Remember the James Harden "honeymoon" phase when he first joined the Cleveland Cavaliers back in February? Harden and Cavs guard Donovan Mitchell immediately established chemistry, and The Beard's fusion with Jarrett Allen made Cleveland's offense look unstoppable for multiple weeks. The recollection of that glorious and optimistic period for the Cavs serves as a stark contrast to what's playing out in the present moment.
Knicks have completely exposed exahusted James Harden, Cavaliers
On Saturday night, Cleveland effectively ran out of stamina and limped to the finish line of another failed season. And I can use the word "failed" here because this was, indeed, a team with its eyes on a championship. When the Cavs traded Darius Garland for Harden, it was a risk/reward move that Cleveland believed raised the ceiling of its championship hopes, at least in the immediate future.
Those hopes were officially killed on Saturday as the Cavs failed to protect their home court and went down 3-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals. No team has ever come back from such a deficit in the history of the NBA, and let's be honest, this absolutely exhausted Cleveland group isn't going to be the squad to defy history.
It does appear that Cleveland's back-to-back series of seven games to open the postseason has caught up with them. Mitchell doesn't look healthy. Harden only has enough energy to function on one side of the court. The Cavs are cooked.
Knicks helped clarify important James Harden questions for Cavaliers
There are a few talking points for Cleveland's front office to mull over regarding Harden -- more like burning questions that have become particularly poignant during this Knicks series. The first of those questions is, was this a successful trade? And the answer, if you're thinking in a binary sense, would be no -- the Cavaliers did not accomplish their goal.
A deeper investigation of that question would lead you to another question: Is Harden still a star in this league who can be the second or even third-best player on a champion?
This is where things get interesting, and where the Knicks' seamless style of team basketball featuring ball movement, maximum effort, and gritty defense has exposed Harden as -- not to sound harsh here -- a loser in today's NBA.
James Harden is an antiquated player in a changing NBA
The sun-and-solar-system offense that Harden popularized with the Houston Rockets (and that Luka Doncic has epitomized more recently) is not only no longer en vogue, it's just flat-out not as effective anymore, replaced by a changing of the tide in the NBA that rewards team basketball best executed by athletic, deep rosters like the Knicks and the Oklahoma City Thunder -- rosters that can produce a different scoring leader each night.
Harden is too predictable. It's not that his athletic prime is in the past (he's still quite skilled and mobile); it's that the very style he plays with no longer moves the needle to the degree required for a champion.
The opposite of what Harden brings to the table is what wins in the modern NBA
Jalen Brunson and the Knicks are pretty much the anti-Harden in terms of style, and this matchup over the last three games may have very well provided the Cavaliers' front office with serious second thoughts about making Harden a fixture of their franchise moving forward. If so, the Cavs should actually thank the Knicks for that, as moving off of Harden this offseason would be wise.
Harden has a player option, and the general thinking around the league has been that he would decline that option and sign a new deal with Cleveland this summer.
Why, I ask, should the Cavs be interested in such an outcome? Whether they decide to blow things up and rebuild around Evan Mobley or take one more swing at a title in 2026-27, Harden doesn't make sense (though LeBron James would).
Cleveland shouldn't fight the message right in front of them ... the message that has been gifted to them by the Knicks: James Harden isn't going to help you win a title, not as a featured player, anyway. If he surprisingly decides to pick up his option, look for a trade.
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