The Cavaliers have one clear conclusion staring them in the face: Donovan Mitchell has been driving the strongest version of Cleveland so far.
That doesn’t mean James Harden has been a miss. He’s still producing winning minutes on his own, and the Cavs have not been sinking when Mitchell sits. But the split data from Cleveland’s 2025-26 lineup combinations points to a team that has looked far more dangerous with Mitchell as the lone engine than with the two stars sharing the floor.
According to DataBallr’s lineup comparison, Cleveland has a plus-9.0 net rating with Mitchell on the court without Harden. When the two are together, that number drops to plus-4.0. In Harden’s minutes without Mitchell, the Cavaliers sit at plus-3.2.
There is one wrinkle that jumps out. The Mitchell-Harden pairing has posted Cleveland’s best offensive rating, at 126.4.
The catch is on defense, where opponents have scored 122.4 points per 100 possessions against those lineups. That swing helps explain why the overall number doesn’t pop the way the offense does.
The takeaway for Kenny Atkinson is pretty direct. Cleveland brought Harden in to ease the load on Mitchell, but the larger goal has to be getting more out of the minutes when Mitchell isn’t there. For a team with championship ambitions, that gap matters.
Net rating, of course, measures the points a team scores minus the points it allows per 100 possessions. So this doesn’t mean Cleveland’s offense magically improved without Harden. It does mean the Cavaliers enjoyed a much stronger overall edge when Mitchell was the only one of the two stars on the floor.
Harden deserves his share of credit, too. The Cavs still outscored opponents during his solo minutes. The issue is the size of the difference between those two groups - 5.8 points per 100 possessions in favor of Mitchell-only lineups.
That’s not a number Cleveland can shrug off, even with the smaller sample that comes after Harden’s midseason arrival. Matchups, personnel and defensive quality all move those figures around.
Still, the Cavaliers did not add Harden simply to scrape by in non-Mitchell stretches. They wanted those minutes to become a weapon.
That gives Atkinson room to tinker. Harden has spent a lot of his career making life miserable for defenses in the pick-and-roll, and with the right pieces around him, he can create clean looks without needing to dominate the scoring himself.
Jarrett Allen stands out as an obvious fit. His rim-running gives Harden a live lob threat and forces defenders into a tough choice between tagging the roll man and staying on the ball.
Evan Mobley adds another layer. He can screen, attack mismatches and help as a passer from the frontcourt, which opens up another route for Harden-led units to stress defenses.
Sam Merrill brings shooting. Jaylon Tyson offers another wing scorer.
Put the right group around Harden, and those bench minutes can look much sharper than they have at times. That also leaves Atkinson with a chance to see which combinations work best when Mitchell goes to the sideline, instead of defaulting to endless isolation possessions.
The Cavs already know Mitchell can carry a group. They also know Harden can create when he has the ball.
The next step is making sure both stars can win their own minutes, because contenders don’t wait around for the other team to reset. They attack the bench stretches, and they make you pay.
Cleveland has already shown it can thrive with Mitchell running the show. Now the challenge is proving it can be just as effective when Harden takes over.
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For Cavs fans, the timing makes the moment even more notable. Cleveland is closing in on its regular-season opener against the 76ers, and Allen has already been part of recent preseason action as the team gets ready to start the year. The connection with the city has never really felt forced, and scenes like this are part of why he continues to be such an easy player for the fan base to embrace. [Read more 🡒]