The Cavaliers have lost two in a row and are on just their third regular season losing streak since January 15th, observes Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal. Still, the rhetoric coming from the team suggests it isn’t treating the matter lightly, with LeBron James questioning the team’s hunger and attention to detail and coach David Blatt calling for more toughness, as Lloyd relays. Iman Shumpert should help add some grit, Lloyd posits, and he’s ahead of schedule as he mends from his wrist injury, with a mid-December return possible, as Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. Still, that’s a ways off, Lloyd notes. See more from Cleveland:
- The attitude of Dion Waiters wore on coaches, executives and other Cavs players and prompted his trade last season, Lloyd writes in the same piece, one that looks back on Cleveland’s choice to pick Waiters instead of Andre Drummond with the No. 4 overall selection in 2012. Drummond doesn’t seem to place blame the Cavs, since they already had other big men, though Cleveland, like others, had questions about Drummond’s motor, Lloyd notes. “Still to this day I don’t have the answer to that,” the Pistons center said about why teams questioned his desire. “I don’t know who started that or how it came about, but I’m pretty sure they’re punching themselves now.”
- James is more trusting of coach Blatt and his teammates than he was last season, as Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today examines. James is again showing the willingness to accept coaching that he had under Erik Spoelstra in Miami, and Blatt feels more comfortable communicating to him, Zillgitt writes.
- Kevin Love‘s rejuvenated play this season is prompting many to take a second look at the trade that brought him to Cleveland and sent out Andrew Wiggins, but the value of the deal for the Cavs will likely come down to whether the team delivers a title with Love on the roster, observes Shaun Powell of NBA.com.
I remember being in disbelief as Drummond kept being passed up.