The Cavaliers are repeating themselves, 2 years after firing David Blatt

If the NBA is cyclical, then the Cleveland Cavaliers are an embodiment of it. Two years ago, we watched the Cavaliers gear up for a regular season meeting against the Golden State Warriors on Martin Luther King Day. The similarities are eerie to the game that will be played on national television Monday night. (The game airs at 8 p.m. ET on TNT.)

Golden State has skated through the past few seasons with plenty of controversy but virtually no in-season drama. Cleveland, on the flip side, has become a Petri dish for viewing how a team navigates interpersonal drama between teammates. Consider these similarities headed into Monday’s game, and how they stack up to two seasons ago:

That last one warrants some explanation.

In 2016, most of the drama surrounding Cleveland was held over from the previous season, when then-head coach David Blatt frustrated his players with favoritism, mental lapses, and a failure to properly draw up plays out of timeouts, according to reporting by Cleveland.com at the time. When the Cavaliers were blown out by the Warriors in their second matchup, Blatt was secretly skating on thin ice. After two wins, the Cavaliers lost another game and Blatt was fired despite his 30-12 record.

Cleveland has problems on many levels this season, beginning on the court. Their defense may not be salvageable under the current roster — though there are trades the Cavaliers could make to improve it — and their depth has been ravaged by injuries, although the team’s health is finally returning to normal.

But we have also recently heard noise off the court. Cleveland.com’s Joe Vardon reported Monday that players have “grumbled” about LeBron James holding onto the ball too long and only throwing “assist passes,” rather than ones that unselfishly helped the offense. There have also been complaints about head coach Tyronn Lue’s lineups, per Vardon, specifically around the absence of Channing Frye, who has played sparingly during the team’s 3-8 run in its past 11 games.

“(If players) have agendas, we’ve got to get rid of our agendas and play the right way,” Lue said.

As for James, he isn’t worried: “(It’s) just us during the regular season,” he said.

The defense, the lack of cohesion — it’s messy, but the Cavaliers also rattled off 18 wins in 19 games earlier this year. They can play better.

But as Cleveland prepares to make a fourth straight run at the Finals, we’re all poignantly aware that this isn’t about the first or second round. This isn’t really about the Eastern Conference Finals, either, although it appears that there are teams in the East poised to give the Cavaliers a greater fight than anything they’ve seen since James’ return.

No, Cleveland’s season will be judged based off getting to the Finals, and really, how well they play once they’re there. Any lapse before that isn’t acceptable for them. That’s why Blatt was fired two years ago despite a strong regular season start. The situation hasn’t changed since.

We’re not suggesting that Lue, now two years into his time running the Cavaliers, is on the verge of the same fate. The circumstances are different — Lue is well liked by his players (and specifically James), and there’s no assistant coach waiting in the wings that could conceivably right this ship. (Cleveland’s two lead assistants are Larry Drew and Jim Boylan, two longtime assistants who have both only briefly held top coaching jobs.)

But it’s remarkable how Cleveland has worked themselves back into the same situation that they found themselves in two years ago. Sure, in 2016, it all worked out and the Cavaliers have a world championship to show for it. Maybe the NBA really is cyclical.

Lue, though, has his own worries about how Monday night could go.

And if Cleveland gets embarrassed, it’s hard to see 2018 ending the same way 2016 did.