The Cleveland Cavaliers are in the midst of their worst stretch of basketball since the first half of LeBron’s first season back in Cleveland in 2014.
They have lost six of their last 10 games and hit a new rock bottom for them after losing 124-122 to an 18-27 Pelicans team that was without their star player Anthony Davis.
This level of play is unacceptable for the defending champs and their leader, LeBron James, let it be known that he is unhappy with the state of the roster at the moment.
Here is an excerpt from a story by Jason Lloyd of the Akron Journal Beacon after Monday night’s game:
“We’re not better than last year, from a personnel standpoint … we’re a top-heavy team,” James said, adding a few minutes later, “I just hope that we’re not satisfied as an organization. I just hope we not satisfied. How hard it was to do that s—. I just hope we’re not satisfied….
“I don’t got no time to waste,” he said. “I’ll be 33 in the winter and I ain’t got time to waste. That’s what I’m talking about. … When I feel like physically and mentally, me personally, can’t compete for a championship no more or I feel like I can’t do it, then I won’t have this problem. But until that happens, and it don’t seem like no time soon…”
LeBron has a point, the team is in dire need of a veteran backup point guard and playmaker as Kyrie Irving was forced to play 42 minutes last night, scoring an incredible 49 points in the process. The Cavaliers have been relying on inexperienced and frankly unprepared guards DeAndre Liggins and Kay Felder to play spot minutes at backup point guard.
The problem with the Kyle Korver trade is that the Cavaliers are now unable to trade any first round draft pick until 2021. With a salary of $130 million, a huge tax penalty on the way for Dan Gilbert and almost no trade-able assets that aren’t a huge part of their core, the Cavaliers basically have nothing to deal in any potential trade for a backup point guard.
It seems as though they will either have to make due with what they have or pick up the likes of Mario Chalmers, who is hopefully recovered from his Achilles injury, and hope he can contribute.
The Mavericks may hold the key to the Cavaliers being able to repeat as NBA champions. If they happen to buyout Deron Williams and embrace a youth movement, the Cavaliers would be able to rent him for the rest of the season and would have the piece they need to fill their biggest need.
