<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">CLEVELAND (AP) -- LeBron James and the Cavaliers want to go on the run. Coach Mike Brown isn't ready to let his team loose. With their offense sputtering during a rough stretch of an up-and-down season, some of the Cavaliers, most prominently James, are questioning the club's defense-oriented philosophy. James, whose scoring average is down five points from last season, believes the Cavs would be better off playing at a faster pace, pushing the ball up the floor to quicken the game's tempo and score more points. Larry Hughes has the same opinion, as do other Cleveland players. That contradicts Brown's offensive style: a deliberate, half-court flow of screens and patience he learned working on San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich's staff -- a system that helped the Cavs advance in last season's playoffs. James, though, feels it's time for a change. It's time to run. "I think so," he said. "We've got enough athletes where we can get up and down the court. At times the coaching staff feels the same way, at other times, no. We're kind of playing basketball for the playoffs. Our offense is geared toward half-court basketball instead of getting out and running." James said he has told the coach that, too. Brown, in his second season as Cleveland's coach, won't make any radical changes and he doesn't mind if the Cavaliers run more. But when they do press the action, he just wants them to be smart about it. "This thing is ever evolving," he said. "You tweak stuff, you don't make changes. I don't believe in that. Whatever you have, especially what's working for you, you make a tweak here and a tweak there and do use repetition and that's how you get better." Right now, the Cavs and their coach are begging to differ. It's a debate -- nothing more. But having players on one page, and the coach on another is never a good thing for any team. And not when the resident superstar isn't satisfied. The Cavaliers have lost eight of 12 and are sliding in the standings after being atop the Eastern Conference for much of the season's first half. However, since the opener they've had trouble scoring. After a 90-78 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Sunday, the Cavs rank 24th in the league in scoring (95.3 points per game), 26th in field-goal percentage and 30th (last) in free-throw percentage. Those numbers don't trouble James as much as the fact that the club has scored five or less fastbreak points eight times. In a game earlier this season, the Phoenix Suns outscored the Cavs 34-3 in transition. "At the end of the day, if you don't put points on the board, you're not going to win basketball games," he said. "You can hold a team to 42 percent shooting, but if they make enough offensive plays and we don't, you're going to lose. "We don't get easy buckets. I don't get easy buckets like I used to. Easy buckets can always help, it doesn't hurt. At times, it's fun to get up and down and throw lobs, I've probably caught two lobs this year, that's a career low." Brown recently "tweaked" his lineup, replacing point guard Eric Snow in the starting lineup with rookie Daniel Gibson, who despite struggling in Sunday's loss, has played well. Forward Sasha Pavlovic is getting more minutes and has shown flashes of becoming a reliable scorer off the bench. </div> Source This is going to be the beginning of the end for Mike Brown. He's trying to build his team around the San Antonio Spurs blueprint, which is what he knows and what he's good at. The players complaining they want to run more, shows a lack of trust in their coach. They aren't buying into Mike Brown's system or philosophy, which is a shame, because he's been on Championship teams. I'm really disappointed in LeBron Jame's comments. He's the face of this franchise and the leader of this team. He should be the first to step up and defend his coach.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">After openly suggesting the Cavs change their style of play Monday, a day of reflection had LeBron James humming a little different tune Tuesday. Now, he said, making a change midseason might not be the best idea. ``Right now, we're not trying to switch anything, just trying to get better at what we're doing and what we've been doing most of the year,'' James said. ``You can always make a little change, but you don't want to scratch everything away. You have to pick and choose what you want to change.'' It was just a month ago that James was praising his teammates for their defensive identity and winning games with stops after the Cavs had gone through an 8-1 stretch. Recent losing, it seems, fueled some frustration with the offense.</div> LeBron backtracks on comments
