The NBA has made its fans wait patiently for its biggest, most intriguing storyline of the year. 

Finally, Thursday night, LeBron James will take the court with his hometown team and rebuilt roster to take on the New York Knicks. The game will be televised on TNT, and it is sure to draw a big audience. Just how big will the event be? Ask LeBron:

One of the biggest ever? That seems like a stretch, although Cleveland has apparently been preparing for it as such:

Perhaps the event itself isn't one of the biggest ever, but the ramifications of James' return home might be.

The Cavaliers have built the NBA's newest Big 3 around James, Kevin Love, and Kyrie Irving, and they are expected to be championship contenders for the foreseeable future. James is just 29 years old, Love is 26, and Irving is 22. Talented free agents will likely be willing to take paycuts to join them for a shot at a championship. Furthermore, with the rising NBA salary cap, the Cavaliers may be able to get clever and find ways to continue to build around their Big 3. Simply: James' homecoming has changed the landscape of the NBA.

The city of Cleveland will also profit: The Economist predicted that James' return could be worth up to $500 million in revenue for the city. The Cavaliers are the most expensive NBA team to see live, and the team has introduced a lottery ticketing system to get fans into games. The area around the arena will surely benefit as fans pack bars, restaurants, and shops before games.

So, while the event may not be all that big — it's just one game in 82 — the entire act of James' homecoming is certainly one of the biggest stories in recent NBA history.

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Like a Sun or star of greater gravity, LeBron James has pulled all things toward Cleveland, where he'll make his return on Thursday night.

Beyoncé is supposedly there, Jay-Z in tow. So are Justin Bieber and Kendrick Lamar and Usher and maybe Timberlake.

Before them, LeBron drew Kevin Love — a transformational player who could have played New York or Los Angeles or any other place a year from now — to Ohio. Guys like Shawn Marion drifted there too, bypassing places that could have, if he had been interested, given him more money.

Before that LeBron halted the apparatus of NBA free agency entirely while he picked a new team. With NBA GMs too scared to let him get away and NBA players too unsure of where he'd settle, there was a league-wide pause that ended all at once when his Sports Illustrated essay went live.

His transit to Cleveland reorganized the structure of the NBA universe and all the objects within it. Cleveland went from the margins to the center. The last two No. 1 overall draft picks — the most valuable commodities in the NBA — spun off to Minnesota. Miami collapsed and reformed. The Bulls splashed an uncharacteristic amount of cash, forming a pair of twin superteams in at the top of the Eastern Conference. The Rockets were hurled downward into a new trajectory that can be traced, like all things NBA, back to LeBron.

We talk about "star" athletes as if the are only two tiers: stars and non-stars. If a given player achieves some noteworthy level of on-court success and off-court celebrity, we elevate them to the status of "star."

What we've seen with LeBron shows how empty this elevation is. When it comes to star athletes, there is only LeBron. He goes somewhere and takes a league and a culture with him. He is massive in a way no one else approaches.

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The New York Knicks played spoilers to LeBron James' homecoming to the Cleveland Cavaliers Thursday night, pulling off a 95-90 victory.

James struggled throughout the night, scoring 17 points on 5-15 shooting with 8 turnovers, and much of the Cavs looked disoriented and unfamiliar with each other. Meanwhile, the Knicks used a balanced team effort and some surprisingly stout defense to put the clamps on the Cavs.

However, late in the fourth quarter, with the game very much still in balance, the Knicks nearly blew their huge win.

Up five points with 2:18 to play, the Knicks were pressured by the Cavs defense, took forever to get into their offensive set, and ended up with a crucial shot clock violation.

As you can see, the Knicks didn't even get the ball over until there were 16 seconds left in the clock, almost risking an 8-second violation to get the ball across halfcourt. Even still, the Knicks weren't in their offense.

Then, after pointlessly passing the ball back and forth with no action, Knicks guard Iman Shumpert received the ball at the top of the key with 10 seconds left and had to force the action. The Knicks zipped around, guard Pablo Prigioni passed up an open layup, and forward Jason Smith held onto the ball, unaware of the clock expiring.

On the ensuing Cavs possession, Kyrie Irving drove to the basket for a layup, making it a three-point Knicks lead.

Then, on the very next play, the Cavs again pressed the Knicks in the back-court, and the Knicks didn't get the ball across until about 15 seconds left were in the shot clock. The refs may have actually missed the violation, because they happen so infrequently:

And then when they did get into their offense, Carmelo Anthony held on to the ball too long, unable to create space against LeBron James. He dumped it off to J.R. Smith who was forced to try to create something out of nothing with the clock winding down:

The only positives the Knicks were able to take away from these blunders was taking almost a full minute off the clock. They totally lucked out on the following Cavs possession when Kevin Love missed an open three-pointer.

J.R. Smith and Anthony then made up for the previous plays in the final minute. On the next Knicks possession, Smith drove the lane for a floater to put the Knicks back up by five. After a layup by James on the other end, Carmelo Anthony stuck a jumper in James' face to put the Knicks up five, effectively sealing the win.

SEE ALSO: Nike Releases Intense Commercial About LeBron James Returning To Cleveland

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Michael Jordan is pretty much universally recognized as the greatest basketball player ever. And rightfully so. During his 15-year NBA career, he averaged 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game while winning six NBA championships. So he is, without a doubt, the best player in Chicago Bulls history. There has never been—and never will be—a better Bulls player than MJ.

Who are the G.O.A.T.s for the NBA's 29 other franchises, though? For some teams—like the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have their prodigal son LeBron James back in the mix—the answer is obvious. But for others, you have to do some digging through the history books in order to make a compelling case for one player over everyone else. With the NBA season now in full swing, we decided to do just that and came up with our list of The Best Franchise Players in NBA History. Scroll down to see the 30 faces of the NBA's 30 franchises.

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Atlanta Hawks: Bob Pettit

Years Played for Team: 1954-65
Career Stats: 26.4 PPG, 16.2 RPG, 3.0 APG (BPG was not an official stat when he played)
Accolades: 2-time NBA MVP, 11-time NBA All-Star, 10-time All-NBA First Team, NBA champion
Runner-Up: Dominique Wilkins

We very easily could have slid 'Nique into this slot, and we doubt that anyone would have argued with us. But it's hard to ignore the impact that Pettit had on the NBA back in the 1950s and 1960s when the Hawks played in Milwaukee and St. Louis. The 6-foot-9 forward/center was the first player to ever win the NBA MVP award. He also made the NBA All-Star team during every single season he played in the league. And he was an integral part of the Hawks' 1958 championship team. He was later elected into the Hall of Fame in 1970 and named to the NBA's "50 Greatest Players in NBA History" team in 1996. So he gets the nod over The Human Highlight Film here.

Boston Celtics: Bill Russell

Years Played for Team: 1956-69
Career Stats: 15.1 PPG, 22.5 RPG, 4.3 APG (BPG was not an official stat when he played)
Accolades: 5-time NBA MVP, 12-time NBA All-Star, 3-time All-NBA First Team, 11-time NBA champion
Runner-Up: Larry Bird

The Celtics franchise has been filled with great players over the last 60 years or so. From Bird to Bob Cousy to Kevin McHale, there's been no shortage of talent within the organization. But despite that, it's pretty easy to pick Russell as the best of the bunch. He won 11 NBA championships during his career, averaged a ridiculous amount of rebounds, and is one of the few players to ever play the game of basketball who could make a claim to Michael Jordan's "G.O.A.T." title and not sound crazy.

Brooklyn Nets: Jason Kidd

Years Played for Team: 2001-07
Career Stats: 12.6 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 8.7 APG, 1.9 SPG
Accolades: 10-time NBA All-Star, 5-time All-NBA First Team, 5-time NBA assists leader, NBA Champion
Runner-Up: Buck Williams

Julius Erving only played for the Nets during their time in the ABA. So we didn't include him here (not to worry, he'll show up later). But even if he had played for the Nets in the NBA, J-Kidd still probably would have won out. He has the second most assists in NBA history (behind only John Stockton).  He ranks third all-time in regular-season triple-doubles with 107. And back in the early 2000s, he led the Nets to back-to-back NBA Finals trips and, even though he didn't ultimately lead them to a title, he did help them dominate the Eastern Conference for quite a few years before getting traded to the Mavericks in 2008. He won a championship later with Dallas, but the best years of his career were spent running point for the Nets in New Jersey.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are 1-2 after getting blown out, 101-82, in Portland on Tuesday night.

LeBron James had a quiet game. He scored 11 points on 12 shots, going scoreless in the second half while taking only one free throw in the game.

As strange as it sounds, this passive performance appears to have been by design.

ESPN's Brian Windhorst, who is probably the best, most well-sourced LeBron reporter out there, wrote after the game that LeBron was letting his young Cavs teammates struggle early in the season so they eventually buy into his plan.

From Windhorst:

In recent days there have been growing questions as to whether James might be hurt — he has dealt with some minor back soreness — or in some way suddenly physically diminished because at times he has looked lackluster.

That is not the case at all.

This is a conscious decision on how he plans to operate in a passive-aggressive mission to yank some teammates toward his way of thinking. Let some of them fail at their way so they will be open to new ideas, is what it looks and sounds like.

After the game, LeBron blamed the loss on his teammates' "bad habits."

"There's been a lot of losing basketball around here for a few years,"he told SI's Ben Golliver. "A lot of bad habits have been built over the last couple of years. When you play that style of basketball it takes a lot to get it up out of you. But I’m here to help."

That appears to be a shot at Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters, and Tristan Thompson — the three young players who played meaningful minutes for last year's Cavs team.

It's undeniable that LeBron took a backseat on Tuesday. He has a career usage rate (an advanced metric that measures the percentage of a team's plays that a player uses) of 31.6. On Tuesday he had a usage rate of 19.7.

He took just four shots in the second half — a half in which he mostly just stood around:

In LeBron's voluntary absence, Irving and Waiters ate up most of the possessions. That went terribly. They were a combined 6-for-28 from the field. Waiters played 28 minutes and somehow managed to not record a single rebound or assist while shooting 3-for-11 and scoring six points.

Irving's shot chart looked like this:

Golliver gave a brutal assessment of LeBron's performance after the game:

The plan, it seems, was for James to avoid overexerting his four-time MVP influence so that his teammates can learn to play the right way on their own. That’s a bad plan. Cleveland’s younger players followed James’ detached lead right off the cliff. James deferred, and his teammates compensated by pounding the basketball. James floated on the perimeter, and his teammates enthusiastically chucked low-percentage shots. James never set the tone defensively in the second half, and his teammates allowed clean look after clean look for Portland’s sharpshooting guards.

In his first stint in Cleveland, LeBron was a one-man show with some really shaky role players around him.

The second time around, his plan appears to be this: Let Waiters and Irving see what happens if all they try to do is score. When that backfires, don't be a safety net. Once they realize that they have to play within the system and buy in on defense, start taking a more active role within the offense.

He's basically pushing the baby birds out of the nest here and watching them flap around on the ground below.

NOW WATCH: Here's The Science Behind How LeBron James Lost All That Weight

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Dion Waiters, the 22-year-old guard who's the X-factor for the revamped Cleveland Cavaliers, does not appear to be on the same page as coach David Blatt about what his role should be.

Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal reports that the Cavaliers want Waiters to focus two things: "defending like crazy and shooting catch-and-shoot 3-pointers."

They've been holding him after practice to work specifically on catch-and-shoot threes.

When asked about this role, though, Waiters gave Lloyd this ominous quote:

"That’s not my game. I can do it, but you know what I’m effective at: pick-and-roll and things like that."

Okay then!

The quote comes after the Cavaliers lost to the Trail Blazers 101-82 in a game in which LeBron refused to shoot to prove a point.

Waiters was 3-for-11 for 6 points in 28 minutes in that game. He didn't record a single assist, rebound, or free throw attempt.

There was a whole lot of this:

And not a lot of, you know, passing the ball:

Waiters has a reputation for being a gunner. He fancies himself a volume shooter and a top-level scorer. That's fine if he's on a team that lacks creative offensive players. But for this Cavs team to play up to its potential, the offense is going to run through LeBron James and Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving, and Waiters will contribute by knocking down wide-open shots when the defense collapses, not by jacking up contested shots and trying to create offense.

Before the season, there was widespread concern that Waiters wouldn't accept this lesser role. For example, over the summer he tweeted "Nooooooooo" when asked if he would come off the bench:

He also tweeted out a highlight video from a game where he scored 24 points. For better or worse, Dion Waiters thinks he's one of the best players in the NBA:

The irony here is that Waiters is an awesome catch-and-shoot 3-point shooter. He made 42% of those shots last year, Lloyd notes. If he would accept the role the Cavs are giving him, he'd be a great asset. But if he continues doing what he's doing, he hurts the Cavs more than he helps them.

His shot chart for the year is ugly. He's shooting 33% and scoring eight points per game. The Cavs are getting outscored by 6.9 points per 100 possessions when he's on the court:

LeBron has talked a length about how hard of a process it's going to be for guys like Waiters and Irving to break the bad habits they developed over the last few years. One of his greatest challenges will be convincing Waiters to be the player the team needs him to be.

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The Cleveland Cavaliers fell to 1-3 on Wednesday night, losing to the Utah Jazz 102-100 on a buzzer beater by Gordon Hayward.

The Cavs fell behind double-digits in the first half but slowly worked their way back into the game with some solid defense in the third quarter.

LeBron James, who made headlines on Tuesday night by purposely refusing to take shots to prove a point to his teammates, was much more assertive than he has been in recent games.

He scored 31 points on 18 shots and played 42 minutes. He even appeared to wave off Shawn Marion when he tried to sub in for him with two minutes left in the third quarter.

The Cavs looked dead with 13 seconds left, but LeBron single-handedly brought them back.

Down 98-94, he hit a ridiculous fall-away three-pointer from the corner:

Look at where he was when he hit this:

After two Jazz free throws made it 100-97 Jazz, LeBron pump-faked Derrick Favors and drew a foul. He made all three free throws to tie the game at 100-100:

But then Gordon Hayward dropped the dagger on a gorgeous step-back. Fantastic shot:

After the game, LeBron criticized teammate Tristan Thompson for not getting close enough to Hayward, saying, "Tristan laid off a little too much."

The Cavs relied on a ton of isolation plays on Wednesday night. They only had six assists as a team — which is tied for the franchise's lowest total since 1985. Without the one-on-one play of Kyrie Irving (34 points, 0 assists) and LeBron's heroics in the final minute, it would have been much worse than 102-100.

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LeBron James isn't looking like LeBron James right now.

This may not mean anything. The Cleveland Cavaliers — who added LeBron, Kevin Love, Shawn Marion, and Mike Miller in the offseason — are in the embryonic stage of their development. Also, 80% of LeBron is better than pretty much every other player in the NBA.

But LeBron is definitely off. He hasn't been the overpowering physical force he was in Miami early in his second stint with the Cavaliers.

There are a wide variety of theories for why — age? weight loss? injury? master plan? — but no single explanation that the NBA world can agree on.

The Evidence:

1. LeBron is getting to the basket less, and he's less effective once he gets there. He took 49% of his shots at the rim last year and made 79.2% of those shots. This year he's taking 35% of his shots at the rim and making 53.8% of them. 

2. 11.6% of his shots last year were dunks. This year 4% of his shots are dunks.

3. He got chased down by Gordon Hayward in the open court, somehow:

4. He's taking possessions off on defense:

The NBA world is noticing.

We are just not used to seeing LeBron get stonewalled by Gordon Hayward at the rim in one-on-one situations: 

What Is Happening?

Bill Simmons went on ESPN Radio on Wednesday and threw out a couple of possible explanations (via Big Lead):

Anyone who thinks LeBron looks the same is fooling themselves. He doesn’t have the same impulsiveness. He looks 20 pounds lighter physically. Just his general force-of-natureness capacity — whatever you want to say — it’s not there. And he’s driving to the basket, and he’s under the rim now, and I don’t know what that means. I don’t know if he’s hurt, I don’t know if the big weight loss has affected his game or whatever. This is not a jump-to-conclusion thing. I have been watching this Cavs team since the preseason games started, and he does not look the same.

LeBron lost significant weight this offseason by cutting out sugar, carbs, and dairy for 67 straight days. He said before the season that the weight loss was a mental challenge, and it had "nothing to do with basketball." A bunch of NBA players have gone on similar paleo-style diets — most notably Ray Allen in Miami before the 2013-2014 season. There are no real examples of paleo guys coming out sluggish the next season.

There's also a theory that LeBron is hurt. He sat out a few preseason games because of a back injury.

ESPN's Brian Windhorst shot down that rumor after the Trail Blazers game. In doing so, Windhorst presented another theory that would explain LeBron's lackluster start: he's purposely letting his team fail to teach his teammates a lesson.

Here's Windhorst on whether LeBron is hiding an injury:

"That is not the case at all.

"This is a conscious decision on how he plans to operate in a passive-aggressive mission to yank some teammates toward his way of thinking. Let some of them fail at their way so they will be open to new ideas, is what it looks and sounds like."

LeBron scored 11 points on 12 shots against Portland. In the second half he pulled a 2006 Kobe, refusing to shoot and letting his teammates bury themselves. After the game he reportedly got into a tiff with Kyrie Irving before telling the media that Kyrie and others had "bad habits."

The idea here is this: LeBron isn't going to just take over for these guys when the offense isn't working. He's going to force them to play team basketball.

One of the dominant narratives of the preseason was LeBron's newfound interest in being a leader. He spent the summer reading books about leadership styles, and right before the team's first practice he called a players-only meeting in which he went around and told each player what he expected of him. He's fashioning himself the wise old man of the Cavs, here to show the unlearn'd youth the path to a title.

That's fine ... but where does it leave new head coach David Blatt?

Blatt has decades of international coaching experience, and he is widely regarded as a basketball genius. But he has never coached an NBA team, much less an NBA team with a player who has amassed more power and influence than anyone since Michael Jordan.

After the Cavs' opening-night loss to the Knicks, Blatt reportedly held a fiery team meeting in which he called out various players.

A few nights later, LeBron told Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon-Journal that he didn't believe in pep talks:

Also of note, James seemed to dismiss Blatt’s fire and brimstone speech he brought after the Cavs lost the opener to the Knicks. The Cavs beat the Bulls hours after Blatt laid into them. 'I think pep talks and things of that nature get overblown,' James said. 'There’s a lot of pep talks when you lose, too. They just don’t come up.' Be prepared: it sounds like another blistering speech is coming Wednesday before the Cavs play the Jazz. Blatt said he didn't deliver a message after Tuesday's game because he was saving it for Wednesday.

The Cavaliers are struggling with Blatt's offense. Some smart analysts expected this to be one of the best offensive teams ever. Instead, the Cavs are dead last in the NBA in assists per game.

How do you explain the greatest player in the world suddenly looking human?

Is LeBron getting old? Is he weaker now that he lost 20 pounds? Is he hurt? Does he want to take a backseat and let his teammates figure out how to play together? Is it just a four-game sample and he'll be fine?

LeBron has been so good for so long that seeing him take a small step back, even for a week, is jarring. The Cavaliers are 1-3. They can't get anywhere near their lofty expectations without a fully charged LeBron.

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LeBron James was one of the best football players in Ohio in high school.

He was an all-state wide receiver as a junior in 2001. Urban Meyer offered him a scholarship when he was an assistant at Notre Dame and later told the Los Angeles Times that LeBron had the potential to be a first-round NFL draft pick. He only quit football when he broke his wrist before his senior year. In 2010 he told the New York Times that football was his first love.

Even in the 13 years since LeBron made all-state, the climate around football has changed. A recent New York Times magazine story compared it to tobacco, and there's a debate among parents about whether football is too dangerous for kids.

ESPN's Chris Broussard reports that LeBron will not let his two sons, who are 10- and seven-years old, play the sport:

The James' children:

Participation in youth football is down from where it was six years ago. Some high profile sports figures — like Brett Favre and Mark Cuban— have said they wouldn't let their kids play football because of concern over long-term brain injuries. 

Despite this, the NFL has remained the country's most popular professional league. Roger Goodell wants to grow league revenues from $10 billion to $25 billion by 2027. LeBron himself is a huge Cowboys fan:

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Recovering from losing the best player in the NBA isn't easy, but early this season the Miami Heat have faired pretty well.

They're fourth in the East at 5-3, and have found ways to work around LeBron James' departure from Miami this summer.

Though Chris Bosh has been pegged as the new star of the team, Dwyane Wade has thrived returning to his old role as the primary playmaker for the Heat.

In an interview with Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald, Wade revealed the primary reason he's so happy this season:

"I got the ball in my hands," Wade said.

Wade enjoyed his time with James, and certainly didn’t want it to end, but playing alongside his friend was never the easiest of things individually.

...

"It’s my job to put pressure on the defense and try to make plays for the other guys."

"It makes me feel good that the other guys are feeling good about themselves by me drawing two guys, kicking it to them and them hitting shots and getting into that rhythm and flow."

So far this season, Wade is averaging 19.8 points on 50.8% shooting with 6.4 assists in 32 minutes per game, a new career-low. However, his per-36-minutes numbers show he's averaging 22 points and seven assists per game, his highest scoring average in two years and his highest assist average in eight year.

Similarly, Wade's usage has gone up. Usage percentage calculates the amount of possessions a player uses, weighing field goal attempts, free throws, assists, and turnovers. Wade's usage rate this season is 30%, his most since the 2011-12 season. During the Big 3 era in Miami, Wade's usage rate dropped each year as LeBron became the primary offensive force.

This season, the Heat are sixth in the NBA in offensive efficiency, and they're second in the league in assist percentage, which measures the number of assisted field goals a team scores. The team's pass-happy offense has allowed them to overcome missing James' incredible playmaking abilities.

Wade's resurgence as a primary offensive option for the Heat has not only helped them continue to be a strong playoff team in the East, it's reminded everyone that he's still one of the best players in the NBA.

SEE ALSO: How Dirk Nowitzki Invented The Most Unguardable Shot In The NBA

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LeBron James says his two sons, who are seven and 10 years old, aren't allowed to play football until high school.

He explained to ESPN's Chris Broussard on Thursday that it's both a safety issue and a class issue.

From ESPN:

"We don't want them to play in our household right now until they understand how physical and how demanding the game is. Then they can have their choice in high school, we'll talk over it. But right now there's no need for it. There's enough sports they can play. They play basketball, they play soccer, they play everything else but football and hockey."

"It's a safety thing. As a parent you protect your kids as much as possible. I don't think I'm the only one that's not allowing his kids to play football, it's just that I'm LeBron James and it gets put in the headlines for no reason."

LeBron was one of the best football players in Ohio in high school. When asked about why he won't let his sons play even though he played, he said he was trying to escape poverty:

"I needed a way out. My kids don't need a way out. They're all right. I needed a way out when I was a kid. I tried to do whatever it took to get out. That's my excuse."

Before quitting football to focus on basketball before his senior season in 2002, LeBron got a scholarship offer from Notre Dame and was an all-state wide receiver. 

LeBron grew up poor in Akron. He missed 100 days of school in fourth grade because he lacked a stable home environment. He now makes around $33 million per year.

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Coming into every NBA season, there are two common narratives about players returning from the offseason: they're in the best shape of their lives or they've added several pounds of muscle.

The latter is a common refrain for rookies and young players. Adding muscle is necessary for both ends of the floor as they play against older, stronger veterans in the league. Players routinely bulk up in the offseason as they enter the primes of their careers.

In discussing Andrew Wiggins' potential with CBS's Zach Harper, David Thorpe, an ESPN NBA analyst and executive director for the Pro Training Center in Clearwater, Florida, said adding muscle can actually be detrimental to players.

First, Thorpe mentions how adding too much muscle would hurt Wiggins' development, and then he expands the picture to the rest of the NBA:

"It would be a gigantic, enormous, criminal mistake if he were to bulk up. I believe, and I believe over the next 10 years we'll see it more, that's one of the reasons why guys get hurt so much more. Their skeletons are made to hold a certain body type. Bone density is different with every player. There's a combination there of your bones and your muscles that you need to respect. He is this incredible athlete that needs to look like that at all times."

Thorpe continues his thought, saying Wiggins will "develop strength anyway over time."

Thorpe's latter point certainly rings true to many young players who enter the NBA. Players frequently enter the NBA at 19, 20, and 21 years old, not fully in their athletic prime. Though weightlifting is certainly a necessary part of training and strength is vital to the game, many of them are still growing into their bodies. Like Wiggins, they'll develop strength as they mature.

In recent cases, older players have been losing weight to reduce the wear-and-tear on their bodies and extend their playing days. LeBron James famously lost weight this summer, as did other stars like Carmelo Anthony.

The movement of losing weight won't stop many players from adding several pounds of muscle during their offseasons — nor should it — but it'll be interesting to monitor in young, upcoming players, who trainers believe may benefit from their smaller frames. 

SEE ALSO: The NBA's Best Players Are Losing A Bunch Of Weight, And It's All Because Of Kobe Bryant

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One of the NBA season's most fascinating subplots is the power dynamic between LeBron James and coach David Blatt.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are 5-4 after losing to the Denver Nuggets 106-97 on Monday night.

The Nuggets have been one of the worst teams in the NBA this year, and they were coming off an ugly loss to the Knicks where they scored eight points in the third quarter.

It's a bad loss for a Cleveland team that is working through more growing pains than expected.

After the game Joe Vardon, the Cavs beat writer for the Northeast Ohio Media Group, wrote about the relationship between LeBron and Blatt — the first-time NBA head coach who spent decades overseas before getting hired this summer. 

The takeaway: there isn't really much of a relationship between the two, not yet anyway. From Vardon:

It's hard to say James and Blatt have jelled or are even in the process of jelling at this point in the season. They have little in common. But that kind of relationship, if it ever develops between Blatt and James, will take time — spanning perhaps a championship or two.

At minimum, Blatt and James appear to agree on the basic concepts of sharing the ball and playing defense. Each time the Cavaliers have played poorly in a loss, Blatt has deflected criticism publicly away from James and onto his supporting cast. It fosters at least the appearance that Blatt and James are trying to build a championship team together.

LeBron has more power than any other NBA player, and early in the season he has done a lot to cultivate the impression that this is his team. He told reporters that he spent the offseason reading leadership books and studying his new teammates.

Before Blatt was about to start the team's first practice, LeBron abruptly called a players-only meeting where he went around to each individual player and told them what he expected of him this year.

Early in the season he unilaterally experimented with a "sink or swim" strategy where he basically took a backseat and let his teammates fail in order to teach them a lesson. After a win against the Celtics, LeBron told ESPN, "Right now, I feel like the young guys are like my kids. They're not accustomed to reading textbooks. They like iPads. And you got to show them it looks better for them and that's the process we're in right now. You can't just tell them. You have to show them on film and see when they do it right this is the result of it."

Where is Blatt in all of this?

After their opening night loss to the Knicks, Blatt reportedly help a fiery meeting where he criticized everyone, including James.

A few days later, James told the Akron Beacon-Journal that he doesn't put much stock in pep talks, saying, "I think pep talks and things of that nature get overblown."

Blatt has an impressive coaching record in Europe, and he's widely recognized as an X's and O's genius in the basketball world. But he has never faced a situation where he has to manage multiple superstars, and he has certainly never been in a situation like this — where the best player in the world has decided he's going to take on responsibilities usually reserved for the head coach.

It took LeBron a while to warm up to Erik Spoelstra (remember that shoulder-bump thing?), and it's not like anyone is saying the two can't work together. But like everything else with the Cavs right now, LeBron and Blatt are still figuring it out.

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Over the past few weeks, LeBron James has positioned himself as a sole leader of this Cleveland Cavaliers team.

Whether its calling players-only meetings or letting his teammates fail to prove a point, LeBron is doing everything he can to communicate the impression that this is his team.

He isn't just the star player, he's the teacher, the mentor, and the father figure. During his first stint in Cleveland, LeBron was undone by a lackluster supporting cast. Now he intends to take responsibility for making that supporting cast better.

After a recent win over the Boston Celtics, LeBron said he views the rest of the young Cavaliers as his children. When asked to explain the team's defensive struggles, he made an analogy to kids who who are visual learners learning to read textbooks (via ESPN):

"I think on our team we have to see what we do well and what we don't do so well. It's easy to say it, but I kind of used this analogy early this morning: Right now, I feel like the young guys are like my kids. They're not accustomed to reading textbooks. They like iPads. And you got to show them it looks better for them and that's the process we're in right now. You can't just tell them. You have to show them on film and see when they do it right this is the result of it."

Two thoughts:

1. This is a little bit over the top. LeBron is infantilizing his teammates. He's placing himself above them, which of course he is. But guys like Dion Waiters, Tristan Thompson, and essentially Kyrie Irving are ultra-competitive professional athletes making millions of dollars a year. How do they feel about a teammate, even LeBron, calling them children in public?

2. Intentionally or not, he's undermining coach David Blatt here. Blatt should be the one making convoluted analogies like this, not LeBron. LeBron wants to be the leader, but he might be doing so at the expense of a new coach that's still fighting for legitimacy on the NBA level.

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The Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the San Antonio Spurs 92-90 in highly anticipated matchup on Wednesday night.

LeBron James had an off night, scoring just 15 points on 6-17 shooting and turning the ball over five times.

The fifth and final turnover is the one getting the most attention.

After Manu Ginobili missed a free throw with nine seconds left, the Cavs got the rebound and put it in LeBron' hands down 92-90. The results were underwhelming. As he was trying to go coast-to-coast, LeBron fumbled his dribble and turned it over at midcourt to seal the win for the Spurs.

James rightfully took the blame for the turnover, and said after the game, "I felt like I could get to the rim probably, or either get a shot for myself or my teammates. Maybe I was thinking too much because I left the ball behind me."

However, while the Cavs were still in a good position to win or tie the game when James turned it over, they could have had an even better shot had head coach David Blatt managed his timeouts more carefully.

In a 53-second span in the fourth quarter, Blatt burned the team's final three timeouts in seemingly inconsequential circumstances.

• The first came with 1:23 left in the game after Tony Parker hit two free throws to put the Spurs up 89-86. Blatt used a timeout, and in the following possession, LeBron got a layup.
• The next came with 37.4 seconds left in the game after Parker's layup was blocked by Varejao, who got the rebound.
• The final came with 17.7 seconds left in the game after Ginobili hit a layup to put the Spurs up 91-88. Kyrie Irving was fouled on the inbounds and hit both free throws, making it 91-90 Spurs.

The Cavs fouled Ginobili to set up the final play, which resulted in a turnover by James.

Blatt, who is still adjusting to coaching in the NBA for the first time, said after the game, "I don't take all the credit for anything. I'd like not to take all the blame for everything, but that's part of my job so I have to do that." And he's right — it's not entirely his fault. James had two turnovers in the final minute, the last of which was completely self-inflicted.

However, if Blatt had saved a timeout, the Cavs could have inbounded the ball at half-court and gotten a real shot, rather than making James go full-court while being pressed by Ginobili and Duncan.

SEE ALSO: LeBron James Uses Elementary School Analogy To Explain Cleveland's Struggles

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The Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night, their second loss in a row and have now fallen to 5-5 in the first season of LeBron James' return home.

If this sounds familiar it is because James has been here before.

In Nov. 2010, just months after LeBron's controversial decision to take his talents to South Beach, the Miami Heat were 9-8 and many around the sport were questioning whether or not James could co-exist with Dwyane Wade and whether James was already in a power struggle with his coach.

Fast-forward to Wednesday night's loss and LeBron was asked if he is seeing similarities between the early-season struggle of the Cavs and his first season with the Heat and LeBron responded "absolutely."

"There is a sense of comfort," James said in comparing this year's Cavs to the 2010-11 Heat. "You just gotta continue to play, continue to watch film, continue to go over situations, be in situations, and you learn from it."

LeBron can lean back on his time in Miami and know that the Heat won 21 of their next 22 games after starting 9-8 and still made it to the NBA Finals that first season.

So if anybody thinks LeBron is going to panic, he won't, at least not yet.

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LeBron James has more power than anyone else in the NBA.

We saw it when he went to Miami and doubled the value of the franchise. We saw it this summer, when he single-handedly halted free agency until he was good and ready to announce which team he wanted to play for. We saw it when he convinced Kevin Love to come to Cleveland. We saw it when he signed an unusual contract that gives him an unmatched degree of leverage.

And now we're seeing it in the way he has positioned himself as the player/teacher/mentor/coach of the Cavaliers.

The dynamic between LeBron and David Blatt is like nothing else in the NBA. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo described it as a "partnership" where both are responsible for the direction of the team.

"Together, they have to incorporate Love into the offense," Woj writes. "Together, they have to find a defensive tenacity that'll sustain them in the postseason."

LeBron occupies a space between a player and a coach right now. In his column, Wojnarowski said it felt like Blatt and LeBron were "co-coaches" on the sidelines on Wednesday night against the Spurs. 

ESPN caught a bunch of footage of Cleveland's huddles, and "co-coaches" seems like an apt description:

LeBron's body language during huddles is hardly the only sign of his unique new role.

1. Before Wednesday's Spurs game LeBron told ESPN's Chris Broussard that he has "taken on the burden of leading the young guys." From LeBron:

"I've taken on the burden of leading young guys, getting them to understand what it takes to win. And it takes more than just basketball. It's about being a professional, not having a sense of entitlement, being grateful that you're a part of this league. Those things have a lot to do with winning."

"It's going to take a while. When you're losing, you pick up a lot of bad habits. When you walk into the building every night and don't even expect to win, that wears on you, and it takes a while to break it."

That came a few days after he told ESPN that he views the rest of the Cavs as his "kids," and he has to teach them how to read a textbook.

With these quotes LeBron is placing himself above his teammates. He's creating a distance between himself and the other guys, clarifying their relationship as that of a father and son, or a coach and a player, rather than a player and a player. There is the team, and then there is LeBron.

Amin Elhassan, who used to work for the Phoenix Suns, said quotes like this will make the rest of the Cavs shake their heads:

2. Early in the season LeBron only took 12 shots and looked disinterested in a loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. While some speculated that he was hurt, Brian Windhorst of ESPN reported the real reason — LeBron was intentionally letting his teammates fail in order to teach them a lesson.

By refusing to come to the rescue, LeBron was showing his team why they needed to buy into the principles of defense and ball movement that he was preaching. 

The important takeaway here isn't that LeBron was right or wrong, it's that he felt it was within his scope of responsibilities to do this sort of thing.

After that Portland game Blatt said he was "not okay" with LeBron only taking 12 shots. A few days later he introduced a new "food chain" to his team — where LeBron and Kevin Love would get shots first, followed by Kyrie Irving and the rest of the team.

3. LeBron and Blatt aren't feuding or anything, but they've had little public disagreements over the first few weeks of the season.

• Blatt held a rah-rah meeting after the opening-night loss to the Knicks where he ripped his team. LeBron came out a few days later and said he doesn't really believe in pep talks.
• Blatt said his team lacked energy in a loss to the Nuggets. When reporters asked LeBron about Blatt's comments, he said, "It's easy to say that after the fact."
• Right before Blatt was about to start the team's first practice, LeBron called a players-only meeting where he went around and told each guy what he expected of him.
• LeBron said he needs to play fewer minutes.

LeBron has gone to great lengths to be viewed as a leader this year. Early in the season he has taken that to the extreme. He's talking and acting like a coach, and there's no reason to believe he'll stop. The question now is whether he and Blatt can learn to co-exist.

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Kevin Love sounded a little bit lost when he spoke about his role in the offense after Cleveland's loss to San Antonio on Wednesday night.

The Cavaliers are off to a 5-5 start, and Love — more than any other Cavaliers player — has seen his production take a major hit. He's getting fewer shots, scoring fewer points, and shooting the worst percentage of his career.

He told ESPN's Dave McMenamin after the game that he was having trouble adapting to his new role:

"It's come to a point where I'm just trying to find myself in this offense. It's almost related to when you come into the league; usually the guys that dominate the ball so much tend to learn a lot quicker than a guy like myself, a big man. So, I'm just trying to find different spots in the offense."

"Like anything it's going to take time. I'm not worried about it. I'm not mad at it, don't feel any sort of grudge or anything like that. I just want to help this team. I think I came here to win and we're going to figure it out. It's still early." 

The problem is that Love was the focal point of the offense in Minnesota last year. He could get the ball whenever he wanted, wherever he wanted. The entire offense revolved around him.

That's not the case this year.

Before the season even began Love talked about how he was concerned that he would be stranded on the three-point line too much and not get enough touches in the post. After 10 games, it's clear that this is an unresolved issue. 

Love is taking just 20% of his shots at the rim (down from 25% last year) and 43% of his shots from beyond the 3-point line (up from 36% last year). He's also getting to the free throw line three fewer times per game — a direct result of his move from the paint to the perimeter.

LeBron James was asked about getting Love the ball in the post before Friday's game against the Wizards, and he put the responsibility on Love to "demand" the ball down low. From Cleveland.com:

"It's the demand. Kevin's a guy, if he wants the ball in the post, he gets it in the post. If he demands it, we'll give it to him."

All of this is sort of besides the point. The Cavaliers have gotten off to a disappointing start, they're still ranked 4th in offensive efficiency. The problem is that they can't guard anyone. They're ranked 24th in defensive efficiency, and it's hard to see a way that gets considerably better with their current roster.

Their best bet right now might be to try and outscore teams in shootouts. But to do that they need the Kevin Love who was one of the three best offensive players in the NBA last year.

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Before this season, Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh made some interesting comments about the downside of playing with LeBron James.

Bosh had to sacrifice his game more than anyone else during Miami's Big 3 era, and he warned Kevin Love and the rest of the Cleveland Cavaliers they were going to go through the same thing.

It wasn't a criticism of James; it was a recognition that it's tough to go from being a star player to a sidekick.

"Everybody says they want to win,"Bosh told Bleacher Report. "But when you start talking about sacrifice and doing what's right for the team, it's like, 'Wait a minute, I didn't mean that. I want to win, but...' There's always a conjunction with that. It's never what you think it is. And it's always like your weakest point where you got to do it." 

He warned Kevin Love that learning to take a backseat to the best player in the world would be"extremely difficult and extremely frustrating."

After 13 games, it looks like Bosh's prediction was spot on. The Cavs are 6-7, and Love is struggling to find his role in the offense. 

A year ago, Love was one of the most unstoppable offensive players in the league. He averaged nearly 26 points and got to the free throw line about eight times per game. He finished the season third in player efficiency rating, behind only LeBron and Kevin Durant.

This year his numbers have fallen off a cliff. He's averaging about 16 points and getting to the free throw line five times per game. He's taking six fewer shots a night and shooting 40%, his worst shooting percentage since his injury-plagued 2012-13 season.

Love sounded dejected when talking to ESPN's Dave McMenamin about feeling lost:

"It's come to a point where I'm just trying to find myself in this offense. It's almost related to when you come into the league; usually the guys that dominate the ball so much tend to learn a lot quicker than a guy like myself, a big man. So, I'm just trying to find different spots in the offense."

"Like anything it's going to take time. I'm not worried about it. I'm not mad at it, don't feel any sort of grudge or anything like that. I just want to help this team. I think I came here to win and we're going to figure it out. It's still early." 

Love has gone from the center of the universe in Minnesota to a bit part in Cleveland. He's not getting the ball as often as he'd like, or in the areas of the court that he'd like. But that's the sacrifice he made by orchestrating his trade to Cleveland. He must have seen this coming. 

Back in October, Bosh used a food analogy to describe the exact thing that Love is going through on the court:

"You just get your entree and that's it. It's like, wait a minute, I need my appetizer and my dessert and my drink, what are you doing? And my bread basket. What is going on? I'm hungry! It’s a lot different. But if you can get through it, good things can happen. But it never gets easy. Even up until my last year of doing it, it never gets easier."

NOW WATCH: How LeBron James Lost All That Weight Last Summer

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It's that time of year where we reflect back on what we are thankful for and who did the most ridiculous things in sports.

The latter are our biggest turkeys of the year.

This year's group includes a college quarterback who always seems to be doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, an NFL team that can't get out of its own way, a governing body that over-governs, and LeBron James.

Luis Suarez, who bit an opponent at the World Cup.

Uruguay's Luis Suarez did the unthinkable, again, when he bit Italy's Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup.

This was the third time in his career that Suarez had bitten an opponent. He was kicked out of the tournament and was eventually given a four month suspension.

Florida State University quarterback Jameis Winston

The opinions on Jameis Winston are all over the board. But what can't be denied is that somehow he always seems to be doing the wrong thing, in the wrong place, at the worst possible time.

This year alone, he got suspended from the Florida State baseball team for shoplifting crab legs. He was later suspended from the football team for yelling a profanity-laced statement in front of fellow students on campus and then still showed up to the game dressed and ready to play. And then he shoved a ref at a critical moment of a game that could have cost the Seminoles a shot at the national title.

And all of these shenanigans appears to be killing his draft stock which will cost him millions.

The NFL players who injured themselves celebrating sacks.

On two occasions this season, NFL players have suffered seasons-ending injuries while celebrating a sack.

The first came when Stephen Tulloch of the Detroit Lions sacked Aaron Rodgers and then celebrated with an emphatic version of Rodgers' own "discount double-check" celebration.

The second one was worse. Not only did Lamarr Houston of the Chicago Bears not use the Tulloch injury as a warning of what not to do, Houston tried the same celebration and injured his knee late in a blowout loss.