James Harden, acquired in February by the Cleveland Cavaliers from the Los Angeles Clippers in one of the biggest deadline deals of the NBA season, has helped the Cavs stake out a 2-0 lead over the Toronto Raptors in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. (Instagram via kirkgoldsberry)
By JOE VARDON / THE ATHLETIC
James Harden made one request upon joining the Cleveland Cavaliers after being traded in February.
When Harden’s new coach, Kenny Atkinson, heard him make the request, he scrunched his eyes and shook his head. “I’m like, eh, this isn’t my thing,” Atkinson recalled.
Harden’s ask? Would the Cavaliers mind staging walk-throughs in hotel ballrooms on game days with no shootarounds on the road.
“It’s just preparation, detail, you get ready for the game,” Harden said. “Physically, you get out and move around, and mentally you have to be prepared. It’s just preparation man, especially going into this run that we are about to go into. I think the focus is making sure we know who we’re playing against and individual guys and what they like to do with their tendencies.”
The Cavaliers acquired Harden from the Los Angeles Clippers for Darius Garland in one of the biggest deadline deals of the season, won their first five games with him in uniform, and are 19-7 with him on the court. They are the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference and are up two games to none against the Toronto Raptors in the first round. In those two outings, Harden had 22 points and 10 assists in the first game and 28 points in the second on Monday night.
Harden is one of the NBA’s greatest playmakers, especially in isolation offense, which he has run with mastery for most of his career. But that’s not really the Cavaliers’ offense under Atkinson — they are more of a passing and cutting unit. Which is why, when Atkinson was asked over the last two weeks about acclimating Harden into the team, he marveled at how few changes they had to make to accommodate his game. The walk-through thing was, Atkinson said, Harden’s only request for change.
“He’s completely adapted to our style of play, which is pretty, I would assume, rare,” Atkinson said.
Harden is an 11-time All-Star and has never missed the playoffs, ever.
Stars wield power in pro sports, and that power can lead to some strange requests of their employers. Michael Jordan insisted on a clause in his first contract with the Chicago Bulls that allowed him to play pickup basketball. It was called a Love of the Game clause. By comparison to some of the other crazy requests in pro sports history, Jordan’s was tame.
Roy Oswalt, a former major league pitcher, once negotiated a bulldozer from the Houston Astros for winning playoff games. After his career was finished, Manny Ramírez went to Japan and asked for (and received) unlimited sushi, a Mercedes and a driver, and language in his contract stating that, for him, practices were optional.
Players can also make requests to be traded, but these are more like demands. Kawhi Leonard pushed his way out of San Antonio. Jimmy Butler did it a couple of times. Anthony Davis forced New Orleans to trade him to the Los Angeles Lakers. Kyrie Irving pushed the Cavaliers to trade him in the summer of 2017, and so on.
Quarterback John Elway once threatened to play baseball for the New York Yankees instead of joining the Baltimore Colts, who drafted him in 1983, and they ultimately traded him to Denver. Two decades later, in 2004, Eli Manning succeeded in getting San Diego to trade him immediately after drafting him No. 1.
About Harden’s ballroom request, Atkinson said, “I was like, a little skeptical.” He added: “Then we did it, and we went through it. So we’re like communicating through it and talking through coverages and I’m like, hey, this could be a good thing.”
Most NBA teams, at least occasionally, hold something on the morning of their games called a shootaround. It’s a partial practice, on the court, usually at the arena when on the road, in which coaches go over the opponent’s tendencies and talk about the game plan. Players finish with shooting drills.
But shootarounds can be canceled for any number of reasons, including if the game is the second in consecutive nights, or if the team is in the middle of a tough stretch of travel or practiced the day before. In those situations for the Cavaliers, under Atkinson, they have used individual and team film sessions to prepare for that night’s game.
When Harden arrived via trade, a trade he requested from the Clippers, he was leaving behind a coach in Tyronn Lue who often used ballroom walk-throughs instead of holding shootarounds on the road.
Low-level assistants use athletic tape to re-create on the ballroom floor the lines of a basketball court. Players wear slippers or sandals, walk through the game plan and learn what to expect from their opponents.
“Football, they do it all the time,” Atkinson said. “There are definitely coaches in this league that do it. I’ve been with teams that have done it.” He added: “It’s like, man, I like this. Because they have to talk through their coverage, even if they’re in their slippers.”
The Cavaliers’ Donovan Mitchell said he used to do ballroom walk-throughs with the Utah Jazz under Quin Snyder. He said committing a game plan to muscle memory carries huge benefits for the game that night.
“You don’t got to go full speed, and you can be in your socks for all we care,” Mitchell said. “Being able to be in certain positions in the morning so that way your brain remembers it at night, I think, that’s something I’ve done my whole career. And every coach is different, right, everybody’s different.”
Have other things changed since Harden’s arrival? Sure.
Atkinson says Cleveland is a better team now. Harden wasn’t the only trade acquisition (Dennis Schröder and Keon Ellis also came to the Cavaliers from Sacramento), but it’s clear the Cavaliers view Harden’s size, experience and IQ as upgrades.
Mitchell said the Cavaliers’ offense has changed, a little, to incorporate Harden’s isolation dominance, but also said Harden has fit into their original schemes. He called playing alongside Harden calming, and Utah coach Will Hardy said the combination of Harden and Mitchell on the floor together is “nightmare fuel.”
“We’re not going to completely flip, right?” Mitchell said. “I think that’s a testament to him. We’ve also adjusted, and we knew that when we were going to make the trade, we’re going to have to adjust, for sure. And for him, you see how easy it is for him to make these plays, right?”
Harden said he was comfortable with the Cavaliers’ schemes and with his new teammates. And, it appears, their practice habits.
“That’s why you listen to your players, too,” Atkinson said, circling back to the walk-throughs. “At first I was like, eh, I wasn’t a big fan. Let’s talk in two months and see if I still like it.”
Just tape on a ballroom floor. Players in slippers.
For Harden, that’s a pretty modest request.