James Harden has very quickly made Cleveland Cavaliers fans forget about Darius Garland. The Beard has established instant chemistry with Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen, and if Harden can also mesh with Evan Mobley in the coming games, the Cavs figure to be arguably the scariest team in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Sure, there are still things about Harden's game to criticize (no player's perfect), but Cleveland has to be thrilled about how immediately awesome the Harden era has been.
You can certainly count Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson among the people most excited about Harden's arrival. Atkinson was recently talking to ESPN's Malika Andrews when he went ahead and compared Harden to LeBron James.
Kenny Atkinson just compared James Harden to LeBron James
The point of comparison that Atkinson landed on between Harden and LeBron was decision-making. Atkinson called Harden "one of the best decision-makers of all time" and compared him to LeBron in the way that both guys always make the right read and are each capable of scoring 40 points on one night and dishing out 20 assists on the next.
LeBron purists are sure to roll their eyes at Atkinson's comp, but you can't get that mad at a coach for over-selling his own player -- this kind of stuff happens all of the time. Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff has been promoting Cade Cunningham's MVP case for months (he's starting to have a compelling case, by the way).
Even if Harden isn't quite LeBron-level good as a passer, it's certainly true that he's one of the best passing guards of the modern era. His insane scoring talent has often overshadowed his passing, especially in Houston, where Harden often opted to get to the free-throw line at will rather than distribute.
James Harden is a more gifted passer than most people realize
In Brooklyn, Harden's elite feel for passing was on full display as he deferred to Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and operated more as a traditional point guard.
This is the role that Harden often transforms into for Cleveland when he's sharing the court with Mitchell. We also see this magic whenever Harden runs pick-and-roll actions with Allen, who has benefited from many a gorgeous lob and automatic dunk.
Once Harden has a defender on his hip, he's either going to get a good shot for himself or create a better shot for someone else. It's that simple, and there's a reason why this man has been called a one-man offense for much of his career.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are the one team that has made life difficult for Harden in a Cavaliers uniform. OKC used their famous ball pressure to make Harden work extremely hard just to get to his spots.
Outside of the OKC game, Harden has looked like a guard getting anything he wants, and no superlatives describing his impact have felt too outlandish ... except maybe a comparison to LeBron. We'll give Atkinson a mulligan on that one, or maybe we'll just let it slide.