by Lakeccrunner

Created on: December 14, 2010

The Cleveland Cavaliers will be damaged by the dramatic exit of LeBron James for years. James left them in an awful place when he left. The feelings of the fans and the whole organization were summed up in Dan Gilberts emotionally charged letter, written just minutes after he found out the superstar was leaving. These feelings have plagued the city, and will continue to plague the hurting city until the franchise begins moving in the right direction once again.

The first step in the Cavaliers need to take is a change in attitude. Everyone in Cleveland, the fans, the players, the entire cavs organization inclded, need to move on. They need to stop their grieving about the loss and start thinking about the current season. The players have had a bad attitude all season. On December 2nd, James' return to Cleveland, they Cavs played arguably their worst game of the season. The defeat hurt enough, but to add insult to injury, the Cavs didn't look like they cared. They stood around laughing and joking with James, and didn't show an ounce of care about the most anticipated game in recent memory. This has been a theme for the Cavs all season. Antawn Jamison and Mo Williams have been especially careless. They come out playing flat nearly every game and clearly haven't gotten over James' departure, and it is showing. Nothing is going to change for the Cavs until they realize that LeBron James is a distant memory, and start focusing on what they have, rather than what they lost.

The next thing is for the Cavs to improve on what they have. Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison have proven in the past that they are good players and have both been on winning teams. Together, they need to lead the Cavaliers and encourage the younger players to play hard and adopt a winning attitude. Some bright spots in this dark time for the Cavs are Ramon Sessions and J.J. Hickson. These two young players look to be the future of Cleveland. Hickson has shown great improvements this season and will continue to develop in the upcoming seasons, and Sessions has been a surprise as one of the top players in Cleveland this year. The Cavs aren't without talent, it's just a matter of how long it takes everyone to step up into their individual roles.

The final thing the Cavs need is some good luck. They need to choose their draft picks and make their trades wisely. As far as the NBA draft goes, nobody knows how a player will fare in the NBA. The Cavs have plenty of draft picks (one of the "perks" of losing James), and hopefully they are lucky enough for some of those picks to transform into good NBA players. Trades are going to be a problem for the Cavs because they don't have many of the quality players that other teams would want, and the players that they do have, they definitely don't want to get rid of. A little bit of luck will have to come into play here too, since they are going to have to try and make something out of nothing.

The Cavaliers clearly have some rough seasons ahead of them, but with the right attitude and the correct personnel decisions, they will be on the right track and back in playoff contention.

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