The Cleveland Cavaliers have been playing fantastic basketball lately, winning nine of their last 10 games thanks in large part to LeBron James' brilliance. With two wins over the East-leading Toronto Raptors in recent weeks, the Cavs' chances of winning the East for a fourth straight season are looking better and better. 

But while the Cavs are currently focused on trying to get another ring, they'll have just as big of a challenge later this summer when they try to convince LeBron James to stay. The rumor mill surrounding LeBron's free agency has been mostly quiet lately, but there is certainly enough buzz about him moving elsewhere for the Cavs to be worried. 

With that in mind, it's interesting to listen to ex-Cavs GM David Griffin's recent appearance on Adrian Wojnarowski's podcast. Griffin was talking about the summer of 2014, when LeBron made the decision to return to Cleveland, and said that it caught the Cavs off guard. They "didn't believe for a second," that LeBron would return that summer, Griffin said. Via The Woj Pod:

"We didn't believe for a second LeBron was coming back at that point. We really believed he was going to take at least a year and figure out if we could build in a positive direction or not. Remember, I told you all those stable coaches were questioning what we were going to be able to do and whether we had a mix that could win. So I certainly thought LeBron, the absolute basketball savant of basketball savants, was going to take his time and watch us from afar and try to decide whether he could trust our process. And we were really blessed that he chose to buy in right away, but it certainly changed the dynamic in a way that if we had foreseen that it was that legitimate he was coming back we certainly would've done something different at that juncture."

That the Cavs weren't expecting LeBron to return has been hinted at before, but it's interesting to hear Griffin come out and say it so definitively. 

The rest of Griffin's discussion, in which he talked about signing David Blatt as coach in expectation of having a young, rebuilding team, is also another reminder of the difficulties of free agency. Sometimes you can get burned chasing after one player and missing out, but other times you can start putting plans in place and making decisions too early, only for another opportunity to fall in your lap.

Once again, the Cavs will find themselves in a similarly tricky position this summer, as they try to figure out whether or not LeBron will be sticking around.