The Cleveland Cavaliers were expected to be much better this year and make it to the playoffs but so far they have a 16-31 record with the 11th spot in the Eastern Conference. They traded troubled center Andrew Bynum to the Chicago Bulls for Luol Deng which should’ve helped things but Deng says the Cavs are a complete mess.
Luol Deng had spent his entire nine-plus seasons NBA career with the Chicago Bulls and his last coach was Tom Thibodeau. Everyone knows Thibs is like a drill sergeant so to go from there to Mike Brown, a coach whom many players don’t even respect, is quite a change.
via Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News:
As Deng recently told one close friend, “the stuff going on in practice would never be tolerated by the coaching staff or the front office back in Chicago. It’s a mess.”
Deng was brought in to help clean it up when he arrived in a deal for Andrew Bynum on Jan. 7. But since then, he’s seen players get thrown out of practice, take off their uniform tops at halftime and threaten not to play, mouth off to Brown and generally act like spoiled brats. …
There is no accountability, as Dion Waiters found out when he was kicked out of practice last week but still got his usual minutes against the Knicks.
Aside from the issues with Mike Brown it seems there’s problems amongst the many different personalities in the locker room. Luckily for Deng, he’s an unrestricted free agent after this season.
