So the fact that he and James aren't getting along 100 percent is a little surprising. James has made several comments this week about "bad habits" that have set in on the Cavs over the last couple of years, and as Irving has been the constant since James left in 2011, it's not shocking who James is talking about, along with Dion Waiters and Tristan Thompson.
ESPN reports that James and Irving had a tough conversation in the locker room Tuesday night after a blowout loss to the Blazers, that is deemed "healthy." Irving left without speaking to the media.
LeBron James and Kyrie Irving exchanged words in the Cleveland Cavaliers' locker room following the team's 20-point loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night, and it led to Irving leaving quickly without speaking to the media, multiple sources told ESPN.com.
The discussion was seen as healthy, sources said, with the veteran James voicing concerns about the direction of the Cavs' offense. James scored just 11 points against the Blazers and did not score in the second half and was often not a part of the offense. Cleveland is off to a 1-3 start following a last-second loss to the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night.
"There's a lot of bad habits, a lot of bad habits been built up the past couple years," James said to the media moments after the exchange. "When you play that style of basketball, it takes a lot to get it up out of you."
Teammates had a dispute, they talked about it, and Kyrie probably left feeling a little scolded. That's tough. It's also not a sign that the team is "dysfunctional" or "coming apart at the seams."
It is weird, though. Consider this from earlier in the week, where after the Portland loss coach David Blatt praised Irving for his offense, and Irving essentially stuck up for his scoring focus. Then James gives him a backhanded compliment "As far as his scoring..." From ESPN:
"I thought he was a lot more aggressive on offense tonight," coach David Blatt said when asked about Irving. "I thought that he made it a point to come out tonight with a kind of a fire and a sense of urgency that perhaps we didn't see last night, and I thought he did a great job. I thought he played defense for good parts of the game very well, and he played a lot of minutes. He laid it out there tonight, so I'm pretty happy with him."
Even though Cleveland, now 1-3, came up short thanks to Gordon Hayward hitting a jumper at the buzzer after James had tied it up with three free throws with 3.4 seconds left, Irving showed no remorse about his approach afterward.
"Just taking what the defense gave me, not necessarily any calls," Irving said of what he was running on offense. "Whatever the defense was giving me, I was willing to take. I was just trying to collapse the defense."
He also collapsed James' desire to publicly critique him, at least for the time being.
"Well, I mean, as far as his scoring, it was big time," James said of Irving's night. "He made all the shots we needed to keep us in the game. He made some great plays down the stretch, finished above the rim. It was great."
And if James' issue with Irving was his focus on scoring, then Wednesday's loss to the Jazz probably didn't make things any better. Irving scored 34 points (great!) and had zero assists (not so great). He passed 63 times according to the NBA's SportVU data, the most of any Cavalier, but the Cavs had 276 passes overall to the Jazz' 442.
LeBron and Irving aren't beefing. It's a disagreement, and the odds are they figure it out. But how this reads is that James told Irving to chill out with looking for his own shot and run the offense... and then Irving went and shot 23 times. Would the Cavs be better if Irving passed more? Probably not. Would they be better if he played with more purpose and with better awareness of the overall offense? Probably.
Either way, it's a fascinating mini-storyline very early on this season.
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