James Harden made one request upon joining the Cleveland Cavaliers in February.
According to Joe Vardon of The Athletic, James Harden made one request upon joining the Cleveland Cavaliers in February.
Harden, one of the best players in NBA history, asked the Cavaliers to stage walk-throughs in hotel ballrooms on game days with no shootarounds on the road.
“It’s just preparation, detail, you get ready for the game,” Harden explained to The Athletic. “Physically you get out and move around, and mentally you have to be prepared. It’s just preparation man, especially going into this run that we are about to go into. I think the focus is making sure we know who we’re playing against and individual guys and what they like to do with their tendencies. Just going to give us an advantage and hopefully we can play better.”
Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson was a little skeptical about Harden's request. However, the team went through with it and now Atkinson sees what Harden saw.
“I was like, a little skeptical. I think film (is enough),” Atkinson explained of Harden’s ballroom request. “And then we did it, and we went through it. So we’re like communicating through it and talking through coverages and I’m like, hey, this could be a good thing.”
Donovan Mitchell used to do ballroom walkthroughs with the Utah Jazz under then-coach Quin Snyder. He called it a “more old-school” approach.
“You don’t gotta go full speed, and you can be in your socks for all we care,” Mitchell said. “Being able to be in certain positions in the morning so that way your brain remembers it at night, I think, that’s something I’ve done my whole career. And every coach is different, right, everybody’s different. But I think (Harden) bringing that, I think is special.”
The Cavaliers are 18-6 with Harden in the lineup. The future Hall of Famer is averaging 20.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game in a Cleveland uniform.
Cleveland, as of this writing, is in fourth place in the Eastern Conference standings. With Harden, Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen leading the way, the Cavaliers are under major pressure to reach the conference finals this year.
Mitchell, Mobley and Allen have never been to the conference finals.
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