Report: Cavs player says team dysfunction is 'worst it's ever been'

This likely won't come as a surprise to anyone who's followed the Cleveland Cavaliers this season, but the players on the reigning three-time Eastern Conference champion don't think their regular-season dysfunction is comparable to that of past years.

"I had a player tell me when we were in San Antonio (last Tuesday) that it's the worst it’s ever been," ESPN's Dave McMenamin said on "The Hoop Collective" podcast on Monday.

That mostly jives with previous reports and soundbites that have come out of the Cavs' locker room, including "prominent" players telling the media that the team as currently constructed isn't a true championship contender, players pointing fingers at each other in a heated team meeting, and LeBron James calling this the most difficult year of his career along with suggesting the Cavs could get bounced early in the playoffs.

The on-court product has reflected the dysfunction, as the Cavs have the league's 29th-ranked defense and a barely positive point differential. They've had rough patches in each of the past three seasons and marched to the Finals anyway, but neither the vibe nor the results were this bad.

McMenamin suggested that effectively exchanging Kyrie Irving for a hobbled Isaiah Thomas has been the biggest factor in Cleveland's disillusionment with its current roster.

"The last three years, the guys in that locker room felt like they had the best team. Or if not the best team, a team that certainly had enough to beat any other team," McMenamin said. "And that was because they had two top players in LeBron and Kyrie Irving. And by taking Kyrie Irving away and adding a player in Isaiah Thomas, who is not the same guy he was - maybe someday he will be that guy again, but he’s not that guy right now - it's kind of driving these guys crazy."