Welcome back, LeBron; things have changed a bit
With LeBron James set to return from an eight-game absence, the Cavaliers are looking for more than an end to their five-game losing streak. They're still searching for their identity.
LeBron James is set to return from missing eight games with knee and back injuries, the longest stint on the shelf due to injury in his 12-year career.
Suffice it to say, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were not holding down the fort in his absence. The Cavaliers were 1-7 without James, falling to 19-19, good for sixth in the East. Now, with James likely back in the lineup Tuesday night at Phoenix, the Cavs are looking for more than an end to their five-game winning streak. They're searching for their identity, which has changed since LeBron last suited up on Dec. 28.
Gone is Dion Waiters. Into the mix are J.R. Smith, Timofey Mozgov, and at some point, Iman Shumpert, who is recovering from a shoulder injury. Of course, there's no evaluating how these new pieces fit until they're all healthy, and more important, until they're on the floor with a healthy James.
Will coach David Blatt be able to integrate Smith's erratic offensive game, Mozgov's rim protection, and ultimately, Shumpert's statistically ambivalent defensive capabilities into Cleveland's arsenal? Maybe, maybe not. In any event, Blatt remains a barrel of laughs amid all the adversity, blurting out in an interview session with reporters in Sacramento Sunday night that Kevin Love is "not a max player yet."
The context for that weird remark: A reporter, Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com, was merely asking if the Cavs were too quick to use LeBron's absence as an excuse when the team still had two max players on the floor -- Kyrie Irving and Love.
"Kev's not a max player yet, is he?" Blatt responded.
Those last two words -- is he? -- got truncated in the Twitter trending that ensued. The quizzical tone of Blatt's remark makes it clear that he wasn't disparaging Love, but rather asking whether or not the 26-year-old forward indeed was employed via a contract paying him the maximum allowed by the collective bargaining agreement.
Given that Love has struggled to find his niche in the Cavs' offense and has an early termination option in his contract that will place him on the free-agent market this coming summer, it seemed like an odd thing for his coach to publicly quibble about -- even if he meant no harm. Anyway, Blatt clarified his comment on Monday -- sort of.
Technically, Blatt is wrong; and technically, he's right, too. When Love signed a four-year $61 million deal with the Timberwolves in 2012, he received the maximum salary available to him under the rules. He did not receive the maximum length of five years, which Minnesota decided to reserve for point guard Ricky Rubio as the team's designated player.
So in a way, this little misunderstanding is the fault of David Kahn, Minnesota's former, often irrational GM, who decided against giving Love that five-year deal. If he'd done it, Love would have two more years left on his Cleveland contract, instead of one. Of course, had Kahn selected Stephen Curry instead of Rubio and/or Jonny Flynn, Love might still be in Minnesota.
The point of all this is that LeBron James stepping back onto the floor can and will make everything better. How much better? The Cavs have a little more than five weeks before the Feb. 19 trade deadline to figure that out.
So, welcome back, LeBron. There's a lot of work to be done.
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