Everyone knew this was coming, the only question was the details about the money.
James Harden opted out of his $42.3 million this offseason to give the Cavaliers’ front office the cap space to make other moves to upgrade the roster. That came together on Wednesday with a trade that brings wing Peyton Watson to Cleveland on a new contract. That trade hand-capped the Cavaliers at the first apron and set the number for what they can offer Harden.
Harden and the Cavaliers have agreed to a three-year, $97 million contract, a story broken by Shams Charania of ESPN. The third year of this contract is a player option — a season when Harden will be 39 — and it also has a 15% trade kicker, should the Cavaliers deal him.
Cleveland traded for Harden at last season’s deadline, looking for a veteran ball-handling guard and an upgrade at the point from Darius Garland. With the Cavaliers, Harden averaged 20.5 points and 7.7 assists per game, shooting 43.5% from 3-point range, and ultimately helped lead Cleveland to the Eastern Conference Finals. However, Harden had another up-and-down playoff run — with some of those down moments coming in critical games, plus the increase to 4.7 turnovers a game hurt — which helped the Cavaliers’ front office realize they needed to do more. Like landing Watson in a trade (after they couldn’t secure a LeBron James return).
Harden’s Hall of Fame resume is not in doubt: 2018 NBA MVP, eight-time All-NBA, 11-time All-Star, three-time league scoring champion and a member of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team. What remains in doubt is his ability, at this point in his career, to be the playoff player the Cavaliers need him to be.
As noted by Charania, this contract pushes Harden’s career earnings to $511 million, making him the fourth player in league history to pass the half-a-billion-dollar mark in salary earnings (LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant are the others).
