Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>\u2019 moving parts to fall into place.<\/p>\n\u201cYou don\u2019t have to worry about who is out there with [Harden],\u201d said head coach Kenny Atkinson. \u201cHe makes the game look so easy\u2026 he makes everyone better, that\u2019s the biggest compliment you can give someone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cavs look very different than they did a year ago.<\/p>\n
In addition to seismic changes at the previous trade deadline, they also added a new member to their starting lineup (Peyton Watson) while pivoting to rely on a handful of unproven role players to fortify their bench. All of this means Atkinson is trying to push the right buttons with different lineup configurations to see what sticks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if I call it experimenting, but just seeing what stuff looks like,\u201d Atkinson said of his mix-matched rotations during the preseason.<\/p>\n
Harden makes that process seamless. Whether it\u2019s building chemistry with new teammates or polishing his relationship with the others. He can do it all.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s one of those players for me; it\u2019s kind of easy to play off him,\u201d said Jaylon Tyson. \u201cJust because [Harden] can make every pass in the book and, obviously, his scoring ability. Everyone is so worried about him offensively that a player like me, catch-and-shoot, just playing off the cut, it makes it so much easier when he\u2019s on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having a generational talent, even at 37 years old, is something that unlocks new possibilities for an offense.<\/p>\n
Harden, paired with Donovan Mitchell, gives the Cavs two crowned jewels to play off of. Their creativity breeds innovation within an offense that can be hard for defenses to contain.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnpredictable,\u201d answered Peyton Watson on how Cleveland\u2019s offense differs from Denver. \u201cIn this offense, it\u2019s all about instincts and knowing how to play the game around two elite offensive players \u2014 whereas with [Nikola Jokic], I knew every time down he was gonna have the ball\u2026 and the play would be for me to do this or that\u2026 here, there are more possibilities and things that I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finding where you fit is easier when you have a leader like Harden. That\u2019s one aspect of his game that his teammates say goes unnoticed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re his teammate, it brings it to a whole new level,\u201d said Donovan Mitchell. \u201cSeeing his influence on the group, seeing his passion and intention behind what he does, it really puts into perspective how BS a lot of the narratives [about Harden] are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Traditionally, the point guard has one job: make everyone better. Few guards have embraced that role more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":857177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,1236,305,193,3846,6],"class_list":["post-857176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-basketball","tag-cavaliers","tag-cavs-analysis","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-clevelandcavaliers","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117429082745524918","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857176","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=857176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}