The Key to How Donovan Mitchell, James Harden Will Coexist on the Cavaliers

Donovan Mitchell and James Harden are each well-established, All-Star-caliber, elite scoring guards in the NBA. Each of them has had a fair amount of regular-season success on their own, but now they share a common goal as a team against the Cleveland Cavaliers: winning a championship.

In order for the duo and the Wine and Gold to achieve that objective, it’s going to start with Mitchell and Harden figuring out how to play alongside each other on the floor.

In a recent interview with Andscape, Mitchell acknowledged that reality, saying,  “I think it's the question everybody asks, ‘Are we gonna coexist?’” 

That said, it makes it easy to get on the same page when the two share a common goal at this point in their career, and Mitchell also shared the key for the two get on the same page as quickly as possible. 

“We're not here to figure out, like, who's bigger, better, whatever. This is, like, how are we going to win?,” Mitchell said. 

“We're trying to figure out what's right, and not about who's right, not about what it is, who's this, just like, let's go out there. For him to go out there and say, like, he's here to help me, like, that's huge."

Mitchell is confident that he and Harden can get on the same page before the playoffs, when the stakes are higher. The only thing working against them is time; the Cavaliers have 33 more regular-season games to learn how to play together.

That may seem like a lot, but not every one of those games will have clutch-time moments or opportunities to test new ideas; from this point on, every game, every quarter, every possession matters when these two are on the floor. 

Mitchell said the key from this point on between the two guards will be communication.

“For us to coexist, [we] just to be able to communicate and have that open, open dialogue of, like, ‘Hey, this is what I see. This is where I can help build you a few, and vice versa.’”

Both Mitchell and Harden are too skilled players not to have this partnership work. As long as the two keep that open communication, the Cavaliers should be confident in their ability to coexist. 

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