The Cleveland Cavaliers dropped their most embarrassing game of the season to the Detroit Pistons on Sunday afternoon, which begs the question of who is to blame for the current mess?
When LeBron James was signed this offseason and Kevin Love was traded to the team not long after that, it seemed that this was a team that could coast through the season and then turn it up in the postseason. There is little doubting that the Cavaliers will get to the postseason, but there is a lot of doubt as to how far they can realistically go.
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If they were in a series with the Detroit Pistons right now, they’d be down 0-1, which is a problem seeing as the Pistons only have seven wins on the season and are not going to the postseason. The Cavaliers embarrassing 103-80 loss to the Pistons on Sunday afternoon his a final straw sort of moment that will either spark the Cavaliers to make some changes to get better or watch them continue to be complacent in their losing ways.
So who is to blame for all of this losing the Cavaliers are enduring at the moment? It’s easy to point a finger at the defense as a whole, but there are specific holes in the roster that need to be filled and things will start to get better.
For starters, a rim protector is needed right now. There’s no waiting for the trade deadline or the NBA Draft in the spring — the Cavaliers need to find a rim protector now or they will not win an NBA title. This was a flaw we all saw before the season started and exactly what we feared would happen is currently happening.
Secondly, the bench needs to improve and get more rounded depth, and that starts with possibly trading Dion Waiters. He’s the most valuable trade chip that the Cavaliers have and he’s such a hot and cold player that he’s not worth having for the bad nights. He was utterly useless against the Pistons and if he goes cold in the playoffs it’s not going to be pretty.
David Blatt should also be very worried about his job. The likelihood that the Cavaliers fire him are still low, but he’s coaching the team into the ground and can’t get things together. It’s not that he’s a bad coach or has bad schemes, it’s that he’s not being a leader so much as he’s being spectator who can’t do anything about the things going wrong. Blatt needs to step in and become a head coach, as his team is falling apart and at the end of the day, it’s going to fall on Blatt and LeBron — and Cleveland isn’t getting rid of LeBron.
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