The bolded is just completely wrong. The Cavs have *one* incredible talent right now, and that's Lebron. Then we have a good talent, Kevin Love. (The jury is out on IT until we see how he recovers, so leaving him out here).
After those two? We have nobody who would be a starter on a good playoff team! 36 year old DWade (he turns 36 this week) can no longer handle starters minutes and although he is great at maximizing what talent he has left, has completely lost his athleticism. TT is basically a bench energy guy roleplayer and has declined some in any case. Jae Crowder could work in a great system with a great coach, but as we are seeing this year, talent-wise he is a bench role player. Jeff Green is Jeff Green -- good player but inconsistent, been some years since he started. Kyle Korver -- another 36 year old who is on the downside of his career, although he's still good off the bench. JR Smith has fallen off a cliff. Shump is Shump. Calderon is Calderon. etc.
This team has an unusual number of good bench role players, but without Kyrie it's obvious what a talent gap we have at the starter level. I mean, how many times have you looked at crunch time lineups for this team and said to yourself, Jesus fucking Christ, two or three of these guys shouldn't even be on the court!
Until IT comes fully back we have three positions (PG, SG, and center) where we are at a huge, massive disadvantage every night. Even if we get back last year's IT, we will still be at a massive *defensive* disadvantage at all three of those positions, although our offense should hopefully be humming.
This is a poorly constructed roster with major talent deficiencies and Lebron serves to conceal that. If you want to blame someone for our sitution, I would blame the FRONT OFFICE, which constructed the roster, before I would blame Lue.
Totally agree that Lue is not at the level of Stevens, Popovich, Kerr. But talent is the most important factor, it is way more important than coaching. Stevens could never get by Lue as long as he was held back by starting guys like Crowder who got exposed in the playoffs. Lue beat Kerr before Kerr got Kevin Durant. (Blatt would have beat Kerr too if not for injuries).
Even Popovich, who is still the best of the bunch -- with Kawhi Leonard injured the Spurs are right around our record, even though they have decent talent (Aldridge, Gasol, a bunch of very good role players like Green, Mills, Ginobli, etc.).