{"id":582305,"date":"2026-02-04T17:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T17:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/582305\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T17:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T17:49:12","slug":"james-harden-trade-cavaliers-guard-says-he-did-not-request-to-leave-clippers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/582305\/","title":{"rendered":"James Harden trade: Cavaliers guard says he did not request to leave Clippers"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Harden<\/a> expressed thanks for his two-and-a-half seasons spent with the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a>, stating he did not request a trade to the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>. The 11-time All-Star was shipped to the Cavaliers at the NBA trade deadline in exchange for Darius Garland<\/a> and a future second-round pick.<\/p>\n

“In life, not even just basketball, when things don’t work out, there are ways to end things in relationships without having to crack each other,” Harden told ESPN<\/a> in his first interview since being traded. “Okay, maybe we just don’t see a future with each other. Maybe we just outgrew each other, whatever the case may be. I feel like other situations weren’t like that. And that’s why I can respect Steve and L and TLu because they didn’t put me in a weird position as much as everybody tried to make it like that.”<\/p>\n

Ironically, after acknowledging the trade was not initiated<\/a> by him, Harden said he “didn’t 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.”<\/p>\n

That sounds like a player who wanted out. Nonetheless, both sides after happy after Harden joins a title threat while Los Angeles begins its roster transformation with a star 10 years younger than the player it traded.<\/p>\n

Garland\u00a0 spent the first seven seasons of his career with the Cavaliers. He\u00a0missed the last 10 games with a toe injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With Cleveland situated as the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference at 30-21 overall, Harden will be paired with a backcourt mate in Donovan Mitchell<\/a> who averages 28.8 points per game along with frontcourt difference-makers Evan Mobley<\/a> and Jarrett Allen<\/a> he can feed down low.<\/p>\n

Harden started 44 games for the Clippers, with his highest scoring average — 25.4 points per game — since leading the NBA in scoring at a 34.3 clip during the 2019-20 season with Houston.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More production at the offensive end for Harden meant less distribution, however. His 8.1 assists is the lowest rate since that same campaign with the Rockets<\/a>. Entering Wednesday night’s game against the Clippers, the Cavaliers have won eight of their last 10 games.<\/p>\n

“In Cleveland I see an opportunity to win in the East — they got a very good team, coaching staff, all of the above,” Harden said. “So as much as I wanted to stay in LA and give it a go — I’ve never won one before. As a basketball mind I think we have a bit better chance.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Harden expressed thanks for his two-and-a-half seasons spent with the Los Angeles Clippers, stating he did not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,78472,305,193,3846,791,864,560,35857,192,78471,135,6,2550,2828,14174,1783],"class_list":{"0":"post-582305","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-cavaliers-updates","11":"tag-cleveland","12":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","13":"tag-clevelandcavaliers","14":"tag-darius-garland","15":"tag-donovan-mitchell","16":"tag-james-harden","17":"tag-james-harden-stats","18":"tag-la-clippers","19":"tag-la-clippers-updates","20":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","21":"tag-nba","22":"tag-nba-standings","23":"tag-nba-trade-deadline","24":"tag-nba-trades","25":"tag-nba-trade-rumors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582305","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=582305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}