The Cleveland Cavaliers mortgaged part of their future for a better chance at winning a title now when they sent out a 26-year-old former All-Star in Darius Garland for 36-year-old James Harden. And even though Harden has his playoff warts, he’s an upgrade over Garland and will address multiple weaknesses with the roster.
Let’s take a look at how exactly he’ll help the Cavs.
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Ability to drive to the basket
One of the Cavs’ biggest problems at the beginning of the season was a lack of drives. They didn’t have a guard who could consistently get to and score at the basket. This led to a lot of side-to-side actions and pull-up threes. As a result, Cleveland is 16th in attempts at the rim.
Harden’s presence will solve a lot of those issues.
He is ninth in the league in drives per game this season with 14.8 per game. Harden’s ability to get past his defender and either draw a shooting foul, get all the way to the basket, or find an open teammate is still elite regardless of his age.
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Harden has the rare combination of strength, touch around the basket, and straight-line speed. This is coupled with an uncanny ability to stop and start on a whim to create angles for attack. The skills that have made him one of the best offensive combo guards of all time are still there.
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Harden’s rim attempts have gone down as he’s aged. The in-between runner has become much more a part of his game than it was during his peak years with the Houston Rockets. Still, he’s in the 60th percentile in shots at the rim for a point guard and in the 71st percentile for finishing at the rim (66%).
Pick-and-roll master
The Cavs aren’t a heavy pick-and-roll team. That will undoubtedly change with Harden in the fold. And the Cavaliers have two good bigs that Harden can play off.
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The pick-and-roll works so well for Harden because of his ability to read the floor and create advantages. If you try not to switch the pick-and-roll, Harden is good enough to keep his defender on his hip and get the easy layup.
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If you don’t switch and have the big drop, Harden is going to take the open three or mid-range jumper.
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The jump shot hasn’t been as deadly this season. His 34.7% three-point shooting clip is the lowest since 2021-22. This includes hitting 34.4% of his pull-up threes. That number isn’t too much lower than Donovan Mitchell’s (35.9%), but not the level you’d want it to be considering Harden takes the second-most pull-up threes per game.
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More than his scoring, the ability to playmake off on-ball screens is what makes Harden so dangerous. Seeing passes and making passes are two different skills. He does both at an elite level. That doesn’t always show up in impressive, otherworldly passes. The greats are often that way because they routinely do the little things right.
If the defense helps from the corner, Harden is going to pass out to where the help comes. If the defense is going to give the roller any space, he’s not afraid to make the simple bounce pass.
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Basketball doesn’t always have to be complicated when you’re consistently executing at a high level.
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Post entry passes
People don’t necessarily think of Harden as a basketball savant, but when you watch the reads that he’s consistently making, it’s clear that he processes the game incredibly well.
Harden’s entire offensive game is based on creating and exploiting advantages. He uses that mostly as a scorer, but if he sees a mismatch elsewhere on the court, he will make sure the ball gets there as soon as possible.
One of the most difficult things about exploiting mismatches is that by the time the offensive player sees it, the defense is also reacting and trying to help if they can. One of the ways the offense can keep that advantage is to throw an entry pass that keeps the offensive player away from the trouble.
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Proficiency at handling double teams
The Cavs have historically struggled when teams would blitz their guards. Part of that is due to both of their primary offensive engines being 6’2” or under.
Harden will help in this area. It’s risky to double-team Mitchell if Harden is on the court because of his skill as an offensive player. And if you were to double Harden, he’s more often than not going to make you pay.
Being 6’5” with good strength helps Harden not get bullied when teams blitz him. This allows him to patiently accept the double, survey where the open man is, and get the ball out.
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Also, you need to be careful when you do double to make sure he doesn’t split both defenders and score himself.
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Rebounding
The Cavs have had trouble with rebounding, particularly from their guards. Harden fixes some of those issues.
Currently, Harden is in the 83rd percentile for defensive rebounding percentage, which translates to 4.2 defensive rebounds per game. While that isn’t earth-shattering, it is helpful.
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Harden also does a good job of holding his own when he’s forced to guard small and power forwards. His strength makes him difficult to bully in the post and on the glass. This can be useful in situations where he gets a big switched onto him or if you’re in a matchup where you’d be better served with hiding Harden on an offensively weaker forward so that Evan Mobley or Dean Wade could cover an opposing guard.
Free throw merchant
Harden gets a bad wrap, partially because no one likes the way he continually gets to the free-throw line. He’s the poster child of inventing new ways to initiate contact and bend the rules to his advantage. And while that’s annoying when he’s playing against your favorite team, there is an undeniable skill and craft that allows him to do this.
Getting to the line is something that the Cavs have struggled with for the past several years. They’re 20th in free-throw rate and haven’t been above league average the past three seasons.
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Harden’s presence alone is going to help immensely. He’s in the 90th percentile in drawing shooting fouls. This translates over to a team context. This season, the Clippers were in the 95th percentile in free-throw rate when Harden was on the floor. Over his 17-year career, his team has been in the 75th percentile for free-throw rate or better when he’s playing.
The Cavs’ offense under head coach Kenny Atkinson has been powered primarily by their shooting from the field. That will change some with the boost that Harden will provide here.
One man offense
The Cavs have gone as Mitchell has this season. When he’s on the floor, they’ve been great (+6.6 net rating) and without him, they’ve been awful (-3.3 net rating). This includes somehow being worse when Garland was on the court without Mitchell (-9.5 net rating).
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Harden will help drastically in the minutes without Mitchell. He’s been a one-man offense over his entire career.
One of the most consistent things in the NBA over the past decade and a half is that your offense will be good if Harden is on the court. This season, the Clippers had a 120.3 offensive rating with Harden on the floor (87th percentile). That plummets to a 109.6 offensive rating (12th percentile) without him. And if your offense is that bad, you’re going to lose those minutes.
It’s fair to wonder whether Mitchell and Harden can mesh their games when they share the floor. The Cavs aren’t going to win a championship if their new core-four players don’t play well together. If they are going to play well together, Harden will likely have to adjust his game to play at Atkinson’s pace.
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Those concerns aside, you can almost certainly guarantee that the Cavs will still have a great offensive attack when Harden is on the floor without Mitchell.
The Cavs are sacrificing future stability to increase their chances of winning now. Despite his age, Harden raises the floor and ceiling of this team. He will help their offense tremendously, especially when compared to this season’s version of Garland. Whether or not that will translate over to the playoffs remains to be seen and will ultimately determine if this was a worthwhile gamble.
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