that he won two titles because of it.
Even if he could score 40 every fifth game and bail out this team, he wouldn’t because while it may lead to some wins in the regular season, it’s a foolhardy approach in the playoffs.
So he needs help, that much is clear. You can’t blame Irving, who’s shooting a career-high 47 per cent and still averaging over 20 points per game.
He’s picked his spots and carried the scoring at times, although it’s been more as a one-on-one player in isolation which is not how James wants the offence to function. Still, Irving hasn’t been the problem.
It’s easier to point at Love for being a disappointment. He was supposed to be a perfect second superstar ready to play for a contender after years of toiling away on a dead-end Minnesota team.
But Love’s offence hasn’t translated surprisingly, while his defence has been predictably poor. There have been moments when James has appeared visibly upset with Love because of a missed rotation or box out.
Love even sat out the entire fourth quarter of a recent game against the Orlando Magic, with coach David Blatt citing defensive match-ups as the reason.
Still, even with all the issues that plague Cleveland at the moment, they have the talent and most importantly, they have James. It will just take some time, maybe more than first anticipated.
The Heat were able to reach the NBA Finals in their first season and then win the next two because they had veterans that understood what it took and played defence.
Even so, they went through the gauntlet and had ups and downs. So if that Miami team needed time, it makes total sense that these Cavaliers are less on a crash course and more on a steep learning curve.
A championship looks unlikely this season and it might not even come in 2016, but winning one is hard. No one knows that better than James.
If nothing else, this season will allow the rest of his team to understand that.
