James Harden Trade Lifts Cleveland Cavaliers in NBA Power Rankings

The Cleveland Cavaliers are making a statement and pushing all their chips in after trading for James Harden from the Los Angeles Clippers ahead of the deadline.

In addition to the Harden deal, the Cavs also acquired Dennis Schroder and Keon Ellis from the Sacramento Kings, making them one of the busier contenders at the deadline. The movement propelled NBA.com writer John Schuhmann to move the Cavs up one spot in his weekly power rankings from No. 10 to 9.

"James Harden on the Cavs? OK! The Cavs clearly wanted to maximize their chances of winning this season, and the mostly durable Harden replaces the banged-up Darius Garland. It’s also a talent upgrade, though not an ideal fit on the surface," Schuhmann wrote.

"The Cavs’ five-game trip concludes with an intriguing game in Denver on Monday. They’ll then return home for a game against the Wizards, having won 14 straight against Washington."

Sacramento Kings center Maxine Raynaud grabs control of the ball while defended by Cleveland Cavaliers guard James Harden. | Dennis Lee-Imagn Images

Cavaliers Moving Up in Power Rankings

The only teams that rank ahead of the Cavaliers in the power rankings are the Phoenix Suns, Houston Rockets, Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, New York Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs, and Detroit Pistons, putting them in elite company.

Harden made his debut with the Cavs in the team's latest win against the Sacramento Kings, which provided a sneak preview of what could come for the team in the final two months of the season.

"Harden’s Cavs career seemingly had a soft launch on Saturday, when the Cavs had a rest advantage in Sacramento, with the Kings having lost 11 straight games," Schuhmann wrote.

"But the Cavs needed to erase two double-digit deficits plus a seven-point deficit with less than four minutes left to escape with the victory. Harden and Donovan Mitchell both shot better than 50%, their minutes were staggered so that at least one of the two was always on the floor, and their minutes apart were much better than their minutes together (small sample size warning!)."

The Cavaliers will get adjusted to having both Harden and Mitchell on the court and they will need to in order for Cleveland to make things work. They will have 29 games to figure everything out before the playoffs begin.

Two of those 29 contests come before the All-Star break against the Denver Nuggets and Washington Wizards. Tipoff for the game against the Nuggets is scheduled for 9:00 p.m. ET at Ball Arena.