Luol Deng is convinced the only way he and his new Cleveland Cavaliers teammates are ever going to become a tight-knit unit is by being able to get in each other's face and not being afraid to point to one another's faults.
"I'll be honest with you, and I really want to put Chicago behind me, but me and Joakim Noah weren't so nice to each other on the court if one of us didn't play hard," Deng told SlamOnline.com. "And it made us better friends, and play harder. The same with Derrick Rose. We knew when Derrick didn't play defense. As good as he is, even his MVP year, if he didn't play defense, we all said, 'Yo, you're not playing defense. You've got to step it up.'"
Deng made his observations about the Cavs just nine games after being traded to Cleveland as part of the deal that sent Andrew Bynum to Chicago.
"One thing I always say is there's a right way of saying things," Deng added. "First, you've got to let the guys know what angle I'm coming in. I'm not trying to jump in here and scream at everybody thinking that I'm better. I'm just trying to help everyone to be better. And vise versa. They know some things that I don't know."
Deng later told Slam, "I think we all love each other in this locker room, and I see it. Guys are so close to each other. The one message we keep telling each other is it's OK to scream at each other. If Kyrie (Irving), Dion (Waiters) or Andy (Varejao) come up to me and demand more from me, I would never take it personally. It's going to make me better, it's going to make us better as a team. I think that's what we've got to get to - that kind of mindset where it's OK to scream at each other and not take it personal."
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