This season hasn't gone the way that the Cleveland Cavaliers expected; it likely wasn't even on their bingo board altogether. Nonstop injuries eating away at their rotation and ultimately taking two of their stars off the court for weeks on end? That wasn't in the cards.
Not having their entire team on the court turns hard questions into impossible ones. This was the year when the Cavaliers, fresh off spending in free agency to add shooting at multiple positions, were supposed to take another step forward. If they didn't, then the stumbling block was supposed to be identified and removed.
Now the Cavs have to make that analysis without seeing the data. Would they have taken that step forward if they hadn't been so injured? Perhaps, but perhaps not. With key players marching ever-closer to the ends of their contracts, the pressure on this season continues to increase even as the Cavaliers' ability to release it diminishes.
Which questions do the Cavaliers need to answer?
Some questions will need immediate answers, such as what they do with Ricky Rubio's contract and whether to guarantee the contracts of Sam Merrill and Tristan Thompson. Those are simple enough to make even in the midst of chaos.
The larger questions, however, are both significantly more important and substantially more difficult to answer this year. Even so, the Cavaliers have to answer them or hope punting them to later in the year or next season doesn't prove to be a massive mistake. Even not deciding is a decision.
With that stressful context in place, let's look at three impossibly hard questions that the Cleveland Cavaliers need to answer.