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Cleveland Cavaliers: What Happens If It Doesn’t Work This Season?

By Michael Saenz

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Many believe that the Cleveland Cavaliers will eventually click and get things together, but what if they can’t? 

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For much of the season, we’ve been patient with the 2014-15 Cleveland Cavaliers. Mostly because the national media learned the first time.

When the 2010-11 Miami Heat, LeBron James‘ first year with the club, struggled out of the gate, they quickly recovered and proved all of its naysayers down by qualifying for four straight NBA Finals, winning on two of those instances.

The national media hasn’t jumped to conclusions this season, LeBron’s first year back with the Cavs, because of just that. They don’t want to be proven wrong — again. So they act like the Cavs will get it together, when we all know that they probably won’t.

Through 39 games this season, the Cleveland Cavaliers are under .500, sitting at 19-20 on the year. That is currently good enough for the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, and just 1.5 games ahead of the talent-challenged Miami Heat, LeBron’s former team.

That, my friends, is not longer a small sample size.

That’s evidence. Proof that the Cleveland Cavaliers are not what many expected them to be. In fact, I don’t believe anyone expected them to be exactly what they are right now.

Bad.

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Sure, the Cavs have had to overcome their fair share of injury problems. Kevin Love (1 game), Kyrie Irving (3 games) and LeBron James (most recently, 8 games) have all missed time this season due to injury.

In addition, this team has nine new players on it. The team’s three most important ones had never played with each other coming into this season. That counts as something. However, if they haven’t got it together through 39 games, I’m not sure if there’s any evidence out there that would suggest it’s going to click after 50 or 60 contests.

The team can’t play a lick of defense, and looks like a offensively-challenged 7th grade B-team on the other end.

There’s a disconnect between the team’s stars, LeBron doesn’t look happy and Kevin Love looks extremely awkward out there. And when he’s not out there, he’s being benched in the fourth quarter. There’s just so many head-scratching things with this team.

To name a few:

And we’re only 39 games into the season. We haven’t even gotten to the games that actually count; the ones that could actually cost people jobs.

Fast forward to the end of the season, what if it doesn’t work out this year?

What if the Cleveland Cavaliers fail to get it together, and bow out in the first or second round of the NBA playoffs?

David Blatt

For one, if Blatt even survives this season — because right now there’s a legitimate shot that he doesn’t even make it through the all-star break — I don’t think he’ll survive a first, or even a second, round playoff exit. LeBron James won’t stand for that, and neither would the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Blatt may end up being the next great NBA coach, heck he could be the next incarnation of Gregg Popovich. But I highly doubt him being the coach of the Cavaliers past this season, if he even makes it that far.

His style simply doesn’t fit with this team and, most importantly, LeBron still hasn’t come around to him. At the end of the day, LeBron’s opinion is probably the only one that’s going to matter here.

So far, not so good. Blast wasn’t ready for this and that’s not his fault. He was put in position to either succeed greatly, or fail tremendously.

And it’s looking like the latter.

Personnel

This is where we’d see the most, if not all, of the movement this offseason if this year’s Cleveland Cavaliers fail to meet its expectations, which at this point is an NBA Finals appearance. I don’t think the Cavs can call this season a success without one.

Question is, let’s say a second round knockout is in the future of the Cavs this season. Which players are kept, which are recycled and which are the ones that are out the door on the first official day of the offseason?

That’s the hard part.

We do know, however, that LeBron James is going nowhere. He means to much to this city, the franchise and the NBA to simply get up and take a talent train back down to South Beach. Even though that’d be hilariously funny to many, that’s simply not the case or an option this offseason. He stays.

Kevin Love has the option to test free agency after this season, but that seems to easy. I don’t think Love will hit the abort button after just one season. Think he’ll play-out his contract and then decide whether to sign longterm or to sign with

the Los Angeles Lakers

a different team then.

Kyrie Irving. His fate is ultimately up to LeBron, as is many of his teammates. If LeBron doesn’t feel the team can win with a ball-demanding point guard, he’ll be gone quicker than the Ohio State band can dot the “i.”

In essence, everything is going to come down to LeBron. Whether that’s a fair assessment or not, it’s the truth. LeBron James is the coach, the GM and the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers right now. Let’s not get that twisted.

Nevertheless, no matter what happens this season, the team is going to have some, if not major, changes in the offseason. It comes with the territory. That’s part of the reason why LeBron James left Miami. And it’s also part of the reason why he returned to Cleveland — the place where his voice was actually the only voice.

The Complete Makeover

In an extreme scenario, let’s say the Cleveland Cavaliers do want to blow it up. Other than LeBron James, what if they do want to run Love out of town and simply go another direction?

Well, the 2015 free agency class is deep. It’s just not deep with necessarily “free” guys.

And the list goes on and on.

Sure, there is some real quality talent on this list, but there are only a handful of landscape-changing players on this list that would legitimately change teams. Aldridge isn’t going anywhere, neither is Leonard. Gasol is probably the best player on this list that will be on a different team next season, and that won’t be with the Cavaliers.

If a major facelift is coming for the Cleveland Cavaliers, it’s going to come via trade. And I’m not really sure what LeBron would really want that would be an upgrade over Irving and Love. Maybe Wade and Chris Bosh?

(That’s a joke)

I mean sure, expect the supporting cast to change, but as for the meat of the team, LeBron might be stuck. Love is probably the only one of the three that I could realistically see playing for a different team this time next year — and even that is a stretch.

I’m not entirely sure what’s going to happen if this experiment doesn’t work, but I do know changes will come. We just won’t be sure who or what those changes will be until the time comes.

Worst-case scenario: LeBron James takes his talents — again — down to “South Beach” and we do this dance, that we know all to well, all over again.

Next: Are the Pistons a shoe in for the playoffs?

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