LeBron James is the most powerful person for the Cleveland Cavaliers on the court and he is the second most powerful person off the court. That might be a surprise to some, it might not be to others but either way you slice it, LeBron’s power on the Cavs can not be ignored.
He returned to the team last summer and ever since then, he’s taken it upon himself to keep the Cavaliers on their toes, year after year. He’s doing these one-plus-one contracts to keep the Cavs constantly improving and the team has done so since his return.
They’ve made trades to bring in big pieces like Kevin Love, J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert and big man Timofey Mozgov. They kept Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love after speculation that they would leave town in the summer of 2015 and they even brought in some grizzled veterans in Mo Williams and Richard Jefferson to play some pivotal minutes for them this season.
How much of that was solely based on Cavs general manager David Griffin? I would assume a lot of it but considering LeBron has been getting consulted for personnel moves since his return, it comes as no shock that LeBron’s importance to the team can only be trumped by their owner, Dan Gilbert.
Following from Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report.
That is certainly how a recent ESPN The Magazine pictorial portrayed him. It presented James as a hands-on CEO, doing everything from rewriting the playbook to identifying and recruiting talent.
Griffin fully concedes that James is the most powerful person in the organization aside from owner Dan Gilbert. “He’s going to have the biggest voice, he’s the most important, accomplished player in the league and he’s an absolute basketball savant,” Griffin says. “He has the most thorough understanding of X’s and O’s on the floor and best mind for the game off the floor of any human being I’ve ever known. Coach, front-office person, anything. It would be crazy for me not to consult with him on what we want to do.”
Griffin, though, takes exception with the idea that James runs the entire franchise the way a puppeteer would a marionette. “The idea of him dictating things is not how he is,” Griffin says. “That [ESPN] article puts him in such a terrible light. It is not a factual representation of how he’s carried himself. It’s just not.”
LeBron is the man in Cleveland and despite his ailing back, he will remain the main in Cleveland until he decides to hang it up, hopefully also in Cleveland.
The Cavaliers are hurting right now and in a bad way but somehow they find a way to continue to win. The moves made in the offseason can be attributed to both LeBron and Griffin because without Kyrie Irving, Iman Shumpert and now without J.R. Smith, the team has found ways to win and remain a top contender in the Eastern Conference. Just wait until they’re fully healthy.
