Cavs coach responds to JR Smith’s tanking accusations

Larry Drew is offering a rebuttal to JR Smith’s recent inflammatory remarks.

Addressing reporters on Friday, the Cleveland Cavaliers coach took some time to respond to Smith’s public comments accusing the team of tanking. Drew said that his team was “playing hard” and had no quit in them, per Kyle Goon of Southern California News Group.

Cavs coach Larry Drew says of JR Smith’s insinuations that the team is tanking: “They’re playing hard. They don’t have any quit in them.”

Repeats “these guys play hard” about four or five times.

— Kyle Goon (@kylegoon) November 21, 2018

The Cavs are the worst team in the league at a dismal 2-14, but LeBron James’ departure and Kevin Love’s extended injury absence probably have a lot to do with that. Still though, Cleveland has lost seven of nine games since Drew took over as coach for the recently-fired Tyronn Lue, and there is little reason for optimism from here.

As for Smith, he and the Cavs will clearly be going their separate ways, so the two sides have little to lose from this media back-and-forth.