Charles Krupa/Associated Press

The Cleveland Cavaliers won an NBA championship with Tyronn Lue as head coach and are poised to make another deep playoff run this year, but that doesn't ease the burden on his shoulders.

Speaking to ESPN's Dave McMenamin on the NBA Lockdown podcast, Lue said coaching the Cavaliers is the most difficult job in the NBA:

It's the hardest job, by far. It's the hardest job. But I've been through a lot of tough things in my life anyway, and I just try not to listen to the outside noise -- to the media and what they have to say. As long as I have the support of [Cavs general manager] David Griffin, [principal owner] Dan Gilbert, my players, the city of Cleveland, the state of Ohio, as long as I have that support, that's all that matters.

Lue was hired to take over as Cleveland's head coach midway through last season when David Blatt was fired, despite leading the team to a 30-11 record through 41 games.

It turned out to be the right move, as the Cavs won the first championship in franchise history in a memorable seven-game series against the Golden State Warriors.

The Cavs had their struggles during the 2016-17 regular season, notably a 7-10 record in March that allowed the Boston Celtics to catch and eventually surpass them for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.

After a 99-93 loss to the Chicago Bulls on March 30, LeBron James noted the Cavaliers were trying to put together a full team effort for 48 minutes to figure things out.

"We're just in a bad spot right now," he said, per ESPN's Brian Windhorst. "Not disappointed with the effort. We're just in a bad spot. We're going to try to figure it out. ... I think the effort was there. I just don't think the concentration for as close to 48 minutes is there yet. Which is unfortunate."

Despite some concern about their standing before the postseason started, the Cavaliers have won each of their first five games and look more like the team that played in the NBA Finals each of the last two years.