Cleveland Cavaliers: LeBron James' leadership must improve

For the Cleveland Cavaliers to improve, LeBron James’ leadership must improve.

"“I control what I can control.”"

That statement has been uttered by LeBron James at various points throughout his second stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

However, the NBA’s most powerful player is either strangely unaware of what he can control or unwilling to take ultimate responsibility for a Cavs franchise built around him. A front office that caves to his commands as he has them hold their breath for fear of him leaving; the genius of James’ short-term deals.

As the Cleveland Cavaliers play the Blame Game amidst a season in free fall, one common denominator in the team’s struggles has been LeBron James’ lack of effort (especially in making defensive rotations) and the type of body language that sucks the energy out of the team.

There will always be those who say that the problem is that the Cleveland Cavaliers follow James’ lead and that his lack of effort on defense is one of the primary reasons that the Cavs don’t play hard on defense.

There’s a grain of truth to these statements in that James has the power to inspire his team. However, that’s certainly not always the case, as there has been many a time when James has seemingly been one of the only players who showed up to the arena to earn his paycheck.

On a team with eight new players, James’ effort and demeanor is undoubtedly off-putting at the moment and does little to make the team better. However, when you consider how jovial James was at the start of the season and the 1,883 minutes he’s played so far this season with 30.8 percent usage rate at 33-years-old, the players probably understand they’re seeing a frustrated and fatigued James.

The only statistical category James isn’t leading the Cavs in this season is rebounds per game. That blue ribbon goes to Kevin Love, who will be out for the next two months with a fractured hand.

More from LeBron James

It shouldn’t be confusing as to why James isn’t giving one hundred percent effort on every play or why his jump shot hasn’t been as effective of late. He’s getting tired and, having been the only full-time starter to play in every Cavs game, he needs a break. It’s also because he’s shied away from giving maximum effort on that end for years in favor of saving energy for offense and playoff runs.

In any case, James’ attitude (much like that of teammate Isaiah Thomas) isn’t doing much to help the team.

Unfortunately, while one would wish they didn’t rely on James’ energy, they play off of it more than they play off of each other. When he’s on the court pointing fingers, giving cold shoulders and barking commands at his teammates, they feed off of that for better or for worse.

For the most part, it’s been for the worse.

There’s a reason why not every player is running to play with James — besides the Golden State Warriors being the bully on the block. If you don’t have a personal relationship with him — and even if you do — his authoritative leadership style might rub you the wrong way as a player.

Especially during rough stretches of the season like these when the Cleveland Cavaliers need all the positive energy they can get, both individually and as a team.

James has indeed seemed frustrated with Thomas’ play on the court, just as he’s seemed frustrated with Love and other teammates over the years.

However, this frustration seems a lot like the situation between he and Love in their first season together, when it was clear there was little to no synergy between the two players on or off the court.

Luckily for Love, Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye arrived, serving as buffers for the two players’ relationship. No such buffer exists between James and Thomas.

If the Cavs don’t trade Thomas though — and they have until Thursday to do it — James will have to find a way to make it work with Thomas. That was the original plan anyways, when James seemed excited about the prospects of Thomas joining the team and being another perimeter playmaker.

The All-Star Break will be a much-needed break for the team. They need time apart; to assess themselves individually and their relationship with their teammates without having to see them in 48 hours.

James, the most important player on the team, will have the look in mirror. What he should see is a player that needs to adopt a different leadership style to boost the morale of his team.

Whether that means he needs to read, meditate, deactivate his social media accounts or any of the things he’s done alter his mindset before, only he knows.

It just needs to happen.