LAS VEGAS -- Yes, Tyronn Lue is excited about the challenge of coaching the Cavaliers without LeBron James.

What's he supposed to say, you might be thinking. Well, he could've sought and probably received a buyout from Cavs owner Dan Gilbert on the remaining three years of his contract.

Lue said he wouldn't do that when asked immediately after Cleveland was swept out of the Finals in June. But his job has changed dramatically since. He has to devise an entirely new system, one that doesn't revolve around James -- the game's best player.

"I'm a competitor," Lue told cleveland.com in Las Vegas, before the Cavs played their second Summer League game against the Chicago Bulls. "It's a new challenge. Only coaching 2 1/2 years, having a veteran team for those three years pretty much, and now having a young team, now I have to teach more, more practices. More attention to detail. I think you can mold these guys into who you want them to be."

Lue, 41, suffered personal health problems caused by anxiety last season that caused him to miss two full weeks of games. He'd grown wary of the constant, amplified media scrutiny that goes with coaching James' team, and the Cavs' roster tumult last year didn't make his job any easier.

Don't be mistaken, Lue isn't happy that James chose to leave for the Los Angeles Lakers. He described hearing the news (which he heard first from his cousin) as "hard to swallow," and said in a follow-up conversation with James that he thanked James for "everything he's done for me.

"Making me a championship coach, understanding what it takes, the hard work we've got to put in every day," Lue explained.

On Friday, Cavs general manager Koby Altman reaffirmed what team sources had said for weeks -- that the team does not intend to trade Kevin Love and try to lose this season as part of a hard rebuild without James.

Lue, you may imagine, likes to hear that. "It feels good just to know that we still have a chance to be competitive," he said, adding: "We're not tanking and we're not trying to throw away games to get a draft pick or nothing like that."

This all sounds good in July. There is of course the small matter of actually trying to make up for the production of James, who was only third in the NBA in scoring last season (27.5 ppg) and led the Cavs in points and assists the last four seasons.

Lue said he will introduce a different style of offense when training camp opens in September, though he didn't say exactly what that means. He said the Cavs would play through Kevin Love, their lone remaining All-Star who scored 17.3 ppg last year, but would also ask more players to be able to do multiple things (run pick and roll, dribble, pass, and shoot).

It's funny because that's what James begged for from the Cavs after the Warriors added Kevin Durant. The thing is, the Cavs believe, it was difficult for some of their players to do anymore than one thing because James was the center of, well, everything.

"He's the best player in the world," Lue said. "When you have a player like that you have to tailor your offense, tailor the things you do around him. To make sure he's at his best. I think this year, seeing him, people say it's arguably the best year of his career in his 15th season, so we tried to make sure we put him in the right spots on the floor, had the right surrounding pieces around him.

"We're going to have to manufacture points and assists other ways, which, by the offense I plan on running and doing, we're going to be able to do some of that."

The players Lue is looking forward to molding (to use his phrasing) include rookie Collin Sexton, Jordan Clarkson, Rodney Hood, Larry Nance Jr., Cedi Osman, and Ante Zizic. He said he was glad the Cavs plan to keep veteran point guard George Hill to take the pressure off of Sexton, and veterans JR Smith, Kyle Korver, and Tristan Thompson can help younger players, too.

Lue already said this summer he planned to work with Sexton and Clarkson individually.

In Clarkson's case, he was second in the NBA in bench scoring (13.9 ppg), but became very limited as a player in the playoffs when he struggled to shoot.

Lue wants Clarkson to see more of the floor, be able to find the open man and make plays for teammates, in addition to scoring off the bench.

"I think I can get him to be more like a Jamal Crawford," Lue said. "I know he can do it."