Cavs’ James Harden trade is now a success, ex-NBA players say

The Cleveland Cavaliers made a major move at the trade deadline in the 2025-26 NBA season, trading away two-time All-Star Darius Garland in a deal that brought former league MVP James Harden to Cleveland.

Since Harden is much older than Garland, the Cavs were clearly betting on him improving their window to win a title in the short term, as Garland likely has a longer NBA career ahead of him.

Now that the Cavs have made the Eastern Conference Finals, former NBA players Chandler Parsons and Lou Williams seem to believe that the Harden trade was a success for the Cavs.

Cleveland came up short in multiple playoff runs with Garland and Donovan Mitchell in the backcourt, failing to reach the Eastern Conference Finals in three straight seasons.

In the 2023 playoffs, Cleveland lost in five games in the first round to the New York Knicks, the team Cleveland will play in the Eastern Conference Finals this season.

In the 2024 and 2025 postseasons, the Cavs won just one game in the second round each year against the Boston Celtics (2024) and Indiana Pacers (2025). Last season’s exit against the Indiana Pacers was extremely frustrating since the Cavs had won over 60 games in the regular season and were the No. 1 seed in the East.

Harden has a ton of playoff experience and went to the NBA Finals during his time with the Oklahoma City Thunder earlier in his career. So, the Cavs are hoping that his experience will help them get past the Knicks and back to the Finals for the first time since the 2018 postseason.

In the 2026 playoffs, Harden is averaging 20.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game for the Cavs while shooting 41.5 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from beyond the arc. He’s appeared in all 14 of the team’s games, which is a welcome sign after Cavs fans saw Garland miss time in last year’s playoffs.

Harden did struggle as a scorer in Game 7 against the Detroit Pistons, shooting just 2-for-10 from the field and 0-for-6 from deep, so Cavs fans are hoping he can shake off that performance ahead of the Eastern Conference Finals. He did impact the game in other ways in the clincher.

The Cavs are set to take on the Knicks in Game 1 at 8 p.m. EST on Tuesday.