I had friends and family literally ready to physically fight me when I would say that post-trade deadline run last year wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. The Denver series was more of a litmus test of where this team actually stacked up among contenders in this league. But the organization believed in the mirage as well and doubled down on it by bringing back the “core” and now wanna act surprised that we’re mired in quicksand. Gotta admit…D.Russell almost had me fooled into trusting him but he’s still the same dude he’s always been and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the source and the cause of the recent news coming from the locker room. Granted, Rui & Vando have been hurt but I don’t wanna hear about that coming from our Head Coach. Spo was visibly irritated when a reporter asked him about injuries after The Heat (with 19 different starting lineups so far) lost to the Clipps the other night before beating us down last game (that culture thing again). AR escapes criticism (a topic for another time & place) but he isn’t playing the same as he finished last year.
So here we sit…a sub .500 team…perhaps in quicksand. Trade? Who knows; can’t get too much worse. New coach? The season is half over; who’s the brilliant mind available to turn this around? We’ve been a revolving door at that spot for far too long now then we wonder why we can’t build continuity, culture, or identity….
It ain’t good……….
An aging superstar is the worst type of dude to coach. Lebron used to build his teams to complement his ability to get by just about any defender, collapse the defense, and find the open man. There was never much cap room to pay these dudes which is now amplified by his gargantuan max deal coupled with declining ability. Well now he’s not really getting by anyone, and the open men he’s finding are mostly scrap heap pickups. His ability to make special plays is limited to an occasional deep 3 or bullying smaller defenders around the basket.