I'll continue to say this over and over again: This team has so many holes. So many weaknesses. LeBron, even given some of his poor performances by his standards, was shadowing these issues while he was still on. And while the murmurs were there (out-rebounded some nights, struggling on the inside, low shooting percentages etc), we're now seeing how exposed we are with the losses of both Andy and LBJ.
There's probably a good reason now why even with LeBron, our team has looked to struggle all season long and seems to be continuously battling uphill. We have too many thorns, wasted roster spots and mediocre players on this roster. Couple that with the demand of 3 max contracts and our long-term future is looking pretty bleak to say the least.
With all due respect to Marion, Miller & Jones, these are the kinds of guys we're going to have to come to rely on when LBJ, Love & Irving make max money - guys that are past their prime at a number of areas of the game of basketball and won't be able to provide enough of a plug to conceal glaring holes in both our offensive and defensive sets.
I think the major concern at this point is assessing where the issues exist - is it our depth, a lack of chemistry between LBJ, Love & Irving, a number of one-way players who don't balance their contributions or a combination of all of the above?
Some big decisions are going to have to be made over the next few months. IMO, Dion is absolutely on his way out. But at this point, given our assets (or lack of), what I've seen out of our key 3 guys and the value of vet minimums as per this season, I'm going to do my best to re-align my expectations for the future. This team is not a lock for a championship, especially when you see the way other teams are coming together and are performing.
After what seemed like 4 long years, we still have an even longer way to go.
