Cavs' James Harden left feeling delusional after big trade

wcc

May 26, 2026 - 11:15

0 1

Cavs' James Harden left feeling delusional after big trade originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

James Harden told reporters on Monday night that he felt the Cleveland Cavaliers are "genuinely" a better team than the New York Knicks.

It's fine to stick up for your teammates. But the Knicks just swept the Cavs, including a historic come-from-behind win and a few more dominant performances.

Cleveland was dispatched from the Eastern Conference Finals quite quickly. Is Harden delusional?

And when Cavs fans hear Harden's assessment of his own play this postseason, they'll have questions, too:

"I think I did pretty good ... defensively, been extremely solid, and offensively, getting guys shots and fitting into a system that was already in place."

MORE: Bronny James' golf swing makes his dad look bad

At times, Harden mostly did what he said. Getting traded in the middle of the season can be a tough adjustment, especially when there are other stars already on a roster. He did what he could to make it work.

But the reality is that the Cavs took a big swing by swapping out Darius Garland for the decade-older Harden. This was a move made for the here and now. And it came up short.

Harden, for whatever reason you want to attribute to it, added to his ledger of playoff struggles. In the season-ending Game 4, he dished out a measly two assists and had five turnovers.

It was the seventh time this postseason he had more turnovers in a game than assists. When a lead ballhandler is doing that, you're going to struggle.

James Harden finished with more turnovers (5) than made field goals (2) for the 33rd time in his playoff career & the 7th time this postseason. https://t.co/6q6WUMONmx— Keerthika Uthayakumar (@keerthikau) May 26, 2026

MORE: Mavs' Jalen Brunson mistake joins constant Luka Doncic narrative

A lot is asked of Harden, which means he still can put up big numbers even while playing at a so-so level. And yes, the Cavs did show a lot of resilience to win a pair of seven-game series just to reach the conference finals.

But to suggest they were the better team -- like Kenny Atkinson did with his "two out of three" analytics comment and then Harden followed suit on after the sweep was completed -- is silly.

Who are you possibly impressing or helping with those thoughts? They don't own the failure of this series against the Knicks. They act like the basketball gods simply weren't on their side.

The reality of Harden is that the sample size is too large in the playoffs to act like it's some kind of deity pulling the strings and rooting against him.

This is who Harden is, and apparently, it's simply not good enough this time of year.