In the news: OKC Thunder destruction of Cavaliers prompts spotlight shift

Spotlight shift:

All season pundits and analysts cut the Cavs slack citing their past performance as reason not to panic. I’d argue having one of the worst defenses for close to two seasons should have rung alarm bells far sooner. Cavs supporters will offer Isaiah Thomas is still shaking off the rust. But, yesterday emphatically demonstrated how much his short comings (no pun intended) are only going to add to the Cavs already porous defense.

ESPN staff writer Nick Friedell covered the fall out of Cleveland’s loss with some interesting quotes included. Friedell points out the obvious – the Cav’s defense is a mess. Allowing teams to score over 110 points is a problem of gargantuan proportions.

That’s something the Cav’s have done in 22  out of 45 games this season with 12 resulting in losses, including four of the last five. Even the most casual NBA fan can see Cleveland’s defense is a mess. Every aspect is an issue whether transition, perimeter or man to man. Lue acknowledged this in his post game assessments.

"“I think you start with transition defense,” Lue said, “I think you start with pick-and-roll defense. And, I think you start with individual, one-on-one defense. But we just got to be better collectively, and until that starts to happen, the [lack of] trust and things like that are going to happen like it did [against Oklahoma City].”"

Thomas rather boisterous for someone who is a big part of the problem:

Isaiah Thomas had some strong comments regarding playing time. Perhaps I’m on an island here, but during the game Saturday, the BBoyz and I were counting the numerous times Thomas didn’t pick anyone up.  There were a more than a handful of times Thomas wasn’t within range of an opponent. That’s not easy to do repeatedly with ten players and three officials on the floor.

"“I think we need to hold everybody accountable a little more, and I think that’s the biggest think right now, if guys ain’t doing the right job, they need to come out the game,” Thomas had said after the Thunder loss."

Then again, Thomas is among the names being bandied about as trade fodder. Tristan Thompson, J.R. Smith and Channing Frye have also been commonly included as potential trade assets Cleveland are shopping.