{"id":586163,"date":"2026-02-06T12:01:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T12:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/586163\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T12:01:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T12:01:17","slug":"cavs-believe-james-harden-raises-their-playoff-ceiling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/586163\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavs believe James Harden raises their playoff ceiling"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> believe that the Eastern Conference is wide open<\/a> right now. Trading for James Harden<\/a> gives them a better chance to seize that opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think that he raises our ceiling and gives us a chance to have real playoff success,\u201d Cavs president of basketball operations Koby Altman said<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gives us a different look in the backcourt. He\u2019s 6\u20195\u201d and he gets downhill, and he is ninth in the league in drives. He\u2019s strong. He\u2019s creative. I think he\u2019s going to be great for our bigs. I also know that Donovan [Mitchell] is excited to play alongside him. Obviously, this is not a trade that we took lightly. But we do know that James is going to help us, and so we\u2019re excited to welcome him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harden will help the Cavs in many ways<\/a>. He\u2019s still one of the best point guards in the league and is a clear upgrade over Darius Garland at this point.<\/p>\n

\u201c[We\u2019re] really excited about when it gets to a chaotic time in the playoffs and we\u2019re on the road, and there\u2019s a fever pitch, being able to throw the ball to him and calm this thing down,\u201d Altman said<\/a>. \u201cLet\u2019s get a good possession, right? Let\u2019s get a good possession when it gets really, really tight, and it\u2019s loud in that building. We\u2019ve gone to the playoffs the last few years largely as a young team, not a very experienced playoff team, trying to figure it out. Now I think we\u2019re adding just a tremendous amount of experience and know-how.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Anything bought from the links helps support Fear the Sword. You can buy the Let \u2018Em Know shirt HERE<\/a>. You can also shop all of Homage\u2019s Cavs gear HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Harden is a one-man offense that can seemingly get good shots for himself and his teammates every time down the court.<\/p>\n

That said, those comments ignore the elephant in the room. Harden was brought in to help in the playoffs despite being known as one of the biggest postseason chokers in league history.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe looked at it, and we studied really hard,\u201d Altman said<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s some elimination games that he probably wishes he had back, probably five really bad games out of 173 playoff games. But overall, he certainly raises his level, raises our level. It\u2019s hard being the number one option on a championship-level team. I think the good news for him is he has another number one option right next to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether or not Harden fits next to Mitchell remains to be seen. We\u2019ve seen Harden coexist decently well with other ball-dominant players like Chris Paul, Tyrese Maxey, and Kevin Durant. How that carries over to sharing the floor with Mitchell will determine whether this trade ultimately pays off.<\/p>\n

What we do know is that the Cavs have a second player who can carry some of the playmaking burden in the playoffs. That has been an issue in recent postseason runs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it gets really tough in the playoffs, the team takes away your play, your second counter, and we need to get the ball in Donovan\u2019s hands, we need to get the ball in James\u2019 hands, that we\u2019re going to have a great possession, we\u2019re going to have a great possession,\u201d Altman said<\/a>. \u201cAnd so really that\u2019s what we\u2019re thinking of. And in the playoffs, I do still think it comes down to largely a half-court game when it comes down to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the concern that the Cavs play a different brand of offensive basketball than Harden. Head coach Kenny Atkinson\u2019s teams have been built around ball and player movement and attacking in transition.<\/p>\n

Harden\u2019s teams have been the opposite. He\u2019s thrived in slower tempo, iso-heavy systems. The Cavs are hoping both sides can meet in the middle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to adapt to James,\u201d Altman said<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s that good a player, but I think we\u2019re going to still run. \u2026 [Playing fast is] still part of what we do. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s going to stop. I do know that James is a great rebounder, and so our pitch-ahead game is going to be great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harden can take the Cavs to another level. How exactly that\u2019s going to look remains to be seen. There will undoubtedly need to be some give-and-take on both sides. But there\u2019s a reason this move was made. The skill upgrade is clear, and that will help when it matters most.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy job at the end of the day is to bring the best talent to Cleveland and set them up for success,\u201d Altman said<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s the job. And so we\u2019re bringing one of the greatest players of all time to Cleveland, who\u2019s still playing at an elite level. We couldn\u2019t be more excited.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers believe that the Eastern Conference is wide open right now. Trading for James Harden gives…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,147,305,193,3846,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-586163","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\/116023583746587604","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586163","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=586163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}