Winless and Without a Leader, It's Time for Cleveland Cavaliers to Blow It Up

Already nearly unidentifiable from the team that won a NBA title just two years ago, the Cleveland Cavaliers removed another key piece from the greatest period in franchise history.      

Head coach Tyronn Lue was fired Sunday, receiving the news from general manager Koby Altman before the team was later notified, per Joe Vardon of The Athletic. Assistant coach and former Cavs guard Damon Jones was also dismissed.

The Cavaliers are an NBA-worst 0-6 this season and trailed by 20 points or more during each of their first four games.

Lue is the fourth head coach team owner Dan Gilbert has fired in the past five-and-a-half years. His dismissal marks yet another step away from the 2015-16 championship team, one Lue took over in January and led to a title just five months later.

Now, precious few faces remain. 

Kevin Love has been sidelined with a foot injury for most of the preseason and the regular season. Tristan Thompson is a spot starter with Larry Nance Jr. The playing time of veterans Channing Frye and JR Smith has been sliced while the team embarks on its "try to win with youth" movement.

When Kyrie Irving requested a trade, LeBron James was about to begin the final year of his contract and championship-winning GM David Griffin parted ways with Cleveland in the summer of 2017, Altman pointed to Lue as the foundation of the franchise in a July press conference:

"He remains a rock and a huge cultural piece for this organization. He's a tremendous human being. ... [He] has great relationships across the league. ... He's a great coach. He has great instincts. He has great X's and O's. He has great rapport with players. ... He's incredible in-game. He's just  been an incredible partner throughout this whole transition. And he's a great cultural piece for us, and that hasn't changed."

So, who or what does the team have left to lean on?

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James, Irving, Griffin and Lue, four of the biggest pieces to Cleveland's title, are gone. Love signed a four-year, $120.4 million extension this summer, but he's missed nearly 28 percent of the Cavs games dating back to 2016-17. He'll almost certainly pop up in trade rumors Jan. 24, the first day he can be dealt following the extension.

Thompson and Smith saw at least some regular-season starts on all four Finals teams but would likely have already been traded if not for their bloated contracts. Frye, 35, is respected by Cavs players and coaches, but he's a fringe rotation player at this stage in his career.

Leadership may be hard to come by from players who have to be questioning their own futures in Cleveland. 

Associate coach Larry Drew was expected to take over for Lue, but according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, he is "reluctant to commit to [the] rest of season" without a further deal in place. Per Vardon, neither he nor any top assistant coach is under contract past this season.

A team that's been a Finals staple since 2014 is imploding without James. 

We've seen this before, of course. 

In 2010, Gilbert believed his team could make the playoffs without James. A 4-3 start to the season only fueled this delusion in a campaign that ended with 19 wins.

While this version has far more young talent to build around, a 0-6 start should cement the fact that this needs to be a rebuilding team. 

That has always been the best option for this squad, even if it's one Altman and others have repeatedly denied. Few franchises could withstand losing James and have hopes of going anywhere in the playoffs, especially not one that limped into the Finals with him.

Elise Amendola/Associated Press

"I don't like what they're doing. I would have done the full rebuild. Indiana got lucky," one NBA scout told Bleacher Report before the start of the season.

"Cleveland needs to build through the draft for the next two to three years, bite the bullet and go from there. Even with the roster that they have now, they'll probably still get a top-10 pick, maybe a top-five. I don't see Cleveland being very good. I would have gutted."

Star free agents (besides those born in Akron) don't come to Cleveland, meaning building through the draft should always be priority No. 1. Any fear that the Cavs will lose their 2019 first-round pick—owed to the Atlanta Hawks if it's outside of the top 10—should be put to rest.

While early confusion about the team's goal (playoffs vs. playing time for young players) was starting to ruffle feathers in the locker room, per Vardon, the vision for this season should now be clear. Play Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman and Nance big minutes while securing a high draft pick. Keep players like George Hill, Kyle Korver and Thompson in the rotation to display for contending teams come the Feb. 7 trade deadline.

Basically, accept that not even a championship-winning coach could come close to contending with this group with No. 23 gone.

This is a year to focus on developing talent, auditioning for roles and scouting the top college and international talent for next season. All of this is OK. Not making the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference before being swept in the first round is fine. Rebuilding when you already have one lottery pick on the roster (Sexton) and will get another in June is all right.

For a Cavaliers team desperately leaning on the remaining veterans of a past championship with no more superstar or head coach to carry it, it's time to stop pretending this is a playoff roster and rebuild.

Greg Swartz covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.