We know LeBron James isn’t thrilled with the current state of the Cavaliers. And it’s not just the cryptic passive aggressive tweets. Take this quote James gave to the media following Cleveland’s disappointing 106-103 home loss earlier this week to a Grizzlies squad missing Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph and Mike Conley, among others.

“I can sit up here and say that we’re a team that’s ready to start the playoffs tomorrow, but we’re not,” James said. “We’re still learning, we still have things that happen on the court that just, that shouldn’t happen.”

There are lots of reasons for LeBron to be worried. The Cavaliers do have the leagues fourth best offensive rating, and are playing a bit faster and scoring a bit more efficiently since Tyronn Lue took over. But the defense has completely fallen off (104.4 points allowed per 100 possessions, a five-point dropoff from what the team was allowing under David Blatt) while many of the old problems still exist.

Kevin Love still looks lost and his numbers have actually gotten worse since Lue was handed the job. The team’s effort isn’t always there. James still can’t hit jumpshots and he knows it.

The Cavs, of course, are still 46-18 after Thursday’s win over Kobe Bryant and the Lakers, are still in first place in the East, and are still the runaway favorites to represent the conference in the Finals. Part of that is because they have LeBron — a star who hasn’t fallen in to an Eastern Conference team since 2010 – and part of that is because the conference is so unimpressive.

And yet over the past couple months five Eastern Conference teams have emerged as quality threats. Do any of them have a legitimate shot at taking out the Cavaliers in a seven-game series? Let’s take a look.

CHARLOTTE HORNETS (35-28)

About Yaron Weitzman

Yaron Weitzman is a freelance writer based in New York whose work frequently appears on The Comeback, SB Nation and in SLAM Magazine. He's also been published on SB Nation Longform, The Cauldron, Tablet Magazine and in the Journal News. Yaron can be followed on Twitter @YaronWeitzman