If you follow the NBA even loosely, you know the Cleveland Cavaliers pretty much stink right now. They've lost eight of their last 10, including four straight, and over that four-game skid they're a minus-81 with LeBron James on the court. If LeBron can't save you, you're really in trouble. 

And it's not just that they're losing; it's how they're losing. Their defense is Sacramento Kings-level pathetic, 28th in the league per 100 possessions entering Wednesday. They lost by 28 to the Timberwolves last week. A few days later, they lost to the Raptors by 34. After those two blowouts, LeBron called the Cavs "fragile," and on Wednesday he offered up yet another thinly veiled excuse for Cleveland's most recent regular-season tailspin. From ESPN's Dave McMenamin:

"It's been very challenging," James said after practice Wednesday. "Just from the simple fact of how many guys have been in and out. This is a difficult year for our team. Seems like I say that every year, but this one has been even more challenging.

"With everybody who has been out and coming back in, and the rotations, and things of that nature, it's been very challenging on our team. But we have to figure it out. At the end of the day, we have a game every other day or every two days just like everybody else in the NBA. We have to go out and play."

The only words that matter in that explanation -- if you want to call it that -- are the last 14: "... just like everybody else in the NBA. We have to go out and play." That's really all there is to it. You go out and play with what you have, and rest assured, the Cavs aren't playing with any less or under any more trying of circumstances than anyone else. 

Seriously, find me a team that isn't having to adapt to new rotations. More than 60 All-Star or former All-Star players switched teams this offseason. There are new rotations all over the league. Likewise, find me a team that hasn't had guys in and out of the lineup. The Rockets have only had Chris Paul and James Harden in uniform together for 18 of their 42 games. Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry have missed a combined 23 games. The Spurs have been without Kawhi Leonard for basically the entire season. The Celtics lost Gordon Hayward for the year five minutes into their season. 

All those teams are figuring it out. 

Heck, when the Cavs took that aforementioned 34-point beating on the chin at Toronto, it was the Raptors who were playing without two starters with Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka both injured. The Cavs had a full squad. So enough with the excuses. Yes, Isaiah Thomas is just now integrating himself, and adapting to life without Kyrie Irving is certainly a challenge. And there has been talk around the league about the new schedule, which basically has teams playing every other night with the intent being to limit back-to-back games, having the unintended consequence of limiting practice time with a lot fewer multi-day breaks. 

"Myself personally, I didn't see it coming," Utah coach Quin Snyder said of his team's compromised practice time when the Jazz came though Miami back in December. "For us, we've got a ton of new players. It can be something as simple as terminology where [you need that practice time]."

The Cavs are known for not practicing much anyway. They're old and want to save their legs for games, but also, the core of this team has been together for the last three-plus years. They know who they are and what they're supposed be doing, and they're simply not doing it. There isn't an injury or a rotation issue in the world that has anything to do with the Cavs being one of the three worst defenses in the league. 

In fact, they might well get worse on the defensive end in the coming weeks and months. When Isaiah gets back up to full speed and starts accounting for more court time, he's a walking mismatch at 5-foot-9, and suffice it to say, Derrick Rose eventually coming back isn't exactly going to turn them into the Bad Boys. The simple truth is the Cavs have old and traditionally exposable players on the defensive end. Kevin Love. Isaiah Thomas. Channing Frye. Derrick Rose. Kyle Korver. Dwyane Wade isn't near the defender he once was. Neither is Tristan Thomson. Jeff Green is not a consistent difference maker. 

Cleveland is a flawed team relying far too heavily on one flawless player. 

One great player, even if that player is the best player in the league, is just not good enough to be great in today's NBA. You can be good, and for all the doomsday talk, that's what the Cavs are right now, They're a good team. They're the No. 3 seed in the East at 26-17 entering Thursday. That's the same amount of losses as the Timberwolves, who are everyone's favorite success story right now. Why the difference in perception? Expectations. The Cavs are supposed to be great. Not good. Great. 

They might still become great. This isn't exactly the first time they've limped through the regular season, and to be fair, if Thomas does indeed return to something close to full strength, Cleveland would enter the playoffs with three guys in Thomas, Love and LeBron who can be a No. 1 scorer on any given night. There is time to get back to great. But right now, they're not even close to great, and lately they've been downright bad. And there isn't an excuse in the world that's going to magically turn that around.