{"id":581354,"date":"2026-02-04T07:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T07:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/581354\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T07:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T07:14:13","slug":"james-harden-sees-an-opportunity-to-win-the-east-with-cavs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/581354\/","title":{"rendered":"James Harden sees \u2018an opportunity to win the East\u2019 with Cavs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">\u201cIn life, not even just basketball, when things don\u2019t work out, there are ways to end things in relationships without having to crack each other. Okay, maybe we just don\u2019t see a future with each other. Maybe we just outgrew each other, whatever the case may be. I feel like other situations weren\u2019t like that. And that\u2019s why I can respect Steve and L and TLu because they didn\u2019t put me in a weird position as much as everybody tried to make it like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">\u201c[I] didn\u2019t want to feel like I was holding the Clippers up in their future. I wanted them to actually have a chance to rebuild and get some draft capital. In Cleveland I see an opportunity to win in the East\u2014 they got a very good team, coaching staff, all of the above. So as much as I wanted to stay in LA and give it a go\u2014I\u2019ve never won one before. As a basketball mind I think we have a bit better chance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">\u201cAt the end of the day it is a business and I think both sides got what they wanted, are in a great place and are very happy. I\u2019m excited about Cleveland \u2014I\u2019m still trying to chase my first championship and do whatever it takes to win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">According to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/2018903084962111970?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania<\/a>, Harden and Donovan Mitchell have already \u201cconnected\u201d and are \u201cvery excited\u201d for the partnership.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">It\u2019s good to get Harden\u2019s perspective on some of this immediately after the trade. Even though the Clippers were playing well lately, it was difficult to see them as true title contenders. His exit, at least based on his statement, would suggest that the move wasn\u2019t motivated just by money, but a desire to compete.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Harden also made clear that he thinks he can win with the Cavs. The Eastern Conference is wide open. And this might be Harden\u2019s last, best chance to win a championship. We\u2019ll see if he \u2014 and the Cavs \u2014 can make the most of this opportunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIn life, not even just basketball, when things don\u2019t work out, there are ways to end things in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,147,305,193,3846,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-581354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-cavaliers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cavaliers","10":"tag-cavs-news","11":"tag-cleveland","12":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","13":"tag-clevelandcavaliers","14":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116011137567826227","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}