CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The visitor's locker room inside the Spectrum Center provided the backdrop for the Cleveland Cavaliers to air their frustrations.

The Cavs are no longer just tussling with their opponent. But also the disharmony that has started to contaminate a group that entered this season with the best intentions.

"Team is in a very weird place right now," JR Smith said following his return to the rotation in Cleveland's 126-94 loss to the Hornets.

You can say that again.

"We have to figure it out, whether it's a players-only meeting or coaches or front office meeting or whatever it is, we have to figure it out and let everyone know what their individual role is and what to expect," Smith said.

Smith is a fine place to start. His season is the definition of bizarre.

Whether he chooses to admit it or not, Smith was informed, along with his people, that his spot in the rotation was dicey prior to training camp. A logjam on the wing and new organizational goals, with player development at the center, made the preseason incredibly important for him. But hip and elbow issues derailed his chances of earning that spot.

The 33-year-old shooting guard played four total minutes in two games before being told, along with Kyle Korver and Channing Frye, that he was out of the rotation -- an effort for the team to play the youngsters more frequently. But after an embarrassing loss in the home opener against the Hawks, then-coach Tyronn Lue put Smith back in the mix. He was pulled out once more, logging just six minutes, in Lue's final game.

Now Larry Drew is acting coach -- taking over for Lue in part because he defied general manager Koby Altman by playing Smith after a directive had come down to give more minutes to younger players -- and Smith is playing again.

Two days after expressing his desire to be traded, Smith was entering the game in the first quarter. He played 24 minutes on Saturday, the most of any reserve.

"Unfortunately I have been in this situation before a long time ago, being in and out of rotations and stuff like that," he said. "I'm somewhat used to it, but never thought I would be in this position with the Cavs. Something has to shake with us. Whether it's effort, knowing what your individual role is, something. Somebody has to say something."

Two coaches have now wanted to play Smith while the front office points to on-court evidence as to why he should be plastered on the bench.

So who is right in this situation?

Smith is coming off a pair of horrendous seasons. He's made very little positive impact in his sparse minutes this year.

How much should his championship ether matter? How relevant is what he did back in 2016?

The argument for playing him is he's a veteran, one of the few guys, according to others in the locker room, that knows what he's doing. He may not always be in the right place, but he at least recognizes where he should be.

Altman recently sat Smith down because of what was perceived as poor body language and a change in attitude. It was that negative shift that led to Altman asking if Smith even wanted to be around the team. The goal there was to protect the young players and keep any bad juju away.

Smith has a tendency to "say the right things but not back them up," one member of the organization told cleveland.com.

Saturday was an ideal example. Smith even admitted as much following the game.

"I did an OK job the first half and the second half they ran off a couple of runs, had a little bit of bad body language from myself," he said. "Just didn't do a good enough job of leading these guys in the second half."

Smith scored a team-high 14 points. He made his first four 3-pointers of the season. And yet, he made very little impact.

Smith finished with the fourth-worst net rating, which is a stat that measures a team's point differential per 100 possessions while he is on court.

In one moment, as the game was getting out of hand, Smith walked slowly back to the bench, stayed away from his teammates and stared to the rafters instead of participating in the huddle.

"I had talked to JR, told him that I wanted to get him in the rotation, because I wanted to get something, I wanted to give it a different look," Drew said. "See how it will pan out. I thought he did well too, given the circumstances, but I'm still searching."

Drew believing Smith played well is a problem. The front office twice telling Smith he's going to be out of the rotation, only to have the coach play him, is a problem. Smith being around the team with admitted poor body language is a problem.

Smith isn't going to make a significant difference either way. He's just one piece of evidence that points to a much larger problem within the organization.

With constant experimentation -- a need to find combinations that work along with proper substitution patterns -- comes plenty of uncertainty. About roles. About playing time. Everything.

It becomes maddening for a player unless it's communicated properly, which, according to some, it hasn't been. It's also prevented the team from building chemistry.

"Obviously we are down without Kev," said Tristan Thompson, referring to Kevin Love's absence, which will be at least six weeks. "But for us it's just we have to figure out who we are, what we are, who is going to play, who is not going to play, figure out rotations. I think once we can figure that out then we can start building.

"At this point, it's kind of just we're throwing guys out there right now. Obviously the guys who have played with each other for a while have that connection and now we have to figure out how we're going to bring the new guys in and the young guys in and how to make it mesh with the young guys that we have."

The young vs. old thing has been bubbling beneath the surface for quite some time.

"No one knows what they're supposed to be doing other than the vets," Smith said. "Within those guys we understand what it is, we've been there and we went to The Finals with this team and some of these guys last year."

There is no singular voice anymore. Like everything else with the 2018-19 Cavaliers, it's a committee approach.

"I hate to keep reiterating it but only the guys who have been here long enough. So, me, Swish, Channing, you know, Kyle. That's the voice of the locker room because we know what we're talking about and our resume shows it," Thompson said. "We have the results to back it up, so obviously there's a way to lead."

The "young guys" aren't clearly defined. But reading between the lines it's Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman, Ante Zizic, David Nwaba and Sam Dekker.

Yet the only first-year NBA player is Sexton, who had another rough night.

The Cavs were hoping his development would happen through meaningful on-court minutes in pressure-packed games. But as one veteran said Saturday, that throw-them-into-the-fire approach rarely, if ever, works. It can lead to bad habits, losing habits, which become incredibly difficult to change. It can lead to a sense of entitlement that minutes are promised no matter the production.

In Sexton's case, he doesn't look ready. He doesn't yet know how to play. Some are starting to recognize it.

His vision to get teammates involved is lacking, as he has just 20 assists in nine games. He takes an inordinate amount of 2s. He plays out of control, committing 19 turnovers. While he crouches down in his defensive stance, Sexton still doesn't understand how to guard, especially the pick and roll. Nor does he get the nuances of being a quality team defender.

George Hill has offered to mentor the teenager, teach him how to play defense. But Sexton has, to this point, rebuffed that. While teammates don't think he's a bad kid and recognize he's trying his best in an extremely tough situation, they are also growing frustrated with Sexton because he doesn't show anger or disappointment following losses.

This isn't to pile on Sexton, who is only 19 years old and trying to navigate the treacherous NBA waters. Heck, this has been a whirlwind first few weeks in the NBA, more so than it usually is for a rook. It just helps show that balancing the present and future simultaneously isn't easy and it can lead to fissures.

The Cavs have good intentions. They've been trying to do this the right way since LeBron James' departure. But every move has been a failure.

"I know a situation like this is definitely going to show what we're made of," Thompson said. "On a basketball team it's always a puzzle so you have to be able to match it up correctly in order for it to work. Something is not clicking so we have to reconstruct the puzzle to see if it's going to work. I think that's what LD is trying to do right now. Obviously it's been three games in and he's got a lot of experience, he knows what he's doing and I trust LD a lot so he's going to figure it out and be able to put it together his way as long as they allow him to do it."

Drew's contract situation hangs over the franchise. The decision on which path to take does as well. That could create the next problem.

A number of players, including Love and Korver, were told repeatedly that the plan was to compete. When James left in free agency, Korver actually asked the Cavs to trade him. That was the deal he thought he had with the organization upon re-signing in 2017 and wanted it to happen in July.

Only the Cavs took the admirable try-to-compete approach and Korver was part of that. It's what the organization needed to say, what it should have said. The Cavs had to have that hope and belief going into the season.

But without Love their chances of "overachieving" are nil.

Cleveland is 1-8, with its lone win coming against the woebegone Hawks. The Cavs have lost six games by double figures. Forget winning, this group can't even stay competitive for four quarters.

So if the front office reverses course and makes this season all about the future, going into a complete rebuild earlier than expected, the veterans may believe, even if it's the best approach, they have been sent mixed messages. That feeling of deception could lead to them completely turning against the front office -- at least, until they are sent away ahead of the trade deadline.

That's why the next question is whether the Cavs have the right players in that locker room, a group capable of getting through this without fracturing.

"I don't know the answer to that question honestly," Smith said. "It's a different group of guys and different mentality so definitely figure out what guys are made of and whether this is the group that's going to get us out of here, I don't know. That's not my job to figure out."