After a tough two-week stretch, the Cleveland Cavaliers are either putting one over on the fans, or are deeply entrenched in struggles that have debilitated them, losing 5 of their last 7 games.
While the NBA season is around the half-way mark, it seems the Cavs have regressed and are now struggling to put together a great win, worthy of an NBA champion.
Let’s remind ourselves that an NBA championship is a difficult thing to win. Repeating an NBA championship is very rare. So it doesn’t surprise many that during the “dog-days” of the NBA season there will be adversity and challenges to overcome. Throw in injury and you have the perfect storm – one that must be dealt with swiftly.
It was just a shave more than a year ago that the Cavs were in almost the same situation, resulting in the replacement of David Blatt as head coach by Tyronn Lue.
The Cavs cannot fire their head coach again can they?
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No, that would scream of desperation and uncertainty. What the team is going through is the injury bug and trying to assimilate a new player into their system mid-season.
Everyone that reacted to the trade that brought Kyle Korver to the Cavs just two-plus weeks ago were optimistic from the steal by Cavs general manager David Griffin.
However, save for one 18-point performance on January 13, Korver has been somewhat ineffective off the bench.
But the two glaring reasons why the Cavaliers are struggling are because of the need of a backup point guard capable of making plays for himself and others, and a big who could be a backup rim protector.
Add the Cavs poor defensive struggles since the Christmas showdown against the Warriors and you have a multi-faceted issue that needs attention on a number of fronts.
Will the tirade that LeBron James went on after a disappointing loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on the road be enough to get David Griffin to pull the trigger on a potential deal? Or will Griffin just patiently wait for his opportunity to pounce on another teams desire to rid themselves of a player that doesn’t fit them?
Another question is why haven’t the Cavaliers been playing their up-and-comers? Point guard Kay Felder and scorer Jordan McRae have contributed in a number of games. Isn’t the regular season when you would like to get them playing time?
The goal heading into this season was to reduce the minutes of the Cavs “Big Three”, so this would make sense.
Either way, with the trade deadline nearing, will there be a blockbuster trade or possibly a free-agent addition to the team to help with the playmaking duties, freeing up James and Kyrie Irving so they don’t have to play so many minutes?
The NBA trade deadline is February 23, 2017 at 3 p.m.
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When do you think the Cleveland Cavaliers will turn their season around? Let us know in the comments section or Twitter @KJG_NBA.