Then there’s Cleveland’s defense, which is ranked 22nd so far this season and is 29th since the All-Star break, both of which are numbers that can spell disaster for any team dreaming of a title.

If all goes well, then the nip-and-tuck roster work done by general manager David Griffin will be validated come June. And then, LeBron will walk back the comments he made a month ago, when he whined about whether the Cavs had enough to put the other contenders on alert. Here in the stretch run of the regular season, the Cavs are still putting the puzzle together, and it’ll be glorious once it’s done -- if it ever gets done. In any event, LeBron is light years removed from the misfits he had to work with a decade ago.

It’s not a coincidence that constantly adding salary made Cleveland’s payroll the NBA’s highest. Owner Dan Gilbert is laughing at the luxury tax and willing to spend whatever it takes to keep the Cavs dangerous in LeBron’s prime, which is exactly what an owner should do.

Gilbert doesn’t care about losing a few million on the Cavs. He wants to win, and besides, he’s worth about a billion. This is the philosophy Oklahoma City Thunder owner Clay Bennett should’ve adopted when he had Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, all 22 and younger, fresh off a trip to the 2012 NBA Finals and looking like a potential dynasty.

The personnel work done by Griffin since the season began and the open-wallet policy by Gilbert is aimed to help LeBron make a seventh-straight trip to The Finals.

Here’s a look at how LeBron’s upgraded supporting cast shakes out:

Kyrie Irving: He’s having his finest season ever, with career highs in scoring (25.2 ppg) and shooting efficiency while also averaging 5.9 assists per game. His handles are lethal, to the point where the Cavs run almost as many isolations for Irving (20 percent of the time) as they do LeBron (20.7 percent). And LeBron has more faith in Irving than any teammate he’s ever had except Dwyane Wade. LeBron would rather have the ball in his hands in a tight game, but if Game 7 of the NBA Finals taught him anything, it’s that the Cavs are fairly safe when the ball is with Irving. As for defense? Well, that’s still under construction. Isaiah Thomas and Goran Dragic, among others, have given the Cavs fits lately by attacking the rim repeatedly. In this instance, though, the good outweighs the bad with Irving.