Cleveland Cavaliers star James Harden still has gas left in the tank to keep playing at a high level for a couple more years, but it’s looking very likely at this point that he’ll go down as one of the greatest players never to win a title. Harden has repeatedly come up short in the playoffs, and his former head coach, Doc Rivers, made an honest assessment of his playstyle on The Bill Simmons Podcast.
“James is a phenomenal player,” Rivers said, via Sai. “… I still think the best part of his game, he doesn’t like as much as I love… I think he has as good a vision as anybody that I’ve seen next to [Rajon] Rondo and Chris [Paul]. But he could score too, and he liked to dribble. He liked to hold the ball. See, James doesn’t give everybody else enough room to be great.
“He is the only one that can be great on his team,” Rivers continued. “… I don’t even think it’s a jealousy thing. I really don’t. I just think it’s the way he plays. And that’s how he plays. As he said, he’s the system. But that system, to me, is not the way to win. I still go back, you look with James with us in Philly, the first half of the year, he gave himself up to the team.
“He was playing unbelievable basketball,” Rivers added. “And I thought there was nobody better than us. And then it kind of changed. He wanted to go back. You can see it slowly, like he was uncomfortable in that role.”
That is quite interesting. You would have pointed to Harden’s time with the Philadelphia 76ers when Rivers said only he can be great on his team. Joel Embiid, of course, won his only MVP (2023) during their time together. Rivers was the head coach at the time, and he is suggesting here that Harden wasn’t comfortable taking a backseat and seeing Embiid be the centerpiece.
Now, after asking out and getting sent to the Los Angeles Clippers, Harden claimed the 76ers misused him, something Embiid disagreed with. The big man pointed out his former co-star had won the assists title in 2023. Embiid said the 76ers gave the ball to Harden on every possession, and he couldn’t understand why he made those comments.
You’d like to think Harden nowadays doesn’t have that same mindset. The 36-year-old took a backseat after the Clippers traded him to the Cavaliers in February, and being the second/third option is what’s best for him now.
Harden didn’t do all that well even in that role in the Eastern Conference Finals against the New York Knicks, however. The 11-time All-Star put up 16.0 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.3 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game as they got swept by the Knicks.
After yet another playoff failure, you wondered what the Cavaliers would do with Harden, who has a $42.3 million player option for 2026-27. Well, they might be giving him a two-year deal worth about $60 million after he opts out. History will tell you the Cavaliers would be making a mistake, but maybe things might turn out differently this time?
