Central Rumors: Cavs, Meeks, Vasquez

All-Star small forward LeBron James, point guard Kyrie Irving and power forward Kevin Love admitted fault of their own even as they laid out expectations for their teammates during a sometimes contentious players-only meeting the Cavs had in the immediate wake of David Blatt’s firing, as reported by Dave McMenamin, Brian Windhorst and Zach Lowe of ESPN.com. Accountability and double standards were key issues in the meeting that GM David Griffin asked reserve shooting guard James Jones to organize, as McMenamin, Windhorst and Lowe detail. The net effect appears to have been positive, based on the team’s 4-1 record since and the input a pair of sources gave the ESPN scribes.

In other news around the Central Division:

• Pistons shooting guard Jodie Meeks has suffered a setback during his rehab from a broken right foot, David Mayo of MLive.com tweets. Meeks met Monday with surgeon Martin O’Malley, who determined that the foot had not fully healed, Mayo continues. Meeks must stop practicing, which he began doing last week, and he also has to cut his rehab activity, Mayo adds. Meeks was expected to miss 12-16 weeks after he was injured during the team’s home opener but the club was hopeful of getting him back by the All-Star break.
• Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy, who is also the team’s president of basketball operations, doubts he would trade for a player that becomes an unrestricted free agent after the season, Rod Beard of the Detroit News reports. Detroit has been linked to Pelicans power forward Ryan Anderson, who is in his walk year, but Van Gundy doesn’t want to mortgage the future for a player who might depart after this season. “I’m not willing to yield an asset right now — even for a guy I really like — if he’s unrestricted and we could lose him in the summer for nothing,” Van Gundy told the team’s beat reporters. “That would be a step back in our building, even if it’s a minor one. We’re not going to give up a pick for a guy. If we were going to make a trade, it would be a for a guy who’s still got contract time left after next year, that we know we’d have.”
• Bucks point guard Greivis Vasquez expects to play again this season, Charles Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports. Vasquez, who underwent right ankle injury in mid-December, is not close to returning but Vasquez remains optimistic, as he told Gardner. “I didn’t play the way I wanted to, but I needed to get healthy,” he said. “I know I’m going to come back before the season is over. Hopefully, we rack up a few wins and I can help.”