LeBron James is frustrated with his Cavaliers teammates and their 8-3 start, because he thinks they have been “too nice” this year.
"We're too relaxed and too nice," James said after Cleveland lost to the Pistons Tuesday night. "We're just too nice."
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James’ buddy, power forward Tristan Thompson, chimed in with similar thoughts about the team’s effort level.
"We're playing soft," Tristan Thompson said. "Guys are coming in -- either on the road or [in our building] -- and teams think they can beat up on us, and that's not acceptable. We got to play tougher and meaner, and that's on the bigs, first and foremost.”
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Thompson might be missing the point, however. James’ actions didn’t seem to indicate his unhappiness stemmed from Pistons center Andre Drummond destroying them in the post. It’s his teammates’ reliance on him to generate everything offensively down the stretch, and them being unprepared if the job falls to them.
James scored just five points on five shots in the fourth quarter Tuesday night, playing in a way that put the pressure on his teammates to close the show. They didn’t do it, and that is likely why James was harsh on them in the media.
"We're not entitled to a win. We're not entitled to being the Eastern Conference champions. That's last year. It's a totally different year, and until we figure that out, we're going to continue to put ourselves in positions to lose basketball games," James said.
He slyly confirmed his fourth quarter slowdown was an effort to push his teammates to overcome the Pistons on their own initiative. When asked if he was playing similarly to a game last season when he just stood in the corner while Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters shot them out of a chance to win he told Cleveland.com, "We're not at that point now. It’s different but…we need to get better.”
James isn’t wrong, but if Thompson keeps thinking it’s solely about effort, James might need to be more direct.
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