James Harden is entering his 18th NBA season with the same destination still in front of him: a title. And when he sized up the Cavaliers after practice Tuesday, he didn’t make it complicated. For Cleveland, he said, the big thing is simple - stay healthy and keep moving in the right direction.
“Long, long, long way to go,” Harden said. “So many things change and shift throughout the course of the year.
So I think just us having an opportunity to start off together is already exciting. Things look different February, March, but hopefully the most important thing for us is staying healthy and just kind of taking one day at a time and just [trending] up.”
Harden opens the season Thursday in Philadelphia, still adding to a career that already sits among the league’s greats. He is 37, a 11-time All-Star and the 2018 MVP. Born in Los Angeles, he starred at Arizona State before beginning a journey that has taken him through six franchises: the Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers, Los Angeles Clippers and now Cleveland.
His place in the record book keeps climbing, too. Harden’s 29,339 regular-season points rank ninth all time, according to theScore, putting him 2,080 behind Wilt Chamberlain in eighth. He moved into the top 10 on Dec. 6, 2025, when he passed Carmelo Anthony while still with the Clippers, and he has since moved past Shaquille O’Neal as well.
The numbers across the board still jump off the page. Harden has hit 3,390 3-pointers, second in NBA history. His 8,873 assists rank 12th, and he has appeared in 1,221 regular-season games, which places him 46th all time.
Last season, split between the Clippers and the Cavaliers, he put up 23.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 8.0 assists in 70 games while shooting 43.4% from the field. Cleveland went 19-7 in the 26 games he played for the club.
In June, Harden declined a $42.3 million player option for this season, then agreed to a new three-year, $97 million deal with Cleveland on Aug. 20.
The offseason, Harden said, helped tighten the group before camp even began. He hosted teammates at his home in Arizona, with workouts, meals and plenty of time together away from the court.
“I had [camps] at my house in Arizona. Guys came out, we worked out, got some good food, just hung out, just laughed, just hanging around each other,” Harden explained.
“And those two opportunities, the one in New York, just everything. I mean, our training camp, so I feel like we got a better understanding of each other.
The chemistry is definitely built. We've had some really good days here in training camp and preseason, so I think it's time to translate.”
Donovan Mitchell said the team also worked out in New York during the U.S. Open and around Harden’s birthday, Aug.
- Mitchell added that nobody went to Summer League in Las Vegas.
Cleveland’s preparation took a different shape than most. The team flew to Spain on Sept. 29, began training camp on Sept. 30 at The Embassy in Fuengirola, Spain, and stayed there through Oct.
- The Cavaliers finished the preseason 1-2.
Harden’s latest run in May marked the fifth conference finals appearance of his career. He reached that round twice with Oklahoma City, in 2011 and 2012, and twice with Houston, in 2015 and 2018.
His playoff path with Cleveland ended in a sweep by New York, and the Knicks closed things out with a 130-93 win in Cleveland. Harden averaged 16 points on 37.4% shooting in the four games, according to theScore. Across 18 playoff games, AP reported that his turnovers rose to 4.7 per game, and he had five or more in 10 of them.
New York went on to win the championship. Harden is still waiting for the first one.
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The guard rotation should be built around preserving that focus, with the ball-handling load leaning more heavily on others so Mitchell can stay in his preferred lane. His assist totals can look useful on the surface, but they are often more a byproduct of how the game unfolds than evidence that the Cavaliers are best served by making him the organizer every night. [Read more 🡒]