{"id":610608,"date":"2026-02-19T00:06:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T00:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/610608\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T00:06:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T00:06:48","slug":"lebron-james-compliments-cavs-trade-deadline-moves-i-think-they-added-a-lot-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/610608\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James compliments Cavs trade deadline moves: \u2018I think they added a lot\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a lot of smoke around a potential LeBron James return<\/a> when his current deal with the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> ends at the conclusion of this season. James once again added fuel to the fire by having some nice things to say about the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> in the most recent episode of the Mind the Game Podcast<\/a> after their moves to acquire James Harden, Dennis Schroder, and Keon Ellis at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n

First, LeBron was complimentary of the team going out and getting Harden.<\/p>\n

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\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 James said<\/a>. \u201cHe gives Donovan Mitchell another, like, ball handler guy who can make shots late in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Support us and Let \u2018Em Know with Homage!<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Anything bought from the links helps support Fear the Sword. You can also shop all of Homage\u2019s Cavs gear HERE<\/a>. The link to the 2016 championship shirt HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

LeBron seems like he has a lot of respect for Harden. Back in June 2024, Rich Paul said that his client 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

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Making the move to acquire Schroder and Ellis also received the king\u2019s blessing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose pickups that they got from Sac as well,\u201d 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

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

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

We\u2019ll see what happens this summer. In the meantime, James believes the Cavs are better prepared for the playoffs now.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to have some dogs in there, so I think they added a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a lot of smoke around a potential LeBron James return when his current deal with the Los…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,305,193,3846,1024,864,560,3211,185,150,6,8544,564],"class_list":{"0":"post-610608","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-cleveland","11":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","12":"tag-clevelandcavaliers","13":"tag-dennis-schroder","14":"tag-donovan-mitchell","15":"tag-james-harden","16":"tag-keon-ellis","17":"tag-lebron-james","18":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-press-conference","21":"tag-rich-paul"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116094385786115860","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610608","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=610608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}