NBA Power Rankings: Who is LeBron James not mad at?
Cleveland Cavaliers 32-15
Last week: 2-1
Last rank: 4th
As noted above LeBron James is not the happiest right now. His team finished with a losing record in a month for the first time since he was with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2006. That was also the first year he was able to break through and carry the Cavaliers to the postseason. While Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and Kyle Korver — who is still trying to work his way into the rotation — are certainly upgrades over Larry Hughes, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Daniel Gibson, this year’s iteration has not been performing up to standards. Love getting an MRI on his back is worrisome for sure as back injuries usually worsen over time as opposed to getting better. Irving has been supplying us with Uncle Drew level ankle breakers and highlights daily, but it can’t be overlooked that he was outplayed by 10-day contractee Yogi Ferrell in Cleveland’s loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
James, for his part, can do everything for Cleveland the only problem being that he would rather have to do that in June instead of January. David Griffin and Dan Gilbert seem to either be making an attempt to appease LeBron or just prove to him how shallow the market is for “F—— PLAYMAKERS!” by bringing in Kirk Hinrich, Lance Stephenson, and Mario Chalmers for a workout. Chalmers is probably the best option as he is used to being James’ whipping boy and right now that seems to be just what the sheriff needs.