Why Cavs players are fed up with Thomas

The most publicised issue to come out of the Cavaliers' meeting this week was the team reportedly ganging up on All-Star forward Kevin Love.

The most interesting item changed Thursday.

Isaiah Thomas is irritated, but more importantly, the Cavaliers' new guard is frustrating his teammates, according to Joe Vardon of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.

"The players understand, his teammates understand what he's there for," Vardon said on the "In The Zone" podcast with Chris Broussard. "So on the one hand, they're OK with him getting these shots and they understand that right now they're not falling, but then they're also frustrated because they know that playing this way is what disrupted a lot of the rhythm."

Since Thomas came back Jan. 2, the Cavaliers are 3-7, and with him on the court they are 3-5. Thomas is averaging 15.9 points on 39.1 percent shooting and the Cavaliers are allowing 122.5 points per game. In the two games Thomas hasn't played the Cavaliers have allowed an average of 99.5 points.

Thomas is reportedly the one openly telling players when he was with Boston his team cared more about team defense. He has also complained about the team not practicing enough, which has annoyed teammates.

"The practice thing rubbed some guys the wrong way because, here's Isaiah and he won't let this practice thing go, 'We don't practice, we don't practice,' and the irony to some of the guys in the locker room was, 'Wait a minute, you're talking about how we don't practice the day after games, but you Isaiah, are not allowed to play on back-to-back days, so how does this work? What were you supposed to do on these days that we're not practicing if you're not allowed to do the back to backs?'" Vardon said.

Players liked Thomas after he came over in the trade as he was "more social" than Kyrie Irving and he showed a willingness to work teammates appreciated. However, this work ethic they liked so much is starting to wear thin.

"Now, he is rubbing guys the wrong way, he has, and there's a couple things to it," Vardon said. "He's trying to play his way back to where he used to be and we don't know if that's going to happen or not, but in the meantime he's really frustrated because it's not happening, or it hasn't been happening, and the Cavs are playing him as though he's a two-time All-Star who scores 30 a game.

"So he gets all these looks in the offense and he's not making the shots, and then as a result, because they're so poor defensively that just leads to all these issues."