CLEVELAND — Cavaliers guards Donovan Mitchell and James Harden left Rocket Arena for the final time in the 2025-26 season on the same page and with a clearly stated desire to remain a backcourt tandem.
Changes are sure to materialize for the Cavs this offseason after their 4-0 flop in the Eastern Conference Finals against the New York Knicks. Although it’s possible Mitchell and Harden could be separated, they insisted they want their partnership to continue, and it’s considered the most likely outcome.
Both of them publicly defended coach Kenny Atkinson after Game 4 against the Knicks, and the Cavs are expected to retain Atkinson. Mitchell and Harden are also viewing the fourth-seeded Cavs’ sweep at the hands of the third-seeded Knicks through a similar lens.
Here are some key points from their media exit interviews on Monday, May 26:
Donovan Mitchell and James Harden want to remain a Cavs duo
Harden, 36, said the Cavs are a “very, very, very talented group.” He arrived in Cleveland in February, when the Cavs acquired him in a trade sending point guard Darius Garland, 26, to the Los Angeles Clippers. Harden and Mitchell presented arguments about the Cavs needing more time together to reach their potential.
“I have no doubt that this group can get there,” Mitchell said.
With Garland removed from the equation, Mitchell, Harden, forward Evan Mobley and center Jarrett Allen form Cleveland’s core. Mobley is under contract for four more seasons, and Allen is locked down for three more seasons.
Mitchell and Harden are not secured for years to come, yet they spoke as if they intend to commit to the Cavs with new deals. Of course, the Cavs would also need to have an appetite to retain both players for such deals to materialize.
Mitchell is under contract for next season at $50.1 million, but he will become eligible to sign an extension on July 7. He has a player option for the 2027-28 season worth $53.8 million. Mitchell could sign a four-year, $272 million extension this summer or wait until next offseason and sign a five-year, $352 million deal.
“I love it here,” Mitchell said. “I don’t know how else to say it. I’ve said it before I signed the other extension [with the Cavs in July 2024]. I love it here.”
Mitchell, 29, is a seven-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA player (second team this season, first team last season and second team in 2022-23).
Still, the Cavs must determine whether Mitchell can be the frontman on a championship team.
“I’m very, very confident, very confident,” Harden said of Mitchell’s ability to lead a franchise to a title. “This team is not even where we’re at without him. This is his first time making it to the conference finals, and I’m sure he wants to improve and do things so we can advance and get even further. I think as a team, we get better individually, and we let front office do what they do.”
Harden has a player option on his contract for next season at $42.3 million, with only $13.3 million guaranteed. When the Cavs surrendered a player 10 years younger (Garland) for Harden and Harden agreed to come to Cleveland (he held veto power in any trade), the writing was on the wall for a longer-term commitment instead of a short-term rental.
“Yes, 100%. Definitely. Both,” Harden said when he was asked whether he wants to return to the Cavs and whether he expects to return to the Cavs.
Told what Harden said, Mitchell replied, “I would hope he wants to be back.”
With Harden aboard, the Cavs made the conference finals for the first time since 2018 and the first time since 1992 without LeBron James on their roster. Mitchell had qualified for the playoffs in each of his first eight NBA seasons, but he didn’t move past the second round and thereby reach the conference finals until his ninth season in 2025-26. Harden has been to the playoffs in each of his 17 NBA seasons. He has advanced to the NBA Finals once (2012 with the Oklahoma City Thunder) but has never won a title.
“He’s helped this group and myself get to somewhere I’ve never been, and, with that being said, that’s with three months of work, three months of prep, three months of whatever,” Mitchell said. “Now we have a full summer of conversations, of film, of working out together, training camp. You have a whole year now, right?
“We have a whole year to kind of go over certain things and what we see, and that’s tough. You don’t always make moves at the deadlines statistically and kind of improve. A lot of championship teams don’t really do that. And for us to do that, it was impressive for sure, but ultimately it wasn’t enough, and he wants to get back to that mountaintop. I do. I want to get there for the first time. This group does, and what he’s been able to do, not just for me, but for this group, it’s special.”
Even after being swept by the New York Knicks, James Harden says he thinks the Cleveland Cavaliers ‘are the better team’
Mitchell and Harden are in lockstep about what went wrong for the Cavs against the Knicks.
Their explanation boils down to Cleveland failing to defeat the Toronto Raptors in the first round and the Detroit Pistons in the second round earlier than seven games. The Cavs won both series 4-3 and were running on fumes against the Knicks, who beat the Atlanta Hawks in six games in the first round and the Philadelphia 76ers in four games in the second round.
“All that compounds, so now we’re playing extra games and extra minutes, and now we go into a situation where we give up a 22-point lead [in Game 1 against the Knicks],” Harden said.
If your eyebrows were raised by Atkinson pointing out analytics showed the Cavs had won the expected score in two of the first three games against the Knicks, wait until you get a load of Harden’s perspective.
“Obviously, they dominated us 4-0,” Harden said of the Knicks. “…I do feel like we are the better team, but series-wise, it didn’t show.
“I feel like we didn’t have a fair chance, honestly. We didn’t play not one, a quarter of just Cavs basketball, like, offensively.
“We had unlimited open looks, and we just didn’t make them. And they made them. If we make shots, then this is a completely different series. If they miss shots, it’s a completely different series. But they made them.”
Anyone who has ever attempted to shoot a basketball in a competitive setting knows fatigue can cause heavy legs to affect shooting.
“Y’all asked me a thousand times if we were tired,” Mitchell said. “I can’t tell you yes, but, I mean, we did this to ourselves, and that’s not an excuse. [The Knicks are] a hungry team. They beat us, swept us. So, I don’t want to diminish that, but we didn’t give ourselves a chance because we didn’t handle business [earlier in the first two rounds]. I told the guys in the locker room, I said, ‘Now we know.’ For a lot of us, we’ve never been here. You can’t play with your food. We had an opportunity to close both series [earlier in Rounds 1 and 2] and give ourselves some rest.
“We had an opportunity in Game 1 [against the Knicks] and then we blew that [22-point lead in the fourth quarter]. So, the two series before, having to go seven [games] — and it’s our fault — we did that to ourselves. And that puts you in a tough position against a team that’s not only been to the conference finals, knows what that takes, but also has the rest.”
It all led to the Knicks and thousands of their fans celebrating in Cleveland.
“You’ve got to own it,” Mitchell said. “It’s what happened. But what are you going to do about it? How are you going to respond? I’ve been saying this all year: How are we going to respond? And I would say our response from last season was pretty good. Can we do it again? I have no doubt we will.”
Nate Ulrich is the sports columnist of the Akron Beacon Journal and a sports features writer. Nate can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Donovan Mitchell, James Harden envision Cavs partnership continuing