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INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- A day after losing by 29 points to the Atlanta Hawks, LeBron James said the Cleveland Cavaliers already have enough on their roster to win big down the line. As long as every player improves as the season goes on, that is. "If we continue to get better, every individual, if we continue to make strides every day, it's who we have," James said Thursday. "The guys in the locker room is who we have, and I think we can compete against anybody when we're playing at our best. But it's going to take us to maintain our focus every single day because we cannot afford to take a step backward, because a lot of teams are just better than us as far as chemistry, as far as the camaraderie they have over the years, and we don't have that. "So we do have enough talent, but talent doesn't win anything." The Cavs haven't won much of anything lately, dropping three of their last four games to fall to fifth place in the Eastern Conference with a 14-10 record. Monday marked the first day that players signed to new contracts this summer can be traded. It's looked upon as the unofficial start to the NBA trade season, and the Cavs are one of several teams, along with the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Clippers, interested in prying Corey Brewer from the Minnesota Timberwolves, according to ESPN.com's Marc Stein and Brian Windhorst. The Cavs were active in pursuing trade scenarios well before Monday, a league source told ESPN.com, and because of that early activity they are seeing more proposals come across their desk as the rest of the NBA has already been alerted to their interest in making a move. A less radical adjustment than a trade would be to move around the players the Cavs already have on the team. The last time Cleveland got beat this bad -- a 19-point loss to Portland in the third game of the season -- coach David Blatt responded by shuffling the starting lineup, replacing Dion Waiters with Shawn Marion. Could a similar change be in store following the Atlanta loss? "We're considering everything," Blatt said Thursday. "I got to tell you the truth; it doesn't seem like the starting lineup is the problem. We seem to be doing pretty good starting. But in order to change other things you may have to do that. So we're thinking about some different things." The Cavs' starters built a 12-point lead in the first quarter against Atlanta, Blatt pointed out. That same group started off with a 21-0 lead against Charlotte on Monday, so certainly they have some chemistry there. However, Tristan Thompson has played more minutes than Anderson Varejao in six of the last seven games. In the 10 games before that stretch, Varejao played more than Thompson in five games. Clearly, a shift has already started to occur. The Cavs spent most of Thursday's practice in a film session, dissecting the Hawks game in which they allowed Atlanta to shoot an unconscionable 64.5 percent from the field. "Yesterday was not a good day for us, and I think everybody is feeling it and maybe that's a good thing," Blatt said. Just what did the tape show? "We went over a lot of things today," Blatt said. "We covered a lot of things." As much as the Cavs needed to see just went wrong, James said it's already time to move on. The Cavs host the Brooklyn Nets on Friday in their third game during a five-game homestand. "Last night was definitely something that we want to try and forget fast and make amends of it," James said. There is still plenty of season left and plenty of room for improvement with these still-new Cavaliers. "Like I always say, you've got to stay even keel with everything," James said. "I'm a huge believer and I know from experience that you can never get too high, you can never get too low on success or defeat. You've got to continue to work the habits, continue to get better every day and, once you get out on the floor, just do what you've been practicing."
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