LeBron James gave his most in-depth interview in weeks about the current state of the team and the absence of Pavlovic and Varejao.
Here are his thoughts:
“For me as a leader, you want guys around you that are going to help you win ballgames. I’m going to do what is best for the team. But at the same time you see teams regrouping and reshaping, and with our team we didn’t do any reshaping, we didn’t do any regrouping. You start to think a bit, ‘How are we going to continue to get better?’ Something is going to have to happen within the next week so we know for certain whether we have them or not.”
When he was asked if the Cavaliers are better or worse without them, he said:
“Oh, we’re worse. We’re not as good as we were if we have those guys. It’s simple. We all know that. Those two guys are a big part of our team. There’s no reason to sit here and say we’re better without them. I think they’re a key point to our team. At the same time, we have to continue to get better while they are not here. Hopefully something happens.”
“I’m not going to pick up the charges that Andy took, I’m not going to hit the open 3s that Sasha made. That’s not who I am. I am going to continue to lead my team and help us win ballgames.”
You can read the full Q&A here.