'Confidence renewed': James Harden, Jose Ramirez and a fresh hope in Cleveland

DONOVAN MITCHELL TOOK one glance at a postgame stat sheet and looked around the Cleveland Cavaliers locker room.

"Aye, James," he called out for his new co-star.

It was Feb. 24, moments after the Cavs had pulled off one of their best wins of the season, a 109-94 victory against the New York Knicks in a clash of the two teams who began the season as the favorites in the Eastern Conference.

Cleveland had dropped its first two meetings with New York this season in a pair of high-profile games -- opening night and Christmas Day -- despite Mitchell scoring more than 30 points and shooting an identical 12-of-25 from the field in each.

On this night, the first meeting between the two squads since Cleveland revamped its roster at the deadline, Mitchell had shot 5-for-18 and finished with 23 points ... and the Cavs won.

As Mitchell looked at the rundown, there was another number that caught his eye: 14. The number of free throws he had shot in the game.

"I'll take your free throws since you can't get any," Mitchell yelled to Harden across the locker room. "I never get 14 of them."

Harden had finished the game with 20 points on 8-of-18 shooting, but he failed to get to the free throw line. It's only the third game in the past two seasons that Harden finished without attempting a free throw.

"S--- one of us might as well," Harden said, shaking his head. "As long as one of us getting it."

The start of this connection between Cleveland's backcourt duo could not have gone any smoother -- or come at a more critical time.

The Cavs won six of their first seven games after the trade deadline, when they sent 26-year-old former All-Star Darius Garland to the LA Clippers in exchange for the 36-year-old Harden. It was the kind of all-in move Mitchell acknowledged the team needed to make to capitalize on its championship window.

THE CAVS WERE among the most active and aggressive teams in the league at the deadline, trading their prized acquisition of last year's deadline, De'Andre Hunter, and the offseason, Lonzo Ball -- along with Garland, who had dealt with injuries all season -- in a wave of deals that brought in Dennis Schroder, Keon Ellis and Harden to help a team lacking depth.

Mitchell and Harden have both racked up a plethora of accomplishments in their NBA careers -- multitime All-Stars, All-NBA designations and, in Harden's case, an MVP award. But playoff success as leading men has eluded them. Harden's only NBA Finals appearance came during his third year in the league in 2012. Mitchell has never made it to the conference finals.

"They are two guys that are hungry to take that next step," Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said last week. "They've kind of hit it off. Been seamless, really. Two guys that are so passionate about the game. They're both hoop junkies.

"Usually when you have that kind of synergy it goes well. With them, I haven't seen any misunderstandings or 'You should have went there.' They've been pretty locked in on the court and off the court. Couldn't have gotten better so far."

Atkinson said Harden's addition has unburdened Mitchell, who was carrying the weight of the team's injury and inconsistency issues earlier this season. Mitchell's 32.8 usage rate this season is his highest since 2019-20, his final season with the Utah Jazz, and ranks fifth in the NBA.

During his postgame interview session after beating the Knicks, Mitchell pointed to Cleveland's previous game against New York, on Christmas Day, as a measurement for how far the team had grown.

The Cavs looked far from the preseason contender they were expected to be, stumbling out of the gates with a record just a few games over .500 (17-15) after blowing a 20-point lead to the Knicks.

Since then, the Cavs are 21-9, the third-best record in the NBA in that span, turning around what looked like a disastrous follow-up to their 64-win regular season in 2024-25, which already featured a disappointing finish after a second-round flameout against the Indiana Pacers.

The ending to last season was just the latest playoff disappointment in the Mitchell era. Staring down another disheartening season, the Cavaliers turned to a player who is famous for his own postseason shortcomings.

The Cavs' hot streak has been slowed recently by a pair of injuries to their stars. Mitchell has sat out the past three games because of a groin injury and Harden fractured his right thumb last week. Mitchell is day-to-day and Atkinson said the team is not concerned about it lingering long term.

Harden returned Sunday after sitting out two games, and Atkinson acknowledged Harden was obviously not 100% but that the team needed him. He has been wearing a wrap around his thumb, and Atkinson said Friday that the star guard was still having trouble using his hand to dribble and catch without discomfort.

Yet, despite the fractured thumb, Harden has transformed a team with questions to one with answers -- at least for now. The Cavs have blamed injuries for playoff exits in the past, but this season they did not want to spoil another opportunity at what they believed was a championship window.

"Sometimes with change, you kind of know right away if it's not going to work," Atkinson told ESPN. "This has given us such a renewed spirit."

FOR INSPIRATION ON how to endure a long season, Atkinson turned to baseball.

Some staff members from the Cleveland Guardians visited the Cavs' facility during a practice in mid-December, in the middle of one of the team's low-point stretches of the season. It was then that Atkinson learned what the Guardians had endured the previous season.

Following an appearance in the American League Championship Series in 2024, the Guardians had entered the next season with raised expectations. But the team went on a 10-game losing streak to fall under .500 before the All-Star break and then dropped nine of 10 games during another dreary stretch in August.

Still, the Guardians rebounded to finish on a 24-8 streak to win the AL Central and return to the playoffs. Inside the facility, Atkinson listened to their stories.

"What got you through that?" he asked them.

Jose Ramirez, the Guardians' star third baseman, they said. He'd kept the team level-headed through the down stretches. Then it dawned on Atkinson. "That's Donovan Mitchell," he thought to himself.

"It's so important that your best player doesn't go sideways," Atkinson said.

"Donovan was key to that. He's a positive guy. He kept us moving in the right direction. To me, if your leader starts doubting, questioning, then you're in trouble."

To break out of their early season slump, the Cavs held team meetings. They scheduled players-only film sessions. They planned team dinners. Tough talk, platitudes about a long season and everything in between.

"We were saying the right things," Cavs guard Sam Merrill told ESPN. "But for some reason, [we] couldn't quite translate it consistently to the court." Cleveland also was often short-handed. Max Strus, who has spent most of the past two seasons as a starter, has not played yet this season. Garland sat out the start of the season after having toe surgery and was in and out of the lineup upon his return.

In turn, Mitchell shouldered more of the burden. In addition to averaging 28.5 points (seventh in the NBA), he began initiating more offense. The Cavs saw the toll the added workload started to take on their star player.

After losing to the Knicks on Christmas Day and a 17-point loss to the Rockets two days later, the Cavs were in danger of falling to .500 before a victory against the San Antonio Spurs on Dec. 29. Merrill said pulling together for a win in that game felt like a significant moment in their turnaround.

"Don's kind of the face of where we are and he's the most vocal as well," Merrill said. "He's the guy that throughout all our injuries and struggles to start the year, he was kind of the one constant. He was out there and playing great and I feel like if it wasn't for him, we would've been in an even worse spot."

Yet, sources close to Mitchell told ESPN the Cavs' star did not want the team to sit idly by during the deadline. Cleveland began to look closer at its roster construction and look for a way to maximize its chances at winning what the team still believed was a wide-open conference.

"I call it the five whys," Atkinson said. "We got to look like why, why, why, why, why? You dive deeper into everything you're doing."

Their answer, they found, was to move on from Garland, whom they had drafted with the No. 5 pick in 2019 before watching him blossom into an All-Star, both before Mitchell arrived and then in tandem with his new backcourt mate. The two, along with bigs Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, were deemed the team's "core four" as the future took shape in Cleveland.

Then a toe injury hampered Garland during the playoffs last season, and the injury lingered into this season.

Garland appeared in 26 games for the Cavs before the trade, and he has not played in a game since Jan. 14. Despite the regular-season success of the core four, including earning the No. 1 seed in the East last season, the Cavs have not advanced past the second round of the playoffs since the 2017-18 team, led by LeBron James, went to the NBA Finals.

Injuries have been a factor in the past, and the team has leaned on health as a way to excuse its disappointments in the past. But the Cavs didn't want to leave that to chance this season.

ENTER JAMES HARDEN, a player whose availability and toughness has become as much of his reputation as his passing ability and scoring proficiency. In the past three seasons, Harden has played in 202 games, 44 more than Garland.

"He plays. He didn't miss games, he didn't miss practices either," said Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers, who coached Harden with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2022-23.

Harden's addition has injected an elite pick-and-roll player into the Cavs' offense. Per GeniusIQ, Harden's teams have averaged 1.068 points per direct pick when he's the ball handler in that span, while Garland is at 1.004 for his career.

"We've had at times some struggles with late-game offense and he's been great at settling us down, getting us in the right spots and making plays out of that," Merrill said. "He's just always in control offensively."

And it hasn't taken long for Harden's playmaking ability to have an impact on Cleveland's bigs, especially Allen. In the eight games Allen has played alongside Harden, he has recorded a double-double in six of them. He also poured in 20 points in Sunday's 106-102 win over the Brooklyn Nets. According to ESPN Research, Harden has assisted on 17 field goals to Allen, the fourth most of any passer-scorer combo in the NBA in that span.

"We're good," Harden said when accessing the team as a whole last week. "But we got a few more notches to get to."

Allen's ascension actually began a few days before Harden's arrival -- he averaged 22.3 points, 11.5 rebounds on 74% shooting in 11 games last month -- but, just like the Cavs as a whole, Harden has only accelerated the benefits.

"The confidence is renewed," Allen said. "When big changes happen like that, your view shifts. You have more confidence in yourself. ... I'm just finding my rhythm. People pass me the ball, Kenny is drawing plays for me, things are just clicking."

For the entire team too.

Despite losing to the Detroit Pistons last Friday without Mitchell and Harden, Mobley spoke confidently about how the Cavs could match up with them in the postseason.

"I feel like we're one of the top teams," Mobley said. "They've got to face us, honestly."

What Harden represents is investment in the Cavs' present as much as they hope it is for their future.

Mitchell, 29, has one guaranteed season left on a three-year, $150 million deal with a player option for the 2027-28 season.

"Collectively, we're so unified," Atkinson said. "Ownership, front office, star. It's not always the case. You can be fractured there. 'Hey, stay the course.'

"I forget what the exact point was like. We just kind of knew. ... And then it was like, well, what's on the table?"

What was on the table was an 11-time All-Star. And their investment in him has already begun to pay dividends.

Whether it continues to is the question the Cavs seek to answer.

"It's always hard seeing the trade deadline come because it's more than basketball for us," Allen said last week. "It's more than just trying to get to that tip top goal with the best players on the court. You want to do it with the people that you grew up and did it with. But at the same time adding players like that, it does add a little pressure because this is one of those make-or-break type of moves."