The horrid coaching is the #1 thing to me. I feel hopeless with Lue and Longabardi butchering everything with this team. This defense is a total disgrace. Yes, some of it is effort, but most of it is the stupidity of this system that has worked NOWHERE. We actually have some pretty good man to man defenders in here, but they are not allowed to just do their thing. Instead we run a ridiculously overcomplicated system of switches which no one seems to understand.
Losing Kyrie was a gigantic blow, and clearly the attempt to bring in Thomas, Crowder, and Rose was a massive fail. But after the midseason trade we brought in a lot of very solid role players. This team could be so much more with a coach who wasn't totally clueless. Zizic and Cedi should have been getting minutes all season and should be growing into important backup roles as some of the veteran players are losing steam.
TT should have been glued to the bench after the trades but Lue kept forcing his stupid, embarrassing ass back in. Hell we tried to trade him for anything and literally everyone laughed in our face at the notion. The guy is a dogshit player and a dogshit human being. I'm not even joking when I say I wish someone would Tonya Harding his ass.
JR sucked for most of the year as well, but I will give him somewhat of a pass with his situation at home and the fact that he did get it going towards the end of the season and made some shots in that playoff game, more than we can say for most of the team. Green shouldn't be starting, and he just is what he is, he has never been a consistent performer, but he can provide much needed athleticism and defense off the bench when Lebron rests. Only Lue would be stupid enough to start him at C.
As you can see, it keeps coming back around to the coaching staff for me. Losing Kyrie truly sucked, but what really sucks about it is how badly it has exposed Lue as one of the worst coaches in the NBA. The players we have here should be able to still make a serious run at a championship with the right coaching and some semblance of a system. Thats what is so disappointing. I have zero hope of winning it all and it comes down to coaching.