Following last night's loss to the Golden State Warriors, the Cleveland Cavaliers have now lost nine of their last 12, including four straight, as their roller coaster season continues.
To make matters worse, according to ESPN's Dave McMenamin, multiple players on the Cavs have expressed growing discontent and concern that the team will not be able to fix all of their issues and get back to the NBA Finals.
Although the Cavs are currently sitting in third place in the Eastern Conference with a 26-17 record, they're still 7.5 games back of the first place Boston Celtics. As Dave McMenamin reports, the lack of urgency from Cleveland's front office has some players questioning their chances of making another title run.
"Several prominent players, speaking on condition of anonymity to ESPN, Cleveland.com and The Athletic, expressed doubt that the problems -- an aging roster, defensively challenged personnel and a glut of redundant role players -- could simply be worked out through patience and a chance to coalesce when fully healthy."
Cleveland.com's Joe Vardon writes,
"Rotations are awful. IT (Isaiah Thomas) is so much worse than Kyrie defensively it's insane," said a league source. "There is not a great feeling anywhere. They need to limp into the All-Star break and get away from each other."
The Cavs are reportedly looking to make a deal before the February 8th trade deadline, and there's talk that they're openly shopping center Tristan Thompson. Cleveland also has their own first round pick in the 2018 Draft, as well as the Brooklyn Nets first round pick which they acquired as part of the Kyrie Irving trade, though reports suggest the Cavs want to keep onto that pick in the event LeBron leaves as a free agent in the Summer.
