>For sure. What's extremely remarkable (and not talked about
>enough in the Curry/Harden MVP discussion) is how Lebron has
>been the engine behind this 180 degree turn. The Cavs were
>under .500 - people often forget that. Many were calling for
>a nuclear destruction of the composition --- Bron comes back -
>they get key acquisitions; buy into Kang brand TeamBall - and
>all of a sudden Cleveland has been the best team in the league
>over the past 35-40 games.
>
>Blatt cool, but Kang the real patriarch of the team.


Something else mentioned in that podcast was the positive effect of getting rid of Dion Waiters. While the Cavs were on the slide in the beginning of the season, Windhorst said LeBron didn't like the fact both Waiters and Kyrie were effectively ball hogs.

Cue Bags coming into this post any minute now.

LeBron does deserve credit for the Cavs improving, but the trades were huge as well, both in terms of the subtraction of Waiters and the addition of Mozgov, who LeBron loves according to the podcast. Windhorst said Mozgov kind of rejuvenated LeBron and shook him out of the negative feelings he had while they were losing.