LeBron James on Cavs playing up-tempo: ‘This is what Coach wants’

LeBron James has sounded off on his new coach’s first major directive since getting the job.

Tyronn Lue wants the Cavaliers playing a more up-tempo style of basketball, and while James doesn’t exactly sound sure as to why – the Cavaliers played slower under David Blatt and had success with it – he’s going along with it.

“I don’t know. We don’t know,” James said, via ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “This is what Coach wants. This is what Coach wants to do, and this is what we’re going to do. This isn’t a LeBron thing. I’m talking out of IQ of the game, but this is what Coach wants to do, so this is what we’re going to do.”

James has never played on a particularly fast team, and statistically, he has great numbers when playing in transition, shooting 71 percent on transition field goals.

“I’m not aware of that stat,” James said when told of the numbers. “One thing since I was a kid, I love to run the floor. And, it’s funny, I always talk to RJ [Richard Jefferson], I say I should’ve been a West Coast player growing up, because they run the floor on the West Coast, and on the East Coast we dribble the ball and things of that nature.”

It sounds like James will get to run the floor now. As for Lue’s complaints that the Cavaliers aren’t in good enough shape to run the offense the way he wants, James said that shouldn’t be an issue.

“I don’t think I’m in bad shape at all, just need to get in better shape for what we want to do, but I’m not that far off,” James said. “I can get there in less than a week.”

It would seem that this is just one of the things Lue intends to do better than his predecessor. So far, LeBron seems to be on board.