The Cavs didn’t bring in James Harden to create another problem. They added him to make life easier for Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley. Early on, though, the numbers are flashing the opposite message.
Danny Cunningham of Locked On Cavs pointed to a set of lineup splits Tuesday that paint a rough picture of how little has clicked so far.
“The Cavs have several issues right now, but I don’t think anything is more damning than these numbers,” Cunningham wrote.
The Mitchell-Harden pairing has been especially hard to ignore. In the data Cunningham shared, which filters out low-leverage possessions, Cleveland scored 111.5 points per 100 possessions and gave up 114.2 when both guards were on the floor. That stretch covered 183 minutes.
The offense looked far sharper when Mitchell played without Harden. In those 131 minutes, the Cavs put up 129.2 points per 100 possessions and allowed 108.1 on the other end.
The same concern shows up with Harden and Mobley. Cleveland was outscored by 6.4 points per 100 possessions across 246 minutes with those two together. When Mobley played without Harden, the Cavs outscored opponents by 27.8 per 100 possessions, although that came in just 54 minutes.
That last number comes with a huge asterisk. Fifty-four minutes is not enough to make a final call on any personnel decision, and different opponents, teammates and shooting runs can swing a small sample fast. The Cavs also shot much better from three in the Mitchell-without-Harden minutes.
Even so, the gaps are big enough to demand a closer look.
Cleveland’s issues go beyond one guard. After Monday’s loss to the shorthanded Hornets, the problems also showed up in rebounding, defensive execution and overall readiness. Harden doesn’t shoulder all of that, and Mitchell and Mobley have had nights they’d like back too.
But the Cavs need their core pieces to fit together, and that was the whole point of keeping this group intact after reaching the Eastern Conference finals.
So the argument about coaching versus roster construction isn’t going anywhere. Kenny Atkinson still has to find combinations that work, and Harden has to give him more reason to trust the lineups built around him.
At 5-6, the Cavs don’t need to map out their whole future yet. They do need more from the players who are supposed to define it.
In Other News...
Cavs Core Suddenly Facing Questions Fans Never Expected
The Cavaliers latest trip through the schedule brought an unwelcome kind of reminder, one that had little to do with standings and everything to do with how shaky the floor can look when the core is off. A loss to Charlotte came with the kind of uneven stretches that make grading individual performances feel more necessary than nitpicky, and the discussion afterward centered less on one bad night than on how several of the teams biggest names looked out of sync.
Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley were among the players drawing concern in the aftermath, while the piece also elevated Meleek Thomas as the games bright spot. Even with the focus on one standout performance, the bigger issue for Cleveland is the uneasy feeling around familiar pillars of the roster, especially when the margin for error shrinks and the questions start sounding less like overreaction and more like something the Cavaliers will have to answer soon. [Read more 🡒]
Cavs Just Turned One Ugly Loss Into A Bigger Rotation Debate
The Cavaliers left themselves far too much to do in a rough recent outing, one that exposed real issues on the defensive end and on the glass. Even against a team missing 60% of its starters, Cleveland gave up 100 points in the first 33 minutes, a reminder that the margin for error disappears quickly when the effort and physicality are not there from the start.
A late push from the reserves at least gave the game some life, with Craig Porter Jr., Riley Minix, Meleek Thomas, Norchad Omier and Thomas Bryant helping fuel a fourth-quarter rally. But the comeback fell short, and with the Cavaliers sitting at 5-6 and heading back to Madison Square Garden for a rematch, the bigger question is how Kenny Atkinson sorts out a rotation that has already become part of the conversation. [Read more 🡒]
Cavaliers Bench Is Sending A Message The Starters Can't Ignore
Through the first 11 games, the Cavaliers have had a familiar problem surface often enough to become part of the conversation around the teams early-season identity. Ethan Sands and Spencer Davies both pointed to effort and leadership concerns among the veteran core, with the bench repeatedly bringing a different level of urgency than the group expected to set the tone. It has left Cleveland looking less like a team with a clear standard and more like one still searching for it.
The issue has not been confined to a single off night, either. It has shown up in multiple games, including matchups with Brooklyn, the season opener against New York, and the loss to Charlotte, which is why the discussion has moved beyond execution and into culture. For a team built around experienced starters and high expectations, the gap between the energy of the reserves and the consistency of the veterans is becoming hard to ignore. [Read more 🡒]