LeBron James goes off after Pelicans loss: “We’re not better than last year”

The Cleveland Cavaliers lost another game on Monday night, in no small part due to the struggles of their bench. Once the strength of the Cavs, it seems that even LeBron James can’t lift up the collection of Channing Frye, Kyle Korver, DeAndre Liggins and Richard Jefferson. On Saturday night, the Cavs lost to the San Antonio Spurs despite the starters putting together impressive performances. On Monday, they wasted a brilliant offensive performance from Kyrie Irving, and James himself put together a triple-double. The Pelicans are not good, and the Pelicans didn’t have Anthony Davis. James wasn’t happy afterwards. From Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal’s Final Thoughts:

“We’re not better than last year, from a personnel standpoint … we’re a top-heavy team,” James said, adding a few minutes later, “I just hope that we’re not satisfied as an organization. I just hope we not satisfied. How hard it was to do that s---. I just hope we’re not satisfied.”

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“I don’t got no time to waste,” he said. “I’ll be 33 in the winter and I ain’t got time to waste. That’s what I’m talking about. … When I feel like physically and mentally, me personally, can’t compete for a championship no more or I feel like I can’t do it, then I won’t have this problem. But until that happens, and it don’t seem like no time soon…”

Go read the whole thing. James absolves Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love from blame, calling the team top-heavy. He remains unhappy with Mo Williams after his untimely retirement. He doesn’t think it’s fair to ask Liggins and Kay Felder to take on huge roles. He also doesn’t appear to be asking for a ton, referencing Michael Beasley and Raymond Felton as the type of guys the Cavs are missing. With Chris Andersen hurt and Channing Frye a bit overexposed, it’s understandable that James feels like he’s missing pieces.

Unfortunately for James, Matthew Dellavedova is not walking through that door. Tristan Thompson is not walking through that door (well he actually probably will, but he also has to start). David Griffin will continue to look for help, and it will probably come. In the meantime, LeBron’s minute load seems unlikely to take a big dip.