NBA Rumors: LeBron James Gives Up, Kyrie Irving Quits; King James Calls Out Kevin Love, JR Smith For "Mental Mistakes"

By Mitch de Leon
NBA: Cleveland Cavaliers at Washington Wizards
Feb 28, 2016; Washington, DC, USA; Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal (3) makes a move to the basket past Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving (2) during the second half at Verizon Center.  Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

The Cleveland Cavaliers are in trouble. Despite their success in the Eastern Conference, the Kevin Love squad is struggling to keep up with the issues eating up their potential and draining their talent. Moreover, the Cleveland Cavaliers appear to be incapable of working together as a team. In fact, this picture of a broken team has long been an issue for the JR Smith squad - an issue the team must fix right away before the Kyle Lowry's Toronto Raptors or Marcus Smart's Boston Celtics catch up with them.

One of the most pressing matters in the Cleveland Cavaliers right now is the inability of the basketball stars to play on par with LeBron James. While the former Miami Heat star acknowledges that meshing as a team takes time, he could no longer keep mum on the fact that his teammates' performances are disappointing. King James added that the Cleveland Cavaliers' issues went beyond the physical concerns of the sport. That is, the NBA team is failing to excel "mentally."

"When you lose the way we lost, mental mistake after mental mistake, those hurt more than anything when you can play better mentally," shared James via Cleveland.com following their devastating loss to the Toronto Raptors. He added, "People get so caught up on the physical side of the game. We lack mental right now, and we've got to continue to get better with it. A couple of unfocused plays, not following the game plan and it burned us." The Cleveland Cavaliers lost 99-97.

Meanwhile, the discontent appears not only to be coming from James. Although not as vocal as King James in his stance involving the team's decline, Kyrie Irving is reportedly seeking ways to get out of the Cleveland Cavaliers roster. According to Stephen A. Smith of ESPN, the point guard wants out of the organization and has been feeling dejected about his role for quite some time now.

"Dating back to last year, I've been told that Kyrie Irving ain't too happy being in Cleveland," revealed Smith. The ESPN analyst added, "The situation is not ideal for him. I don't know the particulars. I haven't spoken to him personally. It's something that I've been hearing for months, that under ideal circumstances he would prefer to be someplace other than Cleveland."

As for the other members of the Cleveland Cavaliers roster, they too are feeling the disappointment building within the team. JR Smith, who was part of the core lineup in their embarrassing 113-99 loss to the Washington Wizards, admitted that they failed to execute their plays properly. He further noted that their loss was not at all a shock to the team.

"I wasn't surprised," Smith commented to Tyronn Lue's decision to bench all five-star players during the said game, according to ESPN. He added, "We weren't playing the way we were supposed to play. We weren't executing our offense. We damn sure weren't playing defense. So I wasn't surprised at all."

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