Monday, April 23, 2018
Cleveland Cavaliers: Help Wanted
I'm an adamant LeBron defender. You know, the type of guy that will get into a 36-comment Facebook thread arguing about it with some random guy from Illinois that I really want to strangle. I just feel that it's my duty, as a basketball connoisseur, to make sure you realize the magnitude of what this man has brought and continues to bring to the NBA. Yeah, I just called myself a basketball connoisseur. Deal with it.
LeBron is far and away the best player in the game today, and anyone who sincerely disagrees with that sentiment flatly doesn't understand the game of basketball. Furthermore, LeBron is the best player anyone my age has ever witnessed, though I'd consent to a well-crafted Kobe dispute. I'm 26-years old, and Michael Jordan is quite possibly the greatest basketball player of all-time, but I am in no position to make that stance.
In fact, I don't want to hear anyone under 30 ever go to bat over Jordan being the GOAT again. He won his first three championships in the first three years of my life, and his last three before I turned seven. I truly only remember watching Jordan play live for the Wizards, and even that is blurry. I'm sick of people in their mid or even late 20s argue for Jordan being the greatest of all-time.
Again, he very well may be, but we can't genuinely debate that because we didn't watch him battle every night or have the ability to analyze the game like we do now. We were too concerned with whether Stoop Kid was ever going to leave the stoop than if Jordan was ever going to get by the Pistons.
It's like a millennial claiming that the '70s were the best time to be alive. I'm sure you've heard stories, but you weren't snorting blow and Quaaludes at the Paradise Garage with my uncle on a Wednesday, so I don't give a damn about your opinion.
But, I digress. This Cavaliers team is far and away the softest team I've seen in the playoffs. At least the Blazers got in someone's face when they were losing. Kevin Love has fully evolved into a strict jump shooter. Rodney Hood looks scared. Jordan Clarkson somehow forgot how to dribble. George Hill and J.R. Smith are the epitome of inconsistency. LeBron doesn't get a pass either for mopping and not running back on defense when his team needs him. Either way, this man needs help. There's a thin line between LeBron elevating his teammates, and just flat out carrying them. Maybe we finally need to accept that without Kyrie Irving to take some pressure off LeBron, the Cavaliers are exactly what their record says.
I'm not pushing the panic meter yet, and I am a firm believer in the metaphorical on-switch that LeBron always seems to flip when his backs against the wall. Though, if they are having problems like this in the first round, even if they escape it, it's hard to imagine the Cavaliers getting back to the Finals.
It's LeBron, though, so I'm not going to count them out just yet.