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Draymond Green has always called it the way he sees it, and by taking a month's worth of looks into the Cleveland Cavaliers season, he can only see some “glaring concerns” for the wine and gold amid a 7-7 start to the season.
The Golden State Warriors forward chatted with Sam Amick of USA TODAY Sports, giving his two cents on the state of their Eastern Conference rival a month deep into this 2017-18 season.
Green: “Uh, they're struggling.”
Amick: Would you be panicking if you were one of their fans?
Green: “To a certain extent yes. And to a certain extent, no. I don't think anyone should be panicking 12 games in, or 13 games in. However, there are some glaring concerns with them. And at the same time, you're missing a 30-point (per game) player (in Thomas) on the bench who's hurt. So my concern would be that LeBron is playing so many minutes right now (James, in his 15th season, is leading the league in minutes at 38.1 per game; it’s his highest mark since the 2010-11 season).
“Yeah, he's super human but eventually his super human powers go away, so that would be more of my concern if I'm a Cavs fan or somebody with the Cavs or a player, is like ‘Man, he's been playing a lot of 40 minute (nights) and it's only Nov. 12.' But I wouldn't be pressing the panic button just yet. At the end of the day, they know how to win. They've got a guy who knows how to win, so I wouldn't necessarily press the panic button. I would see certain things and I would panic about those certain things, just because… I don't think nobody should be playing 40 minutes a game in November (James has played 40-plus minutes in six of his 14 games).”
The Cavs are rinse-and-repeating their way to the .500 mark, after running James through the ground through most of the last regular season and all the way in the postseason — they're doing so again in hopes to not fall in such a deep hole that can make them pay come April.
Ranking as one of the worst defensive teams in the league, Cleveland's one and only hope has rested in James, but an incoming reinforcement in Isaiah Thomas can only prove yet another adjustment to make, instead of the instant 25-plus points per game they're expecting from him.
