Who had the Cleveland Cavaliers holding a team meeting to hash out their issues fewer than 10 games into the season?
Those of you who did, congratulations! You’ve won! I don’t know what you win. Maybe a high five or something. Perhaps just the feeling that comes with being right. Because you were right.
Head coach Tyronn Lue said his team needed a meeting before November closed out, per ESPN.com’s Dave McMenamin:
Ty Lue said the Cavs started practice Tuesday with a full team air-it-out meeting before doing film and court work
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) October 31, 2017
This doesn’t reek of overreaction. Really, it’s typical Cavaliers stuff. They go through a malaise, look something close to vulnerable, talk about their issues behind closed doors and, soon after, return to expected form. This certainly isn’t the first slump they’ve endure, and it will by no means be the last.
Rocky stretches are part and parcel of the LeBron James experience. Expectations are sky high with him in the fold, and anytime the Cavaliers feel to live up to that standard, some folks will allege the walls are closing.
Right now, the Cavaliers are most definitely failing to meet the bar set for them. They’re 3-4, with three consecutive losses to the Brooklyn Nets, New York Knicks and New Orleans Pelicans. And not only does their defense fall inside the bottom five of points allowed per 100 possessions, but their offense barely cracks the top 15 of efficiency, according to NBA.com.
Counting on the Cavaliers to figure things out is a relatively safe bet. Again, they have LeBron James. And much of their rotation is new to one another. But they’ve entered cruise control a bit too early, it seems, so confronting their crappy start head-on makes a ton of sense.
Now we get to see whether this team meeting lights a fire under their collective butts.
