The Cleveland Cavaliers are 1-3, which isn't ideal considering the high-profile acquisitions the team made over the offseason by signing LeBron James and trading for Kevin Love. Expectations are high in Ohio, and after last night's loss to the Utah Jazz, as well as their 19-point loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday, the Cavs are not inspiring a ton of optimism in their fans and the surrounding media, even though their season is only four-games-old.
Yes, the sports hype cycle is vicious and, as a result, there are questions about LeBron's return to Cleveland that must be answered. What happened to the Cavaliers who were going to come in and dominate the Eastern Conference? Where's the endless reel of Kyrie-to-LeBron alley-oops? Why aren't the Cavs already 82-0?
So, in keeping with this tradition of endless chatter and speculation, we present to you the first, "seemingly concerning but really not a big deal at all" locker room report of the 2014-15 Cleveland Cavaliers season, courtesy of ESPN's Brian Windhorst.
According to Windhorst, LeBron and Kyrie Irving "exchanged words in the Cleveland Cavaliers' locker room" after their aforementioned loss on Tuesday night. Windhorst's sources described the conversation as "healthy," but they did note that it caused Irving to exit the locker room without speaking to the media. He didn't speak to the media? *Gasps* The horror.
As you can tell, Irving and LeBron's interaction probably isn't anything to get too worked up over, especially if it was just a healthy discussion. Instead, it just re-affirms something that every Cleveland fan was worried about going into the season: The Cavaliers are going to experience some serious growing pains. Remember, everyone, this team went 33-49 last season. They're still learning how to win.
Turbulence like this is to be expected when you have a rookie head coach, two new players serving as major contributors in your offense, and a roster loaded with players who have only been in the league for a few seasons or less. So, basically, let's not lose our heads right now. If the Cavs are sitting beneath .500 at the All-Star break, then we'll talk about some changes that need to be made. Until then...
1.
