CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cavs have plenty of talent, but according to cleveland.com beat reporter Chris Fedor, they’re missing something crucial in their quest for championship contention: someone willing to hold the team accountable without filter in the locker room.
In a brutally honest segment on the latest Wine and Gold Talk podcast, Fedor revealed conversations he’s had with sources around the NBA that point to a leadership void that’s becoming increasingly apparent as the season progresses.
“The Cavs miss Georges Niang, and they miss Caris LeVert and they miss a level of leadership. Behind the scenes they do. I wonder if they have the right guys from a leadership standpoint,” Fedor said after multiple conversations with NBA sources over the past 48 hours.
The issue, as Fedor explains, isn’t about having positive leaders – the team has plenty of those. What they’re missing is someone willing to hold players accountable with brutal honesty, especially after underperforming games like their recent narrow win against the six-win Indiana Pacers.
“Thomas Bryant is not that he’s energetic, he’s somebody who has won, gotten to the NBA finals, but he’s like this ray of sunshine that always brings positivity,” Fedor explained. “They need an a-hole. That’s what they need in the locker room. And Georges was willing at times to be that.”
This leadership void becomes particularly evident when examining the personalities of the Cavs’ current core. Fedor points out that neither Evan Mobley nor Jarrett Allen has that confrontational personality. Even Donovan Mitchell, for all his talents, isn’t naturally inclined toward that role.
“That’s not Evan. That’s not who he is. Right? That’s not Jarrett. That’s not who he is. And it’s not even really who Donovan is,” Fedor elaborated. “Donovan’s not that kind of guy. He takes leadership in a different kind of form.”
The contrast between last season’s roster and this year’s becomes stark when viewing it through this lens.
Niang and LeVert provided more than just on-court production – they created a locker room dynamic that kept players accountable. Without them, there’s a void that’s increasingly apparent as the team struggles to play complete games against even the league’s worst competition.
Fedor went so far as to suggest a potential solution that might raise eyebrows: “I think the Cavs should look to trade for Georges Nang. I do. Or a guy like him ... somebody like that, that can come in and kind of like ruffle feathers in the locker room, that guy, I think they should look at potentially trading for.”
The situation evokes memories of the Cavaliers’ 2018 season when then-general manager Koby Altman completely overhauled the roster mid-season because, as Fedor described it, they were “marching a slow death” with poor locker room dynamics. While the current situation isn’t that dire, the parallel suggests a potential area for improvement before the trade deadline.
The most telling aspect of Fedor’s analysis came when he described what would have happened if Niang were still with the team after their struggle against Indiana: “This was a game where I think he would have spoken up in the locker room afterward and said, no, not good enough. Indiana sucks.”
For Cavaliers fans looking for insight into what’s happening behind the scenes and what might be holding this team back from reaching its potential, this episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast provides a fascinating look at the intangibles that championship teams require. Listen to the full conversation between Chris Fedor and host Ethan Sands to hear the complete breakdown of Cleveland’s leadership challenges.
Here’s the podcast for this week: