The Cleveland Cavaliers had to try this.
They had to try trading for future Hall of Famer and lefty extraordinaire James Harden from the Los Angeles Clippers. Salary rules made the only matching player Darius Garland, which is fine -- point guard for point guard, reported by ESPN's Shams Charania, with just a second-round pick added with Garland going to the Clippers.
The reality is that Cleveland had to do, well, something.
This incredibly talented roster, which started the 2024-25 season with 15 consecutive wins with this very core, hadn't gotten past the second round of the playoffs. The quartet of Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen seemed like more than enough on paper, but it hadn't delivered a postseason trip even close to a championship.
It was time for change. Whether it works or not, that simply became the reality.
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The Cavs owed it to themselves to try to win with Mitchell, who has devoted himself to this city that no one else in the NBA thought he'd want to stay in.
They owed it to themselves to try to win without that always-looming shadow, LeBron James, the guy who they say might sign back to Cleveland as a free agent over the summer.
They owed it to the city, which comes out in full force on brutal winter nights to root on one of the most fun teams in basketball.
Harden isn't every basketball fan's cup of tea. He is an expert at drawing fouls. He likes isolation ball and stepback 3-pointers.
But he's unquestionably one of the best players of this era. He's still averaging more than 25 points and eight assists per game, even at 36 years old. His incredible passing vision will create easy bucket after easy bucket for Mobley and Allen.
The contention window may have just gotten shorter for Cleveland, but the Cavs weren't going to be able to keep Mitchell and Mobley and Garland all together for more than another year or two. The time was coming when change would have to happen.
So it happened now, with the NBA's trade deadline approaching on Thursday. It happened with the Cavs in Los Angeles, preparing to play the Clippers on Wednesday night in the quickest turnaround revenge game you could have.
It happened because the Cavs had no choice, not if they wanted to take advantage of a wide open Eastern Conference and chase an NBA title in full force.
It feels similar to another team on Lake Erie, the Buffalo Bills, who fired head coach Sean McDermott because they still hadn't reached a Super Bowl with superstar QB Josh Allen, and they didn't feel like they could take any more chances running back the same routine over and over again.
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The Cavaliers want to reach their own big game. They want to reach the biggest stage. They want to do it for Cleveland.
And so they've traded for Harden, one of the all-time greats, maybe in the twilight of his career but still one of the best players in the league. It was a move that the Cavs could make despite salary cap restrictions, and they couldn't afford not to seize the moment.
These Cavaliers may not win the title, but those Cavs probably weren't winning it, either. At least now, they've taken the big swing. They just have to hope it connects.
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