NBA News: LeBron James Expresses Support For Coach David Blatt
Amidst talks that the suddenly struggling Cleveland Cavaliers have some internal strife to deal with, LeBron James was quick to clear up matters especially on how the team responds to new coach David Blatt. James finally addressed the issue that the team is no longer responding to European legend mentor Blatt and clarified that the media is just spinning the reports to create some story.
"To make a feud between me and Blatt ... it's just to sell. To sell and get people to read it and put something at bottom ticker," the two-time NBA champion told Joe Vardon of the Northeast Ohio Media Group.
I asked LeBron if Blatt's the right coach for the #Cavs: "Yeah, he's our coach, I mean, what other coach do we have?"
— Joe Vardon (@joevardon) December 29, 2014
The four-time NBA Most Valuable Player cleared the air after the Cavaliers have been thrust to the center of talks after two blowout losses at home to the Atlanta Hawks and the Detroit Pistons. The last one against the Pistons was so embarrassing that the home crowd booed the team after it relinquished a 15-point lead before the half, a trend that has been rearing its ugly head in the first quarter of the Cavaliers' season. To make matters worse, the team fell to the Pistons, which are amongst the cellar dwellers in the NBA which led to James saying that, "right now we are not very good, in every aspect of the game."
With starting centre Anderson Varejao out for the season with a torn Achilles injury, the Cavaliers have been experimenting with inserting either forward Shawn Marion or Tristan Thompson into the starting line-up. The options become more limited as Marion also went down with an ankle injury during the Pistons' match-up. All-star point guard Kyrie Irving has been held back the past two games with a similar ailment and it is unclear is he will play the next road game against the Hawks.
The acquisition of all-star big man Kevin Love has not been all roses either as the sweet shooting Love has been struggling to find his spots and finding it hard to adjusting to a new role after being the focus of the offence dating back to his Minnesota Timberwolves days. The team is looking at ways to improve internally as it stands as a mediocre team right now even with James on the roster. At 16-12, the Cavaliers have looked much like a first or second round fodder and not the championship contender everybody penciled them at the start of the season.