Koby Altman reveals the real James Harden that the Cavs traded for

At his end-of-season press conference, Cleveland Cavaliers president of basketball operations Koby Altman spoke the world of James Harden after his first few months with the team. Despite an unceremonious end for them, the Cavs are quite optimistic that they’ve found somebody very reliable in the 36-year-old “savant.”

“He was remarkable for us,” Altman said. “I think people need to take a step back and realize we didn’t trade for MVP James Harden. We traded for James Harden at the end of his career that has transformed himself to becoming one of the best point guards in the league. He helped stabilize us. He helped re-galvanize the group.

“We traded for him and shot out of the gate 5-0, right, with some real swagger and confidence, and we’re not in the conference finals without James. So, that’s a real important piece.”

Harden has a $42.3 million player option that guarantees $13.3 million if he opts in by June 29 and fully pays out on July 11. He will likely decline that option to renegotiate with Cleveland for a longer deal at a lower average annual value, and confirmed “100 percent” he wants to be back.

“It’s tough not ending how we wanted to, but I think we found something,” Harden said. “We’re a very, very, very talented group. We  don’t have the experience with playing amongst each other in playoff, postseason basketball. So literally, it’s our first time going through whatever we were going to go through. I think we accomplished a lot.

“Winning a Game 7 at home, winning a Game 7 on the road, and getting to the conference finals. Now, we have to take another two steps, starting this summer, but taking another two steps and being even better. Now, you get a full season of understanding what we have as a group and setting ourselves up positioning-wise for better. Being a fourth seed was… it’s tough. You take a step at a time.”

Altman acknowledges that being in the second apron makes discussing roster decisions difficult in general, and the organization will need to figure out what that looks like. Once his contract situation is behind him, the Cavs are eager to have a full summer and training camp with Harden. Because of his ability to elevate those around him, Altman sees the All-Star veteran as a driving force within the building moving forward.

“There’s a routine and work ethic that people don’t really appreciate,” Altman said. “It’s every day, to be his age, to do what he does day in, day out, to be available for games with bumps and bruises. He breaks his finger a few games in, and he’s fighting this to play right away. We’re telling him, ‘Take a couple days, let the throbbing subside,’ and he wants to play. That resonates with the group if he’s playing that many games, right?  So it brings bravado, a toughness that I don’t think people see.

“They see the numbers. Obviously, they see James Harden, like, this massive figure, right? But I think there’s intangibles that he’s brought to the table that are invaluable to us and certainly brought us a swagger. During the year, it was very up and down of, ‘Can they get back? Does this group have belief?’ And the moment he got here, he gave us that belief, and our chests were puffed up again, like, ‘We can do this.’ And we did, in large fashion, until the end.”

In Harden’s first postseason run in wine and gold, he averaged 19.2 points, 5.5 assists, 5.1 rebounds, and 1.7 steals on pedestrian .410/.299/.831 shooting splits. On the flip side, he impressed from his arrival through the end of the regular season, particularly with the highest three-point clip (43.5%) of his career in 26 games with the Cavs.

“I think I did pretty good,” Harden said. “I don’t grade myself off shot making. I think coming here was just a piece to fulfill whatever needs to be fulfilled, and defensively, being extremely solid, offensively, getting guys shots, and fitting into a system that was already in place. I think I did good. Obviously, I could have been better. I feel like I always could be better. But I know one thing: that I work extremely hard, you know what I’m saying?”

“I think being as seasoned as I am and experienced that I am, I try to impact the game in other ways just because I know that we are capable. When I’m not making shots, we’re still capable of winning games. And like, we did that. Also, just from regular season, playing 34 minutes to… I don’t know if I led the playoffs in minutes, but close to playing a lot of minutes a game. So the transition was a little different, and I’ve got to prepare myself for it.”

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