The Los Angeles Clippers had won 16 of their last 20 games to roar back into the fringes of the Western Conference playoff race. Which is when James Harden decided he wasn’t going to play for the team again without a contract extension. Now he’s a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
That’s not ESPN’s finest Photoshop work on that graphic.
Harden demanded a trade last week after the Clippers rejected his request for a two-year extension to his contract, reportedly worth roughly $40M per season, which would wreck the Clippers’ long-standing plan to max out their cap space in the summer of 2027, when many contracts, including that of tree-lover Kawhi Leonard, expire.
Plus, Steve Ballmer may have bristled at paying top dollar for Harden at age 38, much as the Philadelphia 76ers balked at giving Harden a maximum contract extension back in the summer of 2023, when Harden demanded a trade, refused to play, and called team president Daryl Morey a liar during a trip to China, admittedly a country that’s very sympathetic to Daryl Morey slander.
How did it come to this? Part of it comes from the Clippers signing Harden to an overly-clever deal where he has a 2026-27 player option worth $42.3M he must exercise by June 29, but the Clippers can waive him by July 11 and owe him only $13.3M. This was a smart move to save money and a dumb move for anyone who has paid attention to Harden’s feelings about contracts for the last five years.
Once Harden was playing well this season — and he has been a borderline All-Star, averaging 25.4 points and 8.1 assists — that option became a ticking time bomb. He wasn’t going to risk picking up his option and then getting waived, nor was he willing to roll the dice on unrestricted free agency. Even when he was unhappy with the Sixers in 2023, Harden still picked up his player option, choosing to wait months for a trade rather than simply become a free agent.
This author would guess we will hear news of a Harden extension soon. He was happy to go to the Cavaliers, even though it meant foregoing most of his 15% trade kicker.
In return, the Clippers received two-time All-Star Darius Garland, who is 10 years younger than Harden and the son of former Golden State Warriors guard Winston Garland, the last active NBA player to be named “Winston.” (Cassius Winston has been out of the league since 2022, and he doesn’t count.) In a sign of how far Garland’s star has fallen, it was the Cavs who had to include a second-round pick to complete the deal.
Why did Cleveland make this move? Some of it is his fit alongside 6-foot-2 Donovan Mitchell, another small guard, which teams have exploited in the playoffs. Some of it is his contract, which costs roughly $87M for the next two seasons. The Cavaliers traded De’Andre Hunter earlier this week for Dennis Schroder and Keon Ellis in a move that saved them $50M in payroll and luxury taxes combined. Ditching Garland reduces their future liability, and they could get under the second luxury tax apron by trading Lonxo Ball before Thursday’s deadline.
The biggest factor might be Garland’s recent history of injuries. He was hobbled during last year’s playoffs with a toe injury that he’s continued to battle this year, and has underperformed his regular-season averages in his playoff career.
It’s a rare situation where adding James Harden actually might give Cleveland a better playoff performer. And if Harden does falter in the playoffs (he’s definitely going to falter in the playoffs), the Cavaliers do have Ellis and Schroder off the bench, and sophomore sensation Jaylon Tyson, the second-best former California Golden Bear named Jaylen/Jaylon in the NBA.
The Clippers got an escape ramp off their aging roster with an actual young player with actual talent, though they probably get worse this season. The Warriors don’t have to see their old friend The Beard until April 2. Harden gets to hang out with Cleveland legends Machine Gun Kelly, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and Flo from Progressive. The Cavaliers get one of the greatest scorers, partiers, and floppers in NBA history. And there’s still a day and a half before the trade deadline!
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