There are plenty of people who think the Cleveland Cavaliers are favorites to win the Eastern Conference.
LeBron James, once again a Cleveland Cavalier, isn’t one of them.
Ahead of the Cavaliers’ preseason matchup against the Chicago Bulls, LeBron declared that his opponents were the better team right now, per ESPN.com’s Brian Windhorst.
“[The Bulls] are a team that’s much better than us right now just off chemistry,” he said Monday. “They’ve been together for a while; we’ve got a long way to go.”
Say whaaaat?
This has become typical behavior for the King, who probably doesn’t even want us to call him the King anymore. Since returning to the Cavaliers, he’s been a proponent for patience and process. You won’t catch him guaranteeing championships or postseason success. You won’t even catch him promising Quickens Loans Arena’s stadium mustard won’t suck something awful. He’s been cautious optimism personified, attempting to taper expectations at every turn. And why? Because the Cavaliers have yet to lose in excess together.
Here’s more:
“You’ve got to go through something to create a bond; that means for the worse,” James said. “We’ve got to lose ballgames that we think we should’ve won, we’ve got to get into an argument every now and then just to test each other out.”
James is speaking from experience. When he joined the Heat in 2010, that team struggled significantly out of the gate and started the season 9-8. There were chemistry issues and there was friction in the locker room. After that difficult first month, however, the Heat won 21 of 22 games and ended up reaching the Finals.
He’s not predicting such struggles for the Cavs in the early going, but he said Monday that he’s expecting adversity.
“It has to happen. I know it is going to happen,” James said. “A lot of guys don’t see it, but I see it. That’s the only way we’re going to be able to grow. You don’t define yourself during the good times, you define yourself through the bad times. That’s for the players and the coaching staff, as well.”
Sounds like LeBron is trying to motivate his teammates—specifically Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters and Kevin Love, who have never been to the playoffs or performed under this bright a spotlight regularly. If his teammates sense doubt, perhaps they’ll step up. And so, LeBron has given them a hint of doubt, refusing to buy into his own, basically self-built superteam, proving himself ultraconservative, barely recognizable from the mid-20s bombast-bundled kid that bolted for the Miami Heat.
On Monday, against the Bulls, it appears LeBron’s doubt fueled a winning fire. The Cavaliers won 107-98, overcoming an offensive explosion from Derrick Rose. But while the win was satisfying, LeBron won’t be singing the praises of his team anytime soon.
Process. Patience. These are the words he values most nowadays.
Publicly downplaying his Cavaliers comes first. Accepting what we all know to be true—that Cleveland is fated for juggernaut-dom—comes a little later.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com.
