{"id":610475,"date":"2026-02-18T22:35:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T22:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/610475\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T22:35:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T22:35:25","slug":"lebron-james-compliments-cavs-trade-deadline-moves-i-think-they-added-a-lot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/610475\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James compliments Cavs trade deadline moves: \u2018I think they added a lot\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">First, LeBron was complimentary of the team going out and getting Harden.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cThey felt like they needed another playmaker, someone that\u2019s been there, kind of been in this situation before, and they added James, perennial All-Star who\u2019s still putting up All-Star numbers,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ot5f19VUqxs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">James said<\/a>. \u201cHe gives Donovan Mitchell another, like, ball handler guy who can make shots late in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">LeBron seems like he has a lot of respect for Harden. Back in June 2024, Rich Paul said that his client <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/40458795\/sources-lebron-james-opt-eyes-new-deal-lakers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">would accept a paycut from the Lakers<\/a> if it meant he could play with an established playmaker or big man. Harden was one of the players Paul listed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Making the move to acquire Schroder and Ellis also received the king\u2019s blessing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201dThose pickups that they got from Sac as well,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ot5f19VUqxs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">James said<\/a>. \u201cSchroder, a former teammate of mine, you know that\u2019s going to compete every single night, and Keon Ellis, the guy\u2019s going to compete, make shots. Like, those guys are going to be, I think, really, really good for that team, especially in the East, where it\u2019s a lot of bulk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">LeBron \u2014 like seemingly every man over 35 years-old in America \u2014 has a podcast. He talks about the NBA, and Cleveland\u2019s moves at the deadline have been mostly praised. From that perspective, his doing so isn\u2019t newsworthy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">At the same time, LeBron has been in this business for a long time. He knows that his words have meaning, and he sees all the noise about him returning to Cleveland. If he wanted to quiet that down, he\u2019d avoid talking about his former team \u2014 especially on his podcast, where he presumably controls what gets released.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">We\u2019ll see what happens this summer. In the meantime, James believes the Cavs are better prepared for the playoffs now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cYou\u2019ve got to have some dogs in there, so I think they added a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First, LeBron was complimentary of the team going out and getting Harden. \u201cThey felt like they needed another&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610476,"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-610475","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\/116094025305825282","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610475","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=610475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}