Cavs On The Run
In what more or less amounted to a mutual understanding of a lack of confidence in their respective players, the Los Angeles Clippers traded James Harden to the Cleveland Cavaliers on February 4th for Darius Garland and draft considerations. Of the swaps that occurred at this year’s fairly active trade deadline, this was both the biggest headline and the one with the potential to have the most impact.
Following Tuesday’s 109-94 drubbing of the New York Knicks, completed while cosplaying as the Spurrier-era Tampa Bay Bucs, the Cavs are 7-1 since trading for Harden and are 16-4 in their last twenty games. Cleveland’s play with Harden on board in every sense has shifted the balance of the East.
Although questions remain about both of this Cavs team’s and Harden’s own playoff mindsets, there is no such querying into their talent, or what they could be if Kenny Atkinson can maximize them. Quietly at first and suddenly screaming, the Cleveland Cavaliers are announcing themselves as title contenders.
Aside from the sixteen games that he played next to Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in Brooklyn, this Cleveland team has the best overall vibes of any in James Harden’s career since the Oklahoma City Thunder traded him in 2012. Sure, the 2018 Houston Rockets may have been a more well-rounded team, but they featured heavy contributions from our recently retired point god Chris Paul, right up until they didn’t. Those two negatives do not a positive make in that team’s case.
So far, the fit has been seamless: since Harden’s debut on February 7th, a win against the Sacramento Kings in which he had 23 points and eight assists, the Cavs have been on a tear, winning six of seven. That includes road victories against the Denver Nuggets, the teal-hot Charlotte Hornets and the defending champion Thunder.
Better yet, in those games the Cavs have averaged over 120 points, top three in the league, while boasting a top-half scoring defense as well. This combination is one of the typical recipes for a championship team, and it has so far carried through Harden’s tenure.
After basically mutually agreeing for the suddenly competent Los Angeles Clippers to trade him after what began as an obvious lost season, it was fair to wonder what Cleveland expected out of this other than an assurance of health: in his age-35 season last year, Harden played 79 games and was an All-Star. The year prior, he’d played 72.
Generally, Harden shows up when he can. Garland, though a decade younger, has begun to amass injuries, starting with a toe that required offseason surgery and including a broken jaw that kept him out two years ago. Though he is a two-time All-Star already, the path to Garland ever playing 75 games at current rhythm is increasingly opaque, but it’s a chance the Clippers are willing to take in order to do something like start over.
On-court curiosity surrounding the trade generally settled around three items: Harden’s fit next to Donovan Mitchell; Harden’s defensive effort; and Harden’s Game 7 playoff resume, which features minor heroics and historic basketball atrocities. Mitchell, indisputably the face of the franchise and a scoring powder keg on par with Harden, wouldn’t figure to have to adjust nearly as much.
To his credit, Harden has lowered his volume while increasing his efficiency, an ideal second option. After shooting a little under 35% from three on almost nine attempts in Los Angeles, he is now shooting nearly 49% on six attempts per game. While his scoring is down almost six points, his eFG% is up a full ten percent. Mitchell’s scoring is down only nominally. Is this what ex(future?)-Cav LeBron James means when he tells teammates to FIT-IN?
Elsewhere, Harden is throwing lobs to Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. He’s springing open in transition and darting passes to the corner like in his MVP year. He’s exerting nominal effort on defense! This is precisely what any team would want out of James Harden at this point in his career.
After watching a team blow itself up in order to build a superteam that eventually included Harden, but only after he was already fired, Kenny Atkinson has patiently continued building an Eastern Conference powerhouse after taking over from J.B. Bickerstaff[1] two summers ago. It is possible Atkinson was wary of watching the same thing happen. Harden, though, seems committed to playing for a winner and is so far making the necessary adjustments to fit his new squad.
For over a decade, moments in which James Harden playing basketball felt fun have typically been individual, as the longer stretches of play tended more to showcase how tedious, albeit all-time effective, his game has been. Dialing up a spread pick-and-roll and either a) dribbling out the ball for a leaning three, or b) taking the pick and figuring it out at the elbow with under five seconds left on the shot clock wasn’t always the thrill it reads to be nearly a decade after the fact[2].
There have been moments in the past three weeks where I’ve watched a James Harden sequence and thought about how much fun it was, relative to so many of the other times I’ve seen him. That, I think, is the defining testament to the 2025-’26 Cleveland Cavaliers under Kenny Atkinson so far: they make basketball look like such a good time that even James Harden is having a good time.
[1] Naturally, Atkinson is the defending NBA Coach of the Year, while Bickerstaff figures to be the favorite for leading Detroit to a conference-best record (as of Feb. 25).
[2] This is (mostly) exclusive of the Chris Paul co-headlining lineups but inclusive of Dwight Howard/Clint Capela/Trevor Ariza/Chandler Parsons/etc., and alas, if only Harden had Alperen Şengün in his day. One of them would’ve run the other out of town in less than two seasons, but the playoff run would’ve been resplendent.
Tuesdays With Horry 