Cavaliers regret for James Harden trade is growing by leaps and bounds
The Cleveland Cavaliers made a daring trade for James Harden on the Trade Deadline. With every passing recreation, that trade seems to be like a much bigger and greater mistake – one that would doom this whole period for Cleveland.
Perhaps the Cavaliers proper the ship and win their first-round playoff sequence in opposition to the Toronto Raptors. Perhaps they achieve this in convincing vogue, with James Harden and Donovan Mitchell going off and Evan Mobley dominating inside. Perhaps they go on to take down the wobbling Detroit Pistons and lastly attain the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Harden trade is a catastrophe
That is all doable, but it surely doesn’t appear significantly seemingly. Not after the Raptors hosted the Cavaliers in Games 3 and 4 and punched them sq. within the mouth. And not after James Harden has already proven he is turning again into scared, helpless James Harden — the playoff underachiever everybody knew was ready to burst forth.
That was all the time the chance when the Cavaliers traded for Harden in February. They (rightly) concluded that Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell couldn’t win a title collectively as two small, offense-first guards. They then (wrongly) concluded that Harden was the answer to that drawback.
Harden, he of the notorious 2-for-11 video games. Harden, the one who curls into the fetal place when he is on the point of elimination. Harden, who once more and once more lets his groups down when the playoffs come round. Some all-time gamers elevate their recreation when the lights are brightest; Harden simply closes his eyes in opposition to the glare.
Yes, Harden is a superb passer and assured shooter. He dazzled the Cavaliers and their followers when he first arrived. He is good for a few spotlight stepback rainbows or pinpoint pocket passes every recreation. Yet everybody — particularly followers in Houston, Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Los Angeles — was prepared to inform the Cavaliers what they knew to be true: in some unspecified time in the future, Harden would collapse.
For it to have already occurred within the first spherical in opposition to a major underdog it is stunning solely within the sense of it is stunning when a child poops in his diaper 10 minutes after you modify him; you knew it will occur as a result of that is what infants do, you simply hoped it will come slightly later.
James Harden has been traditionally dangerous
In Game 3, Harden shot 5-for-13 from the sector, 3-for-10 from deep, and had a whopping eight turnovers to simply 4 assists. In Game 4, he did handle eight assists, however had one other seven turnovers and shot solely 6-for-14 from the sector.
Since the NBA started monitoring turnovers, solely 30 instances has a participant had 15 turnovers in a two-game span within the playoffs. Inexplicably, three of these have come within the final week, with Cade Cunningham, LeBron James and Harden all spraying the ball round.
That checklist is dotted with star gamers, since position gamers get yanked once they begin turning the ball over. Unsurprisingly, who reveals up probably the most instances? James Harden, who has achieved the notorious feat a whopping seven instances.
Again, 30 instances within the historical past of the league. Harden has seven of them.
The Cavaliers swung for the fences, however they did so by buying and selling their barely flawed baseball bat for a whiffle bat. James Harden was by no means going to get the job completed. And as they face the prospect of handing him a big-money contract this summer season, their regret is solely growing.
With every painful recreation Harden provides on this postseason, that regret will solely develop. Because he is certain to fill that diaper once more – it is what he does.
