Cavaliers’ Slow Start Is a James Harden Problem

On Wednesday, during a timeout in the fourth quarter of Cleveland’s showdown against New York, Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson appealed to his team’s competitive spirit. “What’s better than this?” asked Atkinson, with Cleveland clinging to a three-point lead. “Enjoy this s---.” The Cavaliers listened, pulling away down the stretch to come away with a 115–107 win.

The win was a reminder: Cleveland can be pretty good. James Harden scored 32 points on a tidy 64.3% shooting. Donovan Mitchell added 23. Jarrett Allen chipped in with a double-double. The Cavs got stops down the stretch, highlighted by Peyton Watson’s spectacular chase-down block of Miles McBride with under a minute left, and clobbered the Knicks on the boards. “A lot of great individual performances,” said Atkinson, “but I think it was ... the grit and extra effort.”

So why haven’t the Cavaliers been good? Wednesday’s win pushed Cleveland back to .500 following a brutal 1–4 stretch that bottomed out with a blowout loss to a hollowed-out Hornets team. Most of the Cavs’ stats have been mediocre. Entering Thursday, Cleveland was 10th in offensive rating (not bad), 16th in defensive rating (not good) and 14th in net rating (somewhere in between). They have a top-10 payroll and entered the season with an expectation to compete for the No. 1 seed. Before the Knicks game, Charles Barkley declared the Cavs “suck.”

Any finger pointing starts with Harden. Bluntly: Harden has been brutal. He’s averaging 15.3 points, the fewest since his early Oklahoma City days. His assist numbers are his lowest in more than a decade. His shooting percentage is a career-low. Following his trade from the Clippers last season, Harden connected on 43.5% of his threes. This year it's nearly five points lower. His assist-to-turnover ratio is among his career-worst.

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What gives? Harden has pointed to his role, which has evolved from last season. Atkinson said the Cavs don’t need “Houston James,” referencing the year Harden was regularly in the running—and once won—MVP. They need playmaker Harden. Floor general Harden. Harden has accepted the new role but admits he is “still trying to figure it out.”

But Harden is 37, with a lot of miles on him. He has played more than 1,200 regular season games and nearly 200 more in the playoffs. He has played nearly 50,000 minutes. Since the 2012-13 season, Harden has played more regular season and playoff minutes than anyone, per StatMuse—including LeBron James. In Year 18, Harden said, getting going is taking him more time than usual.

Still, there have been effort issues. Some embarrassing. Consider what happened against Charlotte. Down 16 in the third quarter, Harden parked himself in the paint. He got outworked for a rebound by Ryan Kalkbrenner, then didn’t move an inch to defend a Sion James three-point attempt. When that missed, Harden was whistled for a foul on Grayson Allen, who hustled in for a rebound from the opposite end of the floor. A clip of the sequence quickly went viral. After the game, Atkinson said the team’s energy level was “at a five.” Harden’s felt lower.

James Harden. Yikes. pic.twitter.com/Z08ZE2EQIg
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) November 10, 2026

It's not just Harden. At times Cleveland has been “overconfident” in its talent, said Atkinson. The Harden-Mitchell backcourt has struggled defensively. Evan Mobley’s numbers (16.9 points on 55% shooting) have been fine but he still struggles to create his own offense (a couple of post up attempts against Josh Hart were cringey), and the Cavs’ defense has been average with the ex-Defensive Player of the Year, on the floor. The starting five has a net rating of -11.1. The Cavs have downplayed overreacting to early returns. “Nothing is won in the first 10 games,” Mitchell said last week. But the results are the results.

For the Cavs, any improvement has to be internal. Last summer’s sign-and-trade for Watson hard capped Cleveland at the first apron. They have no tradeable first-round picks. They can make a dollar-for-dollar deal. But is there someone more valuable than Allen at $28 million? Or Sam Merrill at $9.2 million? Harden has successfully maneuvered himself out of challenging situations before. But he’s in the first year of a three-year, $97 million deal. Harden isn’t going anywhere.

And there are no signs Cleveland wants to deal him. Publicly, the Cavs continue to preach patience. Atkinson has noted the team is working in four new rotation players. Young players like Tyrese Proctor and Meleek Thomas are still settling into roles. Harden has been bad, but his regular season history suggests he will figure it out.

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“The one thing I'm going to do is work extremely hard and put the time in,” Harden told reporters. “The work will eventually turn and good things will start to happen. Just be patient, trust the process and keep going.”

Quickly. Atkinson admitted—there is urgency. The Cavs are built to win now. Mitchell is in his prime. Allen, too. Harden has one or two more good years left. After getting wiped out by the Knicks in the conference finals last spring, Atkinson spun it that Cleveland had taken a step forward.

They need to take another.

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