While several players with All-Star appearances on their NBA résumés were traded this week, only one former Most Valuable Player changed teams: James Harden.
Of the highest-impact players who were on the move this week, Harden was also the only one who was dealt to a team with title aspirations this season — Jaren Jackson Jr., Anthony Davis, and Ivica Zubac all ended up on lottery-bound clubs looking ahead to 2026/27, but the Cavaliers believe Harden will give them a better chance to contend right now.
The Cavs had their first conversation about a Harden trade six weeks ago, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Andscape (Twitter link). That lines up with the timeline provided by Ramona Shelburne of ESPN, who says the Clippers began receiving calls about Harden, Zubac, Kawhi Leonard around the time they fell to 6-21 on December 18.
At the same time, Shelburne writes, Harden’s representatives began to assess the market in the hopes of getting ahead of potential trade discussions and getting a better sense of which teams might be interested in him. According to Shelburne, a reunion with the Rockets – whose starting point guard Fred VanVleet is out with a torn ACL – was an idea that intrigued Harden, but Houston didn’t reciprocate his interest.
Cleveland, on the other hand, did show interest in Harden, viewing him as the sort of player who could get the most out of big men Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen while sharing the ball-handling responsibilities with Donovan Mitchell, per Shelburne. Darius Garland had been that player sharing the backcourt workload with Mitchell in recent years, but he has been plagued by toe issues over the past year.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Cavs president of basketball operations Koby Altman strongly denied rumors that the team was frustrated by Garland’s durability and injury prevention, referring to that reporting as “BS,” per Law Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link). Still Garland’s inconsistent availability this season has been an issue for a team very much in win-now mode.
According to reports from Tony Jones of The Athletic and Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (subscription required), Harden and Mitchell spoke at length on the phone on Tuesday night, a day before the Clippers and Cavaliers reached an agreement on a trade sending Garland and a second-round pick to Los Angeles for Harden. That conversation helped convince the two star guards that they wanted to team up and that they believe in the Cavs’ championship upside.
“We both know that it’s going to be an adjustment,” Mitchell told Jones. “But, we’re excited. I’m excited about what he can do for me as a player, and I’m excited about what he can do for our team as a whole. We want the same thing. We both want a championship. So, at the end of the day, we’re shooting for the same goals, and we have to go about trying to win at a high level.”
Mitchell went on to acknowledge that he’s going to have to “figure out how to play without the ball a little bit,” but he pointed out that he’s done that before and indicated he’s confident he can do it again. According to the six-time All-Star, both he and Harden are willing to do what it takes to maximize Cleveland’s potential for a title.
“Our ceiling is higher,” Mitchell told Fedor. “We all know what he brings. But with that, there is an expectation of what we have to do. We weren’t able to get it done for the past three years and now the goal is to try to get it done. This is the time. Gotta go out and do it.”
Asked about how he intends to utilize the Harden/Mitchell duo in his new-look backcourt, head coach Kenny Atkinson suggested he’s not worried about the fit, according to Fedor.
“Great players fit together,” Atkinson said. “Usually, it’s rare that that doesn’t work. So now it’s up to us as coaches and collaborating with Donovan and James on what that looks like, how that looks, what do the rotations look like, how we stagger them, how we play when each is alone on the court, how we play when they’re together. That’s all things to figure out.
“But usually when you have such talented players and I can’t emphasize this enough, high-IQ players, it makes it a heck of a lot easier for the coaching staff to figure out. I think with the great ones, you step back and let them be themselves.”
If you go back and ready my comment on the trade article. I said this same thing. Good trade for both teams if Garland stays healthy for the clippers
Good job. I’m proud of you.
Kenny better be all talk in his nonchalantness. This team made a WIN NOW trade, gave up an AS a decade younger to try and win a championship particularly this season but also in the next 2. Making sure that not only Harden and Mitchell fit together, he has to make sure all the other pieces do too. We succeed when our assist to FG ratio is high and we’re swinging the ball. Harden pounds the ball more than any other player in the league and that goes against the movement offense we currently have and had last season as one of the offenses of all time. I’m most worried about Tyson and Mobley getting pigeonholed to stand in corners or just pick and roles. I’m also a little worried about Schroders minutes because he’s not much of an off-ball player either. Hopefully this team figures it out and enter the playoffs as a well oiled machine.
Ime dodged the harden bullet twice now lol
Mitchell should keep his mouth shut. Trashing a ex-teammate like that is poor. Plus he’s wrong. Harden and Mitchell’s lack of defense means they will give up a ton of threes on drive, kick outs.
Where did Mitchell trash an ex teammate? Harden is a better fit. Neither Harden nor Garland play much defense but Harden is a defensive upgrade Garland just by being 4 inches taller. I know it’s hard for these guys to shake old narratives, especially in the minds of people who don’t watch them play or have already made up their minds but Mitchell has actually improved quite a bit on defense. He’s no prime Ben Simmons but he’s decent in man on man and an effective disruptive presence who creates turnovers via deflections or steals.
It’s a Mugsy Bogues sized ceiling
And the floor and breakup value are lower. Trading Garland made sense for awhile. That doesn’t mean acquiring Harden made sense. On that, we’ll see. Harden can play well with other stars on the court; it’s usually a matter of whether they can play well with him on it.