It finally happened, folks. James Harden has once again pointed at another team and gotten what he wanted. The former MVP is heading to Cleveland in a trade for Cavaliers guard Darius Garland, who is heading to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Let’s get into grading the latest NBA blockbuster.
Cleveland Cavaliers Grade: C+
It sounds weird, but this is a financially motivated trade. Let me explain why.
Harden makes a shade over $39 million this year, and has a player option for $42 million next season. Stars at his age tend to decline those options to have leverage. So, for all intents and purposes, Harden is an expiring deal.
Garland makes $39 million this year, then $42 million next year, and $44 million the year after that. All those years are fully guaranteed. Cleveland, a second apron taxpayer team this season, has the highest payroll in the NBA this year. It’d be poised to have an equally onerous number next year. That’s a lot of money to pay for a team that does not look like a contender.
I don’t think Harden moves the needle for them on the contender scale. But he does keep them in the mix, and can take some pressure off Donovan Mitchell in key moments. They have the defensive infrastructure to make up for his lapses in attention. It doesn’t change the outcome much this season, but it does give them an avenue to reset things this offseason. That’s a win for Cleveland, albeit a somewhat Pyrrhic victory.
Los Angeles Clippers Grade: A-
It has become clear in the last few days that the Harden situation was coming to an end. He wanted an extension that the front office was refusing to give him, which left the Clippers with two choices: trade him now and get some kind of return, or ride it out this season and see what happens.
Ultimately, the choice was made for them. Even with their excellent run of play recently, the Clippers have little chance of climbing out of the play-in. It’s awfully hard to make noise when you start there. With their first-round pick headed to the Thunder no matter what, they didn’t operate with a sunk-cost fallacy and decided to invest in the long term.
Garland has two main issues: size and availability. At 6’1″, he needs to be covered up defensively. He has also been prone to injuries lately. But when you get past the flaws, there’s an All-Star lead guard there. Garland averaged 20.6 points and 6.7 assists to 2.5 turnovers on great shooting efficiency last season, and is the kind of offensive engine who can keep a team’s head above water when he’s going well.
Garland has also been playing as second fiddle to Donovan Mitchell for the past three-and-a-half seasons. Before Mitchell arrived, Garland was a young ascendant All-Star averaging nearly nine assists per game while scoring more than 20 PPG efficiently. Perhaps, as the true lead guard once again, he can find new heights. Having only recently turned 26 years old, there’s reason to believe Garland has more growing to do.
LA is likely to sputter out this season. But it was rapidly aging out with the Harden-Kawhi Leonard core. This trade gives them a youth lifeline without sacrificing any draft capital. Great work for the LA front office.
