{"id":705554,"date":"2026-04-08T16:43:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T16:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/705554\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T16:43:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T16:43:16","slug":"cleveland-cavaliers-guard-james-harden-is-here-for-a-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/705554\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleveland Cavaliers guard James Harden is \u2018here for a reason\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

PALO ALTO, Calif. \u2013 By the time James Harden<\/a> finished his lengthy individual shooting workout, two buses filled with players had already returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>\u2019 hotel after morning shootaround. <\/p>\n

Seventeen seasons since entering the NBA, the Cavs guard is still getting extra shots in with hopes that it will eventually pay off with the only thing missing in his professional career: a championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the world wants to see [my emotions] if that happens,\u201d said Harden to Andscape on April 2 after the Cavaliers\u2019 shootaround at Stanford University\u2019s Maple Pavilion. \u201cI put so much work into the game. Still to this day, I\u2019m putting work in right now. I\u2019m here for a reason, still putting in a high level [of shots] for a reason. I generally work my butt off. People don\u2019t really see it, which is fine because I\u2019m here for a reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of guys faded away, and we still see guys in year 17-plus. It\u2019s only a handful of them that\u2019s still playing at the highest level, which means credit to their work. But [a championship is] something that I work my butt off for every single day, and I\u2019m going to continue to just keep going and keep trying until that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The third overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft is a 2018 NBA Most Valuable Player, an 11-time NBA All-Star, a 2012 NBA Sixth Man of the Year and a member of the NBA 75th Anniversary team. Harden played in the NBA Finals once as a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012. But when it comes to hardware, the 36-year-old is still pained by not winning a championship.<\/p>\n

When asked if it\u2019s safe to say there might not be an NBA star with more postseason bad luck than him, Harden answered, \u201cProbably.\u201d His only NBA Finals appearance lasted a mere five games as the Miami Heat beat the Thunder in 2012. <\/p>\n

Harden has a 1-3 record in the conference finals, including losing in Game 7 to the Golden State Warriors while playing for the Houston Rockets in 2018. A season ago, Harden and the Clippers lost Game 7 to the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs. The future Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer hasn\u2019t always had his best games in the biggest playoff contests and has also been plagued by key injuries, bad luck and more along his challenging postseason journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s injuries, whether it\u2019s personnel based, not good enough, coaching, there are a lot of things and situations where I get scrutinized or whatever the case may be,\u201d Harden said. \u201cThere are things that go on to where it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh cool, this is how we want you to play and we see this as the best situation for you to play to help our team.\u2019 So, if I got the green light and I\u2019m scoring and averaging 28 points, I just have a bad game, all right, cool. But that\u2019s not my particular role for that team and I\u2019m more of a playmaker, that\u2019s what that coach wants me to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that\u2019s how we\u2019ve been playing and the way we\u2019ve been winning all year long, then you can\u2019t expect me to go out there and get 40 [points], which I have done that multiple times. It just didn\u2019t work out. It is what it is. I don\u2019t have any regrets. I don\u2019t feel any way. I just keep pushing. That\u2019s all I can control. We\u2019re going to keep pushing until we can\u2019t push no more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JamesJames Harden (right) is ecstatic about his backcourt partnership with Donovan Mitchell (left).<\/p>\n

David Dermer-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Harden now has another chance at an elusive title after a midseason move to the Cavaliers.<\/p>\n

With a win-now mindset, the Cavaliers acquired Harden from the Clippers on Feb. 4 for guard Darius Garland and draft considerations. Cleveland\u2019s hope is that the All-Star duo of Harden and Donovan Mitchell can vault the franchise to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2018. <\/p>\n

The Cavaliers (50-29) are 18-6 since acquiring Harden and are challenging the New York Knicks for the third seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Harden has averaged 20.5 points, 7.9 assists and 5.0 rebounds over 24 appearances with Cleveland, and he described his time with the franchise so far as \u201camazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tonight, Harden and the Cavs face the Atlanta Hawks (ESPN, 7 p.m. ET).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity to reach the endpoint for me,\u201d Harden said. \u201cWe all know what that is. Just because it\u2019s a different team doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s always going to be easy. It isn\u2019t always going to be a breeze. Luckily, I\u2019ve dealt with the situation multiple times in my career. I\u2019m just trying to find ways to put my input on the team and end up with the end result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another challenge for Harden is that midseason NBA trades rarely lead to championships.<\/p>\n

Harden noted that his former Clippers teammate Kawhi Leonard did it with the Toronto Raptors in 2019. Harden was at Artesia High School in Los Angeles when the Los Angeles Lakers acquired Pau Gasol in a midseason trade in 2008. The Lakers played in the NBA Finals that year and won titles the next two seasons. The Detroit Pistons\u2019 midseason acquisition of Rasheed Wallace in 2004 also led to a title.<\/p>\n

Now Harden is trying to make history with Cleveland in a short timeframe. He said he has told teammates that if they can stay healthy they have a chance to win it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s different because you don\u2019t really have the time,\u201d Harden said. \u201cA lot of these other teams, whether it\u2019s OKC or Boston, they\u2019ve been playing together for years. So, they kind of have the experience. You go through certain tough times in the regular season, in the postseason, and you kind of build off that, you get that and you learn from it. Unfortunately, we haven\u2019t had that yet, but hopefully you don\u2019t have to. That\u2019s the whole point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m at a point in my career where I don\u2019t have no pride. I think everybody knows what I want to accomplish. However that looks, whether I\u2019m scoring 25 or dishing out the ball. It\u2019s a game feel. It\u2019s a series feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Cavs are loaded with talent like Harden, Mitchell and big men Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, the spotlight will be on the Harden-Mitchell duo in the postseason. So far, Harden has been ecstatic about his backcourt partnership with Mitchell.<\/p>\n

\u201cA star that is unselfish,\u201d Harden said in describing Mitchell, who also stayed late to get extra work in at that Cavaliers shootaround. \u201cHe has no problem with giving me the ball or his feel for the game. That is where we complement each other. If I have it going or he has it going, we don\u2019t have any problem letting each other keep going. That is better for our team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m unselfish. He is unselfish. You have two guys who want to complement each other. That is the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PALO ALTO, Calif. \u2013 By the time James Harden finished his lengthy individual shooting workout, two buses filled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,305,193,3846,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-705554","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-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705554","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=705554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}