but i have lost all respect for the dude. but the mess in cleveland is not lebron's entire fault - it starts with ownership. you just don't give the keys to an egomaniac. lakers are paying the price now and the cavs could get burned big time...

http://espn.go.com/blog/marc-stein/post/_/id/3445/cavs-enter-2015-at-boiling-point

The Cleveland Cavaliers just should have waited.

Dan Gilbert never should have hired a coach in late June if he thought he had even the faintest hope of luring LeBron James back to his home-state Cavs in July.

But Gilbert didn't wait.

The Cavs' impulsive owner rushed out to hire David Blatt to keep him away from Steve Kerr and the Golden State Warriors, soon discovered he had more hope for burying hatchets with James than anyone in Ohio had ever dreamed, and now finds himself staring at two rather unappealing options ... provided, of course, that Gilbert is prepared to take a proactive role in preventing LeBron's less-than-storybook homecoming season from careening even further out of control.

Gilbert can opt to ...

(A) Step in front of the mounting criticism being aimed at his superstar, take the heat for sending Blatt away and then seek James' input in searching for a coach who, for starters, can get a more attentive response than Blatt's been getting. Something closer to the natural sequence of events, in other words, that Cleveland needlessly denied itself in the summer by hiring Blatt first.

Or ...

(B) Go to LeBron and tell him that changing coaches not quite halfway through Blatt's first season is nonsensical and embarrassing and that it's time to get behind the guy immediately. It's frankly a conversation that's near impossible to imagine Gilbert and LeBron having, given how much power King James wields as we move into 2015 and the fact that these two are in the embryonic stages of rebuilding their partnership, but it's a message someone needs to convey to the NBA's newest 30-year-old -- and quickly -- for the Cavs to have any hope of preventing Year 1 of The Return from descending into total farce.

When Cavs owner Dan Gilbert handed David Blatt the reins, the team didn't yet have LeBron James.
The Cavs are obviously in dire need of better health and roster reinforcements, too. LeBron himself finally acknowledged Wednesday that the sore left knee which, to this point, has prevented him from actually playing his first game as a 30-something "has been hurting pretty much all year." Yet it's likewise clear that this group, which often looks lifeless if not all the way fractious even at full strength, isn't going to get close to championship contention this season unless the Cavs pull together and start scrapping.

This goes way beyond the flammable video that surfaced in the final hours of 2014, which appears to feature LeBron plotting with Dwyane Wade right after their Christmas Day showdown in Miami about reuniting in the near future. (LeBron's official explanation can be found here.)

Far more troubling than that instantly viral interaction, whether or not you buy the explanation, is the way LeBron has so openly shown little interest in Blatt's authority so far.

On Monday, ESPN.com's Brian Windhorst and I reported that the Cavs are growing increasingly concerned about Blatt's ability to reach this team.

The whispers about LeBron tuning out in huddles or freelancing offensively, in circulation for weeks, have only grown louder since the story hit.

The volume didn't go down any, either, after James' alarmingly tepid endorsement of Blatt, when he responded to a question about the Cavs having the right coach by saying in part: "Yeah, I mean, he's our coach. What other coach do we have?"

That's the same James who didn't hesitate to announce earlier this month that he alone decided to take on more playmaking responsibilities because he's at the stage of his career where he doesn't need to ask his coach for permission. The distinct impression he leaves, with each passing day, is that he does not want to be coached. At least not by an NBA novice.

Blatt, mind you, is by no means blameless here. He's indeed had his share of novice moments when it comes to game management, most notably in a high-profile home loss to San Antonio on Nov. 19. His offense has rarely flowed even when the Cavs had their full complement of players -- probably because folks in Europe say he's actually more of a defensive coach no matter what you read coming into the season -- and player complaints about his communication skills are already making the rounds. Most worrisome of all, Blatt hasn't yet found a way to integrate Kevin Love into this offense.

The roster holes GM David Griffin has been working to fill, furthermore, are well-documented. The Cavs were lacking on the front line even before losing Anderson Varejao to a season-ending Achilles tear. They still need a rim protector and more wing depth on top of the sudden Varejao void and the various injuries that have hampered James and Love and Irving lately.

But let's face it: Blatt has zero chance to succeed without the star's backing. No matter how good he is at his tactical best.

And that was always the worry here. Executives from rival teams have raved unreservedly about the 55-year-old Boston-area native's X-and-O acumen, but the fact remains that he showed up in Cleveland as a virtual unknown to every player of consequence on that roster. Doesn't matter, as one veteran GM told me in May, that Blatt just took a Maccabi Tel Aviv squad that "was outmanned at every position except coach" to a Euroleague championship that ranks as the second most prestigious club trophy in the sport behind the Larry O'Brien Trophy. The question with Blatt from the start was: Would NBA vets who don't care one whit about his international accomplishments buy into the new program?

Answer: Based on the available evidence, LeBron has not.

As part of Wednesday night's session with reporters to address the Wade video, LeBron seemed to acknowledge that it's incumbent on him to start setting a more positive tone, saying: "My tolerance for patience is not that great and it's something that I knew I had to work on. ... I try not to have my body language be as bad as it can be sometimes."

Among the Cavs' many issues, though, is the real possibility that no one in the organization possesses the requisite hammer to make him try harder. When we heard similarly widespread gloom and doubt about Erik Spoelstra's ability to lead the LeBron-Wade-Chris Bosh Heat in the maiden months of the 2010-11 season, Pat Riley and Wade were there to support Spo.

The job Blatt accepted, by contrast, unexpectedly became a win-now job three weeks later as soon as LeBron chose Lake Erie over South Beach. But Blatt's Maccabi hammer, regarded as somewhat Gregg Popovich-like in Euro circles, clearly never got close to customs.

Don't forget that the Heat also had LeBron under contract for a full four years at the time. That long-term security, as much as the fact he was Pat Riley, enabled Riles to essentially tell all of the Heatles to zip it and focus on figuring things out.

In Cleveland, LeBron and Love can (and will) become free agents in July. The Cavs have no choice but to do things LeBron's way.

It's thus incumbent upon Dan Gilbert, at the very least, to rush out as fast as he can in the new year to find out what James really wants. In an Eastern Conference that isn't so Leastern at the top anymore, with the likes of Toronto and Washington and sneaky-good Atlanta all looking like tougher outs than anyone imagined, Cleveland is running out of season to save faster than you think.

At the same time he came back, and underestimated how dismal the situation really is in Cleveland. He might need to go elsewhere. He can see love doesn't fit. He can see Irving is not s good team player. The rest of the roster sucks. Nobody is playing defense.

The real losers are the Cleveland fans. Lebron is their whole life. If he leaves again it won't be pretty. He's going to have to apologize and give free **** to the fans every time he goes there to play if he did decide to leave.

TripleThreat wrote:

EnySpree wrote:Lebron knows what he's doing.

Great player. Horrible de facto GM

Let's be real. Teams are built the way LeBron James wants them to be built, he has that power.

If he didn't want Love on that team, the Cavs would not have traded for him.

He went to Miami and signed on with no real center and no real depth. Blew up their cap space and all their assets. When the frontline of Duncan/Splitter and Diaw tore them apart, that was on him.

He went to a very incomplete team in the Cavs, albeit with young assets, but no center and poor fitting parts. His fault. Once he got there. They signed Mike Miller because he's LBJ's buddy but they were still short in the frontline.

A better player/de facto GM would have never gotten Love and instantly traded Irving.

You can be a great player but a lousy GM ( i.e Michael Jordan) Lots of the problem on that first run Cavs team was on LBJ. He got what he wanted, the player he wanted there.

Jordan hated Jerry Krause, but Krause was actually a pretty good GM. Sometimes players just need to play and spend less time trying to be kingmakers or the Jay Z of basketball operations.

I did say that at the same time he underestimated the situation in Cleveland.

Uptown wrote:

TripleThreat wrote:

EnySpree wrote:Lebron knows what he's doing.

Great player. Horrible de facto GM

Let's be real. Teams are built the way LeBron James wants them to be built, he has that power.

If he didn't want Love on that team, the Cavs would not have traded for him.

He went to Miami and signed on with no real center and no real depth. Blew up their cap space and all their assets. When the frontline of Duncan/Splitter and Diaw tore them apart, that was on him.

He went to a very incomplete team in the Cavs, albeit with young assets, but no center and poor fitting parts. His fault. Once he got there. They signed Mike Miller because he's LBJ's buddy but they were still short in the frontline.

A better player/de facto GM would have never gotten Love and instantly traded Irving.

You can be a great player but a lousy GM ( i.e Michael Jordan) Lots of the problem on that first run Cavs team was on LBJ. He got what he wanted, the player he wanted there.

Jordan hated Jerry Krause, but Krause was actually a pretty good GM. Sometimes players just need to play and spend less time trying to be kingmakers or the Jay Z of basketball operations.

You conveniently left out the part where de-facto gm-Lebron went to 4 straight finals and won 2 of them....Not to mention de-facto gm-Lebron's team beat the Spurs frontline the year before.... De-facto gm-Lebron has a better track record than 3/4's of the gms in the league....

Before I go to sleep, I check my closest for the boogeyman. Before the boogeyman goes to sleep, he checks his closest for Chuck Norris. But before Chuck Norris goes to sleep, he checks his closest for de-facto gm-Lebron.

Uptown wrote:Egomaniac= Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Lebron James, Charles Barkley, Shaquille Oneal, Isiah Thomas etc. There is a reason why Most egomaniacs are multi-champions and or League mvps.

Add Bird to that list

NardDogNation wrote:I've never seen people go to such lengths to disparage a player as much as they do with LeBron. Its way past ridiculous.

Agreed. Most of them are Jordan fans who secretly feel he's a threat to the throne. There are no public records of womanizing, gambling, going to jail, etc. Yet he's called dirt bag because he wants to win and doesnt trust inexperienced coaches. It is ridiculous as you say. Yet, Magic goes behind his coaches back to get him fired and its all good. Bird used to sabotage KC Jones set plays and go against his set plays during timeouts and he's praised for it by teammates during documentaries. Ridiculous indeed.

yellowboy90 wrote:

Uptown wrote:Egomaniac= Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Lebron James, Charles Barkley, Shaquille Oneal, Isiah Thomas etc. There is a reason why Most egomaniacs are multi-champions and or League mvps.

Add Bird to that list

BigDaddyG wrote:

yellowboy90 wrote:

Uptown wrote:Egomaniac= Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Lebron James, Charles Barkley, Shaquille Oneal, Isiah Thomas etc. There is a reason why Most egomaniacs are multi-champions and or League mvps.

Add Bird to that list

Yeah, it's just that Bird, Jordan and Magic were lucky enough to play during a time when social media was nonexistent. Imagine if every chickenhead Magic was with could post incriminating pics on Instagram or Bird's enstranged daughter could speakout on Twitter? You think JR is bad? Imagine if we constant updates on Charles Barkley and Jayson Williams back in the day?

Conversely if Social media existed back then, they probably

Wouldn't have taken as many chances as they did

Much the same in how people conduct themselves

On the road during times the cops are present and when they aren't

F500ONE wrote:

Uptown wrote:

NardDogNation wrote:I've never seen people go to such lengths to disparage a player as much as they do with LeBron. Its way past ridiculous.

Agreed. Most of them are Jordan fans who secretly feel he's a threat to the throne. There are no public records of womanizing, gambling, going to jail, etc. Yet he's called dirt bag because he wants to win and doesnt trust inexperienced coaches. It is ridiculous as you say. Yet, Magic goes behind his coaches back to get him fired and its all good. Bird used to sabotage KC Jones set plays and go against his set plays during timeouts and he's praised for it by teammates during documentaries. Ridiculous indeed.

There has been a couple recent drop about him and the ladies

Not good at all, but nothing way out of the norm

Doesn't have to be those extremes and Lebron is not infallible

This is his time and his era for the good and bad that comes along with what he is