With Harden, Cavaliers aim for deep playoff run

CLEVELAND — Even though the Cleveland Cavaliers have been playing their best basketball over the past three weeks, Koby Altman and the front office had concluded that they could not stand pat with their roster.Altman, the team's President of Basketball Operations, is hoping the addition of 11-time All-Star James Harden, along with Keon Ellis and Dennis Schroder, continues the Cavaliers' climb up the Eastern Conference standings and gives them momentum for a postseason run."I think it's fair to say we had an underwhelming start to the season, but every year you look at how can I improve the roster? And every year you canvas the league," Altman said "Obviously, we made a monumental trade to land James Harden. We think that he raises our ceiling and gives us a chance to have real playoff success. "This is not a trade that we took lightly, but we do know that James is going to help us and so we're excited to welcome him. And then adding Dennis and Keon, adding to our depth there, our defensive prowess."The Cavaliers parted with one of their core four players in Darius Garland to get Harden. Garland was a two-time All-Star in his seven seasons with the Cavaliers after being the fifth overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft.Garland has battled injuries to the big toe on both of his feet for nearly a year. He has missed 27 games this season after having offseason surgery.The Clippers reached out to the Cavaliers last month to gauge their interest in trading for Harden. Altman pointed out because Harden had an opt-out clause in his contract, Harden had a defacto no-trade clause and could determine where he wanted to go."He sought us out as a destination, to where he wants to be and compete for a championship," Altman said. "We would have been perfectly happy having Darius return to this roster after the deadline. This was not someone that was available somewhere we were trying to move. This became an opportunity that we exercised. He was getting back to a high level of play."Harden's Cavaliers debut could come Saturday at Sacramento. Cleveland finishes up a five-game trip in Denver on Monday before returning home to face Washington on Wednesday.Cleveland was 19-15 at one point, but has gone 12-5 since Jan. 1. It's .706 winning percentage is second-best in the league. The Cavaliers (31-21) are fourth in the Eastern Conference, but only 2 1/2 games out of second.Besides trading Garland, the Cavaliers dealt DeAndre Hunter to the Sacramento Kings for Ellis and Schroder and sent Lonzo Ball to the Utah Jazz. Even with taking on Harden's contract, Cleveland lowered its luxury tax bill overall with the moves."We really felt like we got a lot better in this deadline. I'll say this, it's very rare to improve your team and save $100 million at the same time," Altman said.