At What Expense?

As I’m sure you’re aware, there was a bit of a moooove made on Tuesday. A rather large one, and no, I’m talking about the heft the new Cavalier carries around his midsection. Yes, Jim Harden ((I’m calling James “Jim” now until a time of my own determination is seen fit.)) is now a Cleveland Cavalier, and sudden the Cavs are favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference. General Manager Koby Altman figures Harden’s instant offense will invigorate the sluggish point scorers while giving All-Everything Donovan Mitchell a more stable backcourt partner. Harden still is, whenever he wants to be, a star in this league and absolutely should catapult Cleveland to the top of the leaderboard in the East. All of this comes with a price, however, and to that price I ask, “At what expense?”

All it took to get Harden and all of the things that come with was sending out a 26-year-old former All-Star-face-of-the-franchise Darius Garland…and a second-round pick. A pick, mind you, that Cleveland was reportedly trying to get back from the Clippers. Garland has spent his career by Lake Erie, and while his time has seen the franchise transform from LeBron leftover into an Eastern Conference pillar, the mounting injuries and allergic-to-toughness playoff performances have obviously taken a toll on his value in the building. It’s been years now of fake trades, fans clamoring for a move to get a bigger guard next to Donnie, and Harden definitely is a “bigger” guard, but you have to ask yourself, “was this the only way?”

If you are of the “Garland has to go” mindset, one I was entrenched in, then you might be happy today. You can look at the starting lineup and see Mitchell at point, his best spot, alongside Harden, Jaylon Tyson, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen and think “who has it better than us?” But what happens when Harden decides to not GAF? His effort level fluctuates not just week-to-week or game-to-game, but play-to-play as well. His financials could be crazy as well: he’s effectively on a one-year deal with an option. If he exercises that option, Cleveland will be right back in the spot they were in coming into the season, but if he declines, he’s gone without anything but cap space left in his wake. Signing him to any kind of extension in his year 37/38 season is like printing funny money only to be used at gentleman’s clubs…Wait, Harden might be into that idea. The Cavs are right in the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” spot, so they did, and now we will see.

This trade has every monkey paw and bad omen to it. The selling your soul for a title is coming to roost. Sure, the team looks better on paper with Harden, but the soul of the team feels irreparably changed. The hard part is that it might not mean anything either. Sure, Harden can shoot the lights out of the arena, and having someone take the scoring pressure of Mobley/Mitchell will do wonders for their efficiency. Harden is known for being amongst the best pick and roll players in the game, which would enable Mobley to EAT on the inside ((Something Harden is accustomed to, if you know what I mean.)) But Harden is not without his blemishes. There’s a reason the Cavs are his fifth team he’s played for since 2020. His defensive effort is lackluster at best, criminally negligent at worst, and his playoff resume is almost as bad as Garland’s, and as noted above, he has some Jo Dee Messina in him: often, his “give a damn” is busted.

So sure, you might have secured yourself a spot in the Eastern Conference Finals and maybe even The Finals proper, but the question that begs to be asked is, “at what expense?” So much of the Cavs success has been on the sum of the parts, the power of friendship and sunlight and rainbows and all that. Now you’ve gone and dropped a franchise player, albeit one who hasn’t been consistently healthy for three plus seasons, and brought in a player with some of the worst vibes imaginable. Maybe it will work out to where they also finish their flirtation with Milwaukee and Jimmy Haslam does a Cleveland team a solid and ship Giannis here too. Who knows what these next few hours before the trade deadline mean for the Cavs. I pray Cleveland wins a title this season because the move to acquire Harden here has the potential to fracture a roster, and, subsequently, a franchise that was precarious at best.