The Cleveland Cavaliers swung for the fences when they traded for James Harden. Moving on from a homegrown All-Star who was ten years younger than him was a bold move, even though Darius Garland was clearly never going to be healthy or take a leap.
Harden's pick-and-roll artistry, experience, and three-level scoring elevated this team's floor and ceiling almost immediately. However, as well as he played, there was always a postseason ghost lurking around and raising doubts about him.
Unfortunately, he only needed four playoff games to prove the haters wrong. Once again, Harden is crumbling like a house of cards when it matters the most, and he's just never going to change at this point.
James Harden's playoff struggles may doom the Cleveland Cavaliers
As pointed out by sports analyst Nick Wright on X, Harden has 44 games with as many or more turnovers as field goals made. That's slightly more than half of a regular season, and 24.85 percent of his playoff games. Simply put, he has more turnovers than buckets in 1-on-4 playoff games.
If that wasn't bad enough, he also has 22 playoff games with 2 or fewer buckets, 35 with 3 or fewer, 55 with 4 or fewer, and 77 with 5 or fewer. That's 43.5 percent of his playoff games below his career average of 7.1 field goals made.
The Cavs looked ready to roll and en route to a sweep in their first two games against the Toronto Raptors, but they may have left their mental strength in the U.S. That's especially the case with Harden, who turned the ball over seven times while making just six buckets in a four-point loss to a lesser team.
Harden has been in the league for more than 15 years now, and this is just who he is. He's not going to change, and he told the world exactly the type of player he was when he made his first -- and so far, only -- trip to the NBA Finals as a young sixth man for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
One would think that playing with much more experience and without all that pressure would only give him more freedom to be at his best, but that's not the case. Even knowing that his legacy is already set and that, if anything, he can only earn some points by making a deep postseason run, he just can't seem to get over the hump.
The Cavs needed a leader who could weather the storm when things got tough. Instead, they found someone who only reaffirmed what the rest of the league already thought of them: He's a great player, but he's not a killer.
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