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Will J.R. Smith Be A Locker Room Problem For Cleveland Cavaliers?

The Cleveland Cavaliers acquired J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert on Monday night, but what makes the Cleveland think either player will be any better with them?

Basketball is as much about ego as it is about talent. While you need the talent to even get in the door in the NBA, you also need swagger to spare if you’re going to stand out in the league. There are different levels of swagger potency though, as some have enough to be stars and some have too much and become saturated with it to the point where it’s off-putting.

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J.R. Smith firmly falls under the latter category, and that’s something that has some Cavaliers fans nervous as they wake up this morning knowing he’s now a part of the roster.

Smith was acquired along with Iman Shumpert on Monday evening in the massive Dion Waiters trade, but there are many wondering how well that will all end up panning out. Speaking of ego being needed in the NBA, David Griffin displayed some in acquiring two problem children from the New York Knicks with the idea that they’ll be better in Cleveland simply just because.

Shumpert isn’t so much a character issue as he is an injury issue, which is both in and out of his control. The major knock on J.R. Smith is that he’s as capable of scoring 30 points in a game as he is being a total clown and getting himself fined, suspended or benched.

That was New York though, this is Cleveland. While that’s an incredibly arrogant statement to make, that’s the message the Cavaliers are trying to send by acquiring Smith. He may have had his problems in New York — so much so that Phil Jackson basically acquired a carton of milk and a box of crayons for him — but will they carry over to Cleveland?

There is one major difference between the situation in New York and the one in Cleveland though. While Carmelo Anthony and Phil Jackson are titans, LeBron James is a god and could be what J.R. Smith needs to straighten out. He’s burned bridges everywhere he’s gone, but having LeBron James around to keep him in check could be what J.R. Smith needs to return to being a Sixth Man of the Year type player.

Cleveland needs J.R. Smith to buckle down and buy into the system. His addition comes at a risky time for management, as there is the idea that players aren’t sold on David Blatt and adding a potentially toxic player to the mix could blow up in David Griffin’s face.

J.R. Smith isn’t a player to hide his feelings, and if there is resentment towards Blatt when Smith arrives, the fear is he’ll buy into that and be a problem.

That’s the worst case scenario though, as Smith is an incredible talent, and there is no way he arrives in Cleveland without LeBron James signing off on it first — which his the vote of Smith needs to turn his season around and return to the player he once was, not the clown he tends to be.

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