One way or Another, The Cavs are in Trouble
The Cavaliers have had a rough start to 2017. A 5–8 stretch is not a good mark for any team, but it’s much worse for a team as talented as Cleveland. There is a lot of drama surrounding the franchise and its cornerstone player LeBron James. In the last two weeks, James has publicly expressed his distaste with the team’s recent play and its roster. Following a loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, the Cavs forward told reporters, “I don’t got no time to waste. I’ll be 33 this winter and ain’t got no time to waste.” Tensions are rising in Cleveland, and the Cavs have both short term, and long term issues that they created for themselves.
Coming into the season, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers came to an understanding that he should play less minutes throughout the season. This was a good idea considering James has played an immense amount of minutes over the course of his career, and the Cavs want to ensure their best player is at full strength come playoff time. That has not been the case as this season has approached the all star break.
Here is a look at LeBron James’ minutes per game numbers each month.
November: 35.8 mpg
December: 38.4 mpg
January: 39.0 mpg
As you can see, LeBron’s minutes have only increased this season. That’s a number the Cavs did not want to deal with when the season started. Right now, James leads the NBA in minutes per game playing almost 38 minutes every contest.
Head coach Tyronn Lue hasn’t had much choice but to play James the most minutes since his return to Cleveland in 2015. In the three games James has missed for rest, Cleveland is 0–3 with a -34 point differential. For as much talent as Cleveland has, it’s alarming that they can’t seem to get a win without their leader.
The Cavs not being able to win without James is the main issue owner Dan Gilbert and GM David Griffin face. It is highly unlikely the Cavs repeat as champions if James is forced to continue to play the excessive amount minutes he has thus far in the season. James realizes this possible reality, which explains the recent outbursts. But one has to wonder the effect it has on the morale of the rest of the roster.
If you’re a player on the Cavs, and your leader, who expects you to play hard every game, sounds off to the media about how the team isn’t good enough and there needs to be changes, how would you take it? Not having a back up point guard can lead to struggles, but that is nothing compared to the possible turmoil of James acting like all of his teammates are disposable if they don’t perform.
There’s another problem the Cavs face. Owner Dan Gilbert has allowed James to take control of the entire operation in Cleveland. This has lead to the team leading the league in payroll by a considerable margin.
Cavaliers Payroll: $127,519,873(1st)
Clippers Payroll: $114,740,032(2nd)
Salary Cap: $94.14 million
The Cavaliers have the highest payroll by about $13 million. The issue with paying that much to players is the luxury tax. Teams are allowed to spend more than the salary cap, but the owner has to pay a tax based on the amount they go over. The Cavs and Clippers are the only teams paying the luxury tax, but the Clippers only pay about $1.5 million. Cleveland is over the tax line by about $14 million. So when James goes to the ownership group telling them they need to spend more on the roster, I wouldn’t be surprised if they resisted.
The long term problems the Cavs face can be mostly attributed to their decision to give James power. “The Chosen One” has not given much thought to the Cavs future while involved in the organizations decision making process. One example would be when Tristan Thompson received a max contract after a long standoff with the organization. Thompson was not worth max money at the time, but he and James, who had the same agent, forced the Cavs to give up way more money than they should have.
This is not the only instance where James has crippled Cleveland’s cap flexibility. This past summer, James became the highest paid player in the NBA signing a contract worth around $30 million per year. You’d think after never taking a pay cut in his career, James might have enough money to help his team’s payroll issue by taking a deal not so big. But hey, complain about the Cavs not having enough talent to repeat when you just took the largest contract in NBA history.
Thanks to the questionable decisions made by LeBron James, and Cleveland’s front office allowing it in fear of losing the star player again, the Cavs have both short term and long term problems to deal with. If they acquire a back up point guard to satisfy James’ desires, they should hope that the rest of the roster doesn’t take the media outbursts too personal.
Then, as their best player continues to age into his mid 30’s, the Cavs will not have any money to spend on more pieces to help the team’s chances at beating the league’s elite. This is when I think the relationship with James and the Cavs will go sour. When James can’t carry the team anymore, I doubt he’ll accept the fact that owner Dan Gilbert doesn’t want to spend any more money.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are in serious trouble. If James continues to play as many minutes per game as he has been, I doubt they win the title this year. Once James is too old and run down to perform at the highest level, he and the Cavs front office will notice the damage of their decisions. I wouldn’t be surprised then if James leaves Cleveland for a chance at more championships. Then the Cavs would return to the NBA’s cellar with no draft picks or cap space.
