LOS ANGELES — A little more than a month ago, as the Cavs were toiling in mediocrity and internally discussing options to fix an underachieving roster, an unexpected opportunity emerged.
James Harden — the bearded future Hall-of-Famer who was in basketball purgatory at the time, with the Clippers staggering to a miserable 6-21 start — approached L.A. with a mutually beneficial exit strategy.
Similar to, but not exactly a trade request.
Despite playing in the glamorous city, his own backyard, where he had already cemented himself as a beloved franchise icon, Harden specifically targeted Cleveland as his next potential destination.
He wanted to team up with Donovan Mitchell, his longtime buddy, old workout partner and Adidas cohort. Harden loved the roster. He saw a compelling fit — and a chance, maybe his last one, to try to win a championship.
So, he had his representatives reach out to the Cavaliers, laying the groundwork for a February blockbuster.
But Cleveland, which entered the season with lofty goals, on the heels of a third consecutive playoff flameout, had to get comfortable with the idea.
Acquiring Harden, who is making around $39 million this season, has a player option for next year and possessed a de facto no-trade clause, would be costly.
It would mark the end of the acclaimed Core Four — a quartet of Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen who not only helped Cleveland rebuild from the post-LeBron wreckage but was expected to lead the franchise back to its apex.
It would cause ripples throughout the roster, the kind of dramatic shake-up the Cavs had been avoiding.
It would be a departure from the patient, long-runway approach Altman had been repeating since the Eastern Conference semifinals loss to Indiana.
Was _this_ the right opportunity? The right time? The right player? The right fit?
In the weeks after, team decision-makers watched a plethora of Harden film, studied data and quietly gathered intel. They created a trade target board, weighing the various options given some nagging salary-cap restrictions — a result of being in the punitive second apron.
They asked important questions, including whether the team was good enough to win without an overhaul.
That question was answered on Tuesday, when news broke that Cleveland had acquired Harden in exchange for Garland and a 2026 second-round draft pick.
“James really identified that he wanted to be here,” president of basketball operations Koby Altman said during a post-deadline Zoom call with reporters Thursday. “Not something we jumped on right away. We had to sit down and really discuss this opportunity and get to a place where we were all comfortable with it.
“Opportunity sort of raised its hand and we realized this gives us a chance to win. This was not someone we were trying to move. We would’ve been perfectly happy having Darius return to this roster after the deadline if this opportunity didn’t arise.”
And, just like that, the Core Four was dismantled, with service workers more than 2,000 miles away, ripping down the supersized Garland-Mitchell-Mobley-Allen banner that had been hanging on the building across from Rocket Arena.
“This is not a trade we took lightly. My job at the end of the day is to bring the best talent to Cleveland and set them up for success,” Altman explained. “We’re bringing one of the greatest players of all time to Cleveland, who’s still playing at an elite level. We couldn’t be more excited.”
Altman said Thursday, an hour after the deadline buzzer sounded, that Harden will give the team a different look in the backcourt.
More size. More strength. More bulk. More creativity. More toughness. More tenacity. More leadership. More maturity. More durability. More playoff readiness.
“It’s a big deal to have a 6-foot-5 point guard,” Altman said. “It’s a departure from what we played with before. I think it’s gonna help us in the playoffs.”
To Altman’s point, only three teams in NBA history have won a championship with a backcourt made up of two players 6-foot-3 or shorter. The Cavs saw the many defensive pratfalls of that pairing last spring — and the one before that and the one before that.
Altman also believes Mobley and Allen will thrive alongside Harden, the beneficiaries of his gravity, passing, IQ, vision and veteran knowhow. And then there’s Mitchell, who no longer has to carry such a massive offensive burden.
The reliable Harden, who has never missed the playoffs and comes with 173 games of postseason experience that includes a Finals trip in Oklahoma City in 2012, ranks ninth in the league in drives and remains one of the NBA’s premier playmakers even at 36 years old.
“He’s a magician in pick and roll,” Altman said of Harden. “Really excited about when it gets to a chaotic time in the playoffs and we’re on the road and there’s a fever pitch, being able to throw the ball to him and calm this thing down. Let’s get a good possession when it gets really, really tight and it’s loud in that building. We’ve gone to the playoffs the last few years largely as a young team, not a very experienced playoff team trying to figure it out.
“To be quite honest, James is motivated. Highly, highly motivated. He knows this is the last piece to his legacy and he sees a great chance with us.”
And, of course, none of this happens without Mitchell’s blessing. Sources say he was keenly aware of the early talks and provided helpful feedback throughout — although Altman scoffed at the notion that Mitchell forced the deal.
“Donovan’s all in on Cleveland. He’s laying down roots here. He loves the city. He loves what we’re doing as an organization,” Altman explained. “I think of course you want feedback from your best player. But that’s not Donovan’s job. Donovan’s job is not to run in my office and tell me to go get this player or make this move. Do we want his input? Absolutely. Just like I want my head coach’s input, just like I want my staff’s input. A lot goes into decision-making and evaluation, and there’s future outlooks that we wouldn’t even talk to Donovan about from a financial implication standpoint. All of this goes into your process when you have to make a decision like this.
“It’s not fair to label Donovan as the one that was driving this or forcing our hand or anything like that. Donovan’s been an incredible partner. I think he’s happy about what we did, but certainly not the driving force behind it, and it’s not fair to label him as such.”
Nonetheless, Mitchell’s contract situation and the organizational ticking clock looms over every decision — now and this summer. The Cavs need to give Mitchell the right pieces to satisfy his insatiable championship quest. They need to constantly remind him that Cleveland provides his best championship chance.
If not, his eyes could start darting elsewhere, with only one more guaranteed year under contract and a player option for 2027-28.
For now, the Cavs have their group, revamped and retooled with Harden, edgy Dennis Schroder and rugged Keon Ellis. All it cost was Garland, De’Andre Hunter, Lonzo Ball and some future draft capital.
Uncoincidentally, those departures represent the three worst on-court net ratings — out of 11 players with at least 500 minutes logged for the Cavaliers this season.
That made them all “expendable” — in the right deals.
Hunter, last year’s deadline prize, never fit. He was in the midst of one of the least productive seasons ever. Ball quickly became unplayable with an inability to drive to the basket or knock down open shots. Even Garland, the two-time All-Star and one-time organizational cornerstone, had become a net negative, with his flaws being too difficult to overlook.
Cleveland might eventually feel the on-court pain of the 10-year age gap between Harden and Garland. But not now. Everything points to Harden being, unequivocally, better.
In many ways, trade season represented failed moves, an admission of those mistakes and a willingness to quickly pivot.
“I think it’s fair to say that we had an underwhelming start to the season,” Altman said. “But every year you look at how can I improve the roster? And every year you canvas the league. There is urgency to take this team to the next level.
“We really felt like we got a lot better this deadline. It is very rare to improve your team and save a hundred million dollars at the same time.”
The Cavs, currently 31-21 and fourth place in the Eastern Conference, have 30 regular season games to figure all of this out, blend these skillsets and stabilize the moving parts.
Atkinson will need to find the right lineups and combinations. Harden and Mitchell, now the two linchpins to Cleveland’s success, must make sacrifices. There will be growing pains. But Altman believes there’s enough time before Judgment Day. That doesn’t come until spring.
On Thursday afternoon, from inside the Maybourne Hotel in Beverly Hills, the place that served as Cavaliers headquarters for nearly a week, where the franchise-altering Harden trade was finalized, Altman spoke confidently about what the team just accomplished.
They made an honest assessment of the roster and substantially improved it while shedding salary, creating flexibility, keeping three members of the now-defunct Core Four and hanging onto their one tradeable first-round pick.
The only negative was an inability to get out of the restrictive second apron.
“For us to get under, we would’ve had to lose a rotational piece right now,” Altman explained. “That was hard for us to do. What gives us the best chance to win? It’s certainly not trading a rotational player at the deadline. We’ll address that in the summer. If we want to pull that lever, we can.”
Weeks ago, when Harden first came calling, the Cavs didn’t look the part of a title contender — despite their preseason ranking. It was a flawed roster, destined for another early playoff exit and an uncertain future given Mitchell’s contract status — unless changes were made.
Altman knew it. Said as much Thursday.
He backed it up. Words into action. Now it’s time for this reinforced group to rewrite the springtime narrative.
“That’s the ultimate goal — try to get to a conference finals, a Finals and win a championship,“ Altman said. ”We think without a doubt James raises our level. A monumental trade we think raises our ceiling and gives us a chance to have real playoff success."