During LeBron James' first incarnation in Cleveland, the Cavaliers' championship chances were compromised because their star didn't have enough help.
That phrase seemingly was put to bed when James returned in 2014, with the four-time league MVP comprising part of the Big Three that would deliver glory for the franchise and the long-suffering city.
It worked in 2016, as the Cavs rallied from a 3-1 deficit against the Golden State Warriors and captured the title in seven games.
But now with the Cavs staring at an 0-2 deficit against the Warriors in the NBA Finals as the series switches to Cleveland for games Wednesday and Friday, the "perfect roster" does not look so perfect.
That compliment from Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens during the Eastern Conference finals sounded good at the time, especially considering the Cavs continued dominance of the overmatched East. But against a team like the Warriors, who are loaded with offensive firepower and play several levels above the Cavs defensively, the Cavs are being exposed.
Once again, James doesn't have enough help.
And even if a Cavs roster with eight players 30 or over gets an infusion of youth in the offseason, the Warriors have constructed a dynasty that may dominate what's left of James' prime years.
In a 22-point loss in Game 1, the Cavs needed a big man to clog the lane like the ill-fated Andrew Bogut, whose Cavs career lasted 58 seconds. In Sunday's 19-point loss in Game 2, the Cavs, a team with a $127 million payroll, didn't have enough scorers or elite defenders.
Unless something changes drastically in the next two games in Quicken Loans Arena, the Cavs appear doomed to become the Warriors' Finals punching bag. And that could last as long as the Warriors can keep Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green together.
The chances of that look good. Durant told ESPN last week that he's willing to take less money than the max extension he's eligible to receive this summer to allow the Warriors to keep key free agents Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston.
Curry is 29, Durant turns 29 in September. Thompson and Green are 27. The Warriors roster has five players 30 and over. They've put together the right balance of experience, youth and off-the-charts talent.
Everyone knows the clock is ticking on James' prime, even though he continues to defy normal limits at age 32. On Sunday, he turned in his second triple-double of the 2017 postseason with 29 points, 11 rebounds and 14 assists. It marked the 18th of his career in the playoffs and his eighth in the Finals, tying Magic Johnson's record.
But the Durant-led Warriors are not the 2016 Warriors, which seems to shorten the window on James delivering more championships.
As Lee Jenkins wrote in a recent piece for SI.com, the perfect storm of circumstances allowed the Warriors to add Durant. Among those was the NBA's nine-year, $24 billion television deal with ESPN and Turner that was finalized in October 2014. That led to a huge spike in the salary cap, from $70 million in 2015-16 to $94.1 million this season. Commissioner Adam Silver wanted to incrementally increase the cap, but the league's players shot that down.
That, coupled with Durant's decision to leave Oklahoma City after nine years, allowed the talent-rich Warriors to get richer.
Love has done a good job as James' wingman, his Sunday totals of 27 points and seven rebounds fell three rebounds shy of his seventh consecutive double-double in the playoffs. But the rest of the Cavs have fallen short of expectations in the first two games of the series.
The Warriors are using two or three players to box out Tristan Thompson and keep him off the glass, and he's allowing it to happen. J.R. Smith has reached the virtually unplayable stage and may be benched for Iman Shumpert in Game 3, according to ESPN's Dave McMenamin. In their first Finals, the moment has looked too big for Kyle Korver and Deron Williams.
Shumpert, who expended so much energy on defense in Game 2 that he needed a postgame IV, according to ESPN, still has moments where he wants to be an isolation player, which usually works in the opponent's favor. Cavs coach Tryonn Lue's insertion of Channing Frye, who had sat for four consecutive Finals games dating back to 2016, prompted the Warriors to immediately go small with their "death" lineup.
The Cavs may bounce back at home, but it doesn't feel that way. They are 1-3 in four meetings with the Durant-led Warriors this season and needed an Irving turnaround fadeaway with 3.4 seconds left to win one in Cleveland on Christmas Day. The other three losses have been by 35, 22 and 19 points.
Once again, James doesn't have enough help, and it's hard to say where it's going to come from. They have no picks in the June 22 draft and few tradeable assets beyond Irving and Love. General manager David Griffin is working without a contract for next season and could be two games away from being let go by owner Dan Gilbert.
Unless Gilbert has his eye on an up-and-coming GM candidate who shares Griffin's talent as a miracle-worker, the Cavs may be scrambling to boost James' supporting cast, just like they were during LeBron 1.0.
And we thought, perhaps misguidedly, that those days were over.
