LOS ANGELES — The future is now.
With the NBA’s highest payroll, a ticking clock tied to Donovan Mitchell’s contract and Finals-or-bust pressure, the underachieving Cavs made an unemotional and clear-eyed assessment of their roster.
Then they came to a definitive — and correct — conclusion:
We’re not good enough.
Eventually when the trade deadline buzzer sounds at 3 p.m. ET on Thursday afternoon and president basketball operations Koby Altman addresses the team’s bold maneuvering shortly thereafter, he probably won’t put it so bluntly.
Doesn’t have to. His actions say it all.
Just days after sending mercurial swingman De’Andre Hunter to the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Dennis Schroder and Keon Ellis — part of a three-team trade that also cost Cleveland a future second-round pick that went to the Chicago Bulls — Trader Koby struck again.
It’s his 31st deal since becoming the franchise’s chief decision-maker.
Sources tell cleveland.com the Cavs have agreed to acquire former MVP James Harden for injured point guard Darius Garland — a two-time All-Star, once an esteemed member of the Core Four and previously the longest tenured Cavalier (that honor now belongs to soon-to-be-free-agent Dean Wade). Cleveland is also giving Los Angeles a 2026 second-round pick.
In a way, Altman subtly hinted at this possibility when officially announcing Sunday’s three-teamer that started this roster remake.
“After careful evaluation and a clearer view of the Eastern Conference landscape, we believe adding Dennis and Keon strengthens our depth, expands our flexibility, and positions us to keep building a championship caliber team now and into the future …”
Read that first part again. The part about the Eastern Conference landscape.
Indiana, last year’s Bogeyman, is no longer in the way.
The Celtics, despite their current second place standing and Jaylen Brown’s superstar leap, aren’t nearly as threatening with Jayson Tatum still recovering from an Achilles tear.
Orlando, after acquiring burly sharpshooter Desmond Bane to help solve their longtime offensive woes, has yet to coalesce.
New York is flawed. Same with grimy Detroit. Toronto might not be ready. Giannis Antetokounmpo isn’t in the picture — unless he gets traded to an East rival. The Thunder are out West. Same with San Antonio, Denver, Houston and Minnesota.
For the Cavs, this may be their clearest path to the conference throne.
And they are now better equipped to begin that reign.
Harden is imperfect. He has a nasty track record of playoff underperformance. He tends to grow unhappy and quickly wear out his welcome, starting to look for an early exit strategy. He has demanded four trades in the last six years. He is 36 years old.
But he’s also an 11-time All-Star who probably should have received another nod this year, averaging 25.4 points on 41.9% from the field, including 34.7% from 3-point range to go with 8.1 assists and 4.8 rebounds while helping resuscitate the Clippers after a wretched 6-21 start.
He’s bigger and stronger than Garland. More durable. More mature. More experienced. More reliable. More postseason-ready. A better playmaker. Better shot-creator. Better pure scorer. Not as much of a defensive liability.
Is it a sacrifice of the future given the decade age gap between Harden and Garland? Absolutely.
Is it too much short-term thinking? Maybe.
Then again, Evan Mobley’s development has almost plateaued, and he hardly looks the part of an organizational alpha. That means Cleveland’s championship window only remains open as long as Mitchell is around. It’s up to the Cavs to make him want to stay.
Harden, who had played 44 of a possible 47 games before sitting out the past two because of personal reasons, is an offensive engine and ceiling raiser.
He is in the 98th percentile in Offensive Estimated Plus-Minus. He ranks 13th in Offensive Win Shares, 18th in Player Efficiency Rating and 20th in Value Over Replacement Player.
In nearly 1600 minutes with him on the floor, the Clippers have a 118.9 offensive rating — akin to the New York Knicks who rank third in that category. With him off, that number plummets to 106.6 — nearly two points per 100 possessions worse than the last-ranked Pacers.
Harden makes teammates better. Bigs thrive playing alongside him. In Cleveland, he will carve out space for Mitchell and others, consistently creating quality looks. He breaks down defenses in isolation — a necessity in the playoffs.
The Cavs weren’t going to trade Garland for just anyone. It needed to be someone viewed as an upgrade.
Harden is.
For this team, right now, in pursuit of a title, with the contention window propped open and Mitchell’s future to consider, Harden is, unequivocally, a better sidekick.
As for Garland, his unceremonious departure ends a lengthy Cleveland tenure, going from the fifth pick in 2019 to a max player and two-time All-Star. A pillar of the post-LeBron James era, the young effervescent Garland helped Cleveland emerge from the rebuild darkness, part of the core that brought this downtrodden franchise back to relevance. The Cavs would not be where they are today without Garland.
But his flaws couldn’t be ignored any longer — not with these stakes, not with these expectations.
Garland is one of the league’s worst defenders. Every metric says it. Every opponent does too. Remember Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro in the conference quarterfinals? This isn’t just a one- or two-year thing. He has never been a plus defender. Opponents relentlessly target him. The Cavs hide him.
According to stat-based website dunks and threes, Garland is in the 8th percentile in Defensive Estimated Plus Minus this season — a harrowing number that has him right alongside fellow turnstiles Jordan Clarkson, CJ McCollum, Jordan Poole and Zach LaVine.
With him on the court this season, the Cavs function defensively as the 26th-ranked Brooklyn Nets. With him off the court, they become a cross between the Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs.
And the 6-foot-1 Garland hasn’t been dynamic enough on offense to offset those defensive limitations, with the Cavs being outscored overall by 3.0 points per 100 possessions in Garland’s minutes. It’s the worst mark of any player on the team who has logged more than 500 minutes.
That ineffectiveness — partially the byproduct of offseason surgery on his problematic left toe and then another early-season setback — combined with continued unavailability has forced Cleveland to rely heavily on Mitchell. It’s too much.
Mitchell is averaging 33.9 minutes. His usage rate is the highest it has been since joining the Cavaliers in the summer of 2022. He rarely plays off the ball these days, statistically among the lowest number of possessions in his career. There’s been recent internal concern about him wearing down — physically and mentally — before spring even begins.
Harden can take some of that responsibility. He can be a partner on offense, similar to when Harden played alongside Chris Paul in Houston, bringing the Rockets one win away from advancing to the Finals.
Garland’s spotty health history also loomed over this deal. It had to.
Following summer turf toe surgery, Garland missed Cleveland’s first seven games. He has been sidelined since Jan. 14 because of a sprained toe on his other foot that has limited him to individual on-court workouts. He has played in just 26 of the team’s 51 games. He has never played more than 75 in any season.
Even if healthy enough to return at some point in the next few weeks, there were legitimate concerns about how effective he would be playing through the injury.
Would the bothersome toe zap some of his signature speed, quickness, shiftiness and change of direction? Would there be a re-aggravation of that injury — just like last year? Would his balance be off — just like November? Would he feel pain when his toe bashed into his shoe on a sharp cut? What would a limited Garland look like?
And then there’s his contract, owed nearly $90 million over the next two years. Given the Cavs are in the punitive second apron, which restricts how trades can be made and complicates team-building, moving Garland now helps create flexibility and optionality — two Cleveland front office buzzwords — this coming summer.
And, oh, what an important summer it is.
Mitchell is extension-eligible this summer. He has just one more guaranteed season under contract. In his own words to cleveland.com before the season started, he wants a (expletive) ring, with deep playoff success the only thing missing on an otherwise sparkling resume. When decision time comes, he will be looking for a place that is title worthy and title ready.
That wasn’t Cleveland. Not before Tuesday’s agreed-to trade — and the one over the weekend.
That’s another key point in this blockbuster.
The Cavs didn’t break up a juggernaut. This general group has flamed out of the playoffs three straight years and is currently fifth in the East, with the league’s ninth-best point differential. They are eighth in offensive rating and 13th in defensive rating, far from the usual championship profile. They aren’t pacing toward 64 wins like a year ago. The longest winning streak is five games. Their flaws have been identified and scrutinized. Their habits have been questioned. Their depth has been tested. They haven’t established an identity.
For much of this season, they have looked like a contender in name and reputation only.
And forget all that stuff about the Cavs trading an All-Star. Has Garland looked like one this year? Has he played like one? Does he have that statistical profile? Does he make that kind of nightly impact? Based solely on this year (a dangerous stance, of course), they dealt a player who has the same number of Win Shares as Landry Shamet, Kyle Kuzma and Jusuf Nurkic. A player who has the same VORP as Mike Conley, Baylor Scheierman, Pete Nance and Corey Kispert.
So, what did Cleveland truly give up? What’s the downside of this deal? Failing to advance past the second round? They were headed for that fate anyway. Players knew it. Coaches knew it. Team executives did as well.
There were — and are — legitimate questions about Garland’s playoff readiness.
The physicality. The intensity. The pressure. The mental.
There were questions about the team’s roster composition in a league where only three teams have ever won a title with a backcourt made up of two players 6-foot-3 or under like Garland and Mitchell. Harden, by the way, is 6-foot-5.
In a pure 1-for-1 swap, it’s hard to see the Cavs finding a better immediate return for Garland than Harden. They weren’t getting Trey Murphy III, Herbert Jones or Giannis. Forget Lauri Markkanen. The Warriors aren’t trading Stephen Curry.
So, who else?
It doesn’t mean this is guaranteed to work.
The Cavs may end up being wrong. Wouldn’t be the first time. The John Beilein hire years ago — yikes. The Isaac Okoro pick — yeesh. Last February’s Hunter trade — whoops.
It just means it was a risk worth taking.
Had Harden not wanted out of Los Angeles maybe Cleveland wouldn’t have even found a Garland package. At least, one that would’ve gotten them to say yes.
But Harden was available. They did say yes. And they’re a better team because of it.
Isn’t that the goal of a trade?
Over the first three-plus months, there were two Cavaliers blowtorching the team’s net rating, both of them playing a significant role in the maddeningly underwhelming start.
Both are now gone.
Maybe now this team will be good enough.
