The Cavaliers cleaned out their lockers at Quicken Loans Arena on Monday. LeBron James talked of winning a championship next year. Head Coach Mike Brown still was second-guessing himself.

The aura, however, is that this team is going places. The Cavs gave their fans more than anyone expected. They won 50 games. They played half their season without Larry Hughes. They learned Brown's new system. They hired a general manager.

When Brown set aside his feelings after taking one on the chin from the Pistons on Sunday, he found an honest moment of reflection.

"This season was big for us in starting to lay the foundation down," Brown said. "It is up to us to keep the nucleus together. ... It's the beginning of it. We still have a long ways to go. We are no longer the guys looking to challenge this team or that team. Now, because of the little bit of success we had, teams are going to look to come in here and prove a point."

The Cavs found some answers. The most obvious is LeBron is a star, the kind that comes to Cleveland once every generation or three. He is Rocky Colavito ... Jim Brown. He is LeBron James.

That said, he needs help.

In Sunday's game, when Cleveland scored 61 points, the shooters tightened up. Flip Murray, Donyell Marshall and Damon Jones combined to shoot 2-of-14 for 8 points. That's not help. That's an albatross.

LeBron wasn't on fire in Game 7 either. Detroit was confident James couldn't beat them from the perimeter with the pressure of the world on him, and it was right.

"I think LeBron does have a lot on his shoulders," Cavs GM Danny Ferry said. "As we grow as an organization, we'll be able to spread that out more. He has a good coaching staff around him. He has players who can contribute. ... He has exceeded any expectations I had when I got here. LeBron had a great year, and he's going to have many great years in the NBA."

LeBron is a superstar. Superstars by the very definition have a lot on their shoulders. He can handle it.

But he needs help. Maybe things would have been different had Hughes not missed 40 games with a broken finger.

Regardless, this offense is a mess. Browns needs to add an offensive specialist to his staff. He knows it.

"Are you saying I don't know anything about offense?" Brown said laughing and delivering the punchline at the same time. "That's fair enough. I haven't thought about that. We may. ... We have one of the smallest coaching staffs in the league. It's something I'll get into."

He has to.

Ferry needs to re-sign Drew Gooden and then show up on LeBron's doorstep July 1. Drop the new maximum five-year contract out of the sky by plane. Fly banners over his house. Whatever.

Sign him by the middle of July.

Then the players need to remember how they played defense the last two weeks of the season. It came together. A season's worth of Brown preaching it paid off.

Brown's philosophy earned credibility in the Detroit series. Cleveland made it difficult for the Pistons to score. The Cavs had a chance to win.

Defense wins championships. Had Cleveland did what it will be capable of doing next season, who knows what might've happened in the Eastern Conference championship against Miami?

Ferry pondered the thought for a second, and quickly changed gears.

Equally important to anything Cleveland does with personnel, however, is keeping this love affair with its fans.

Did you see a game there in the postseason? Did you watch it on TV? Did you hear how loud it was? Did you fall in love with this team? Did your heart break — again — Sunday?

Yes.

The Cavs have to find a way to make that atmosphere — minus the heart break — happen 41 times in the regular season.

"Our building was the talk of the NBA," Ferry said. "It was exciting in that place. It's something that translated over TV, it's something that translated to other teams. I heard from a lot of people just what a great environment it was to play basketball. I want to say thank to our fans."

That's fine.

The fans, however, want to be able to say thank you next season.

Article courtesy of www.fiba.com