Less than a month away from the All-Star Break, the Cleveland Cavaliers are looking to survive an extended mid seasons slump. The losses are piling up for a team looking to make a fourth straight run at the NBA finals.
The Cavaliers have one of the league’s worst defenses, as it is prone to go through doldrums during critical parts of games. The lapses in defense cost the team in the second half of their Martin Luther King Jr. Day matchup with the Warriors.
The underwhelming performance on Monday night has become a bit of a pattern, and according to reports from ESPN, its beginning to cause some unrest within the team. With the trade deadline just before the All-Star break, the Cavaliers are losing confidence in the roster as currently constructed.
Following from Dave McMenamin,
Following the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 118-108 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Monday, multiple players acknowledged growing discontent and a strong sense of concern that unlike past seasons, the team does not have the capability to fix its problems and get back on a championship track.
Several prominent players, speaking on condition of anonymity to ESPN, Cleveland.com and The Athletic, expressed doubt that the problems — an aging roster, defensively challenged personnel and a glut of redundant role players — could simply be worked out through patience and a chance to coalesce when fully healthy.
On Wednesday, head coach Tyronn Lue refuted the ESPN story and chose to defend his roster saying they will be “fine”
“I know how good we can be,” Lue told ESPN. “Once we get healthy, minutes restrictions are off, guys are back, we’re going to be fine. And, you know, with the point guard, the head of the snake, [Isaiah Thomas], right now just trying to find his rhythm, get his legs, and we’re going to be fine. I’ve seen where people said ‘sources say,’ and I look down the roster and I don’t see no guy named ‘sources,’ so we got to talk to Koby [Altman] about getting another position or something. I don’t know, but we’re going to be fine. The guys are putting in the work. The last couple of games have been very positive even though we lost, so things are going to be fine.”
