Trading for James Harden last season worked out in the short term. Harden’s alarming start to this season creates a $97MM problem for the Cavaliers, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com opines.

Harden is averaging a career-low 15.3 points on 36.4 percent shooting. His assist totals (5.7) are also significantly down from his 8.0 average last season and he’s committing 3.0 turnovers per game. Fedor also notes that in 359 Harden minutes, the Cavs have a 108.6 offensive rating. In 174 minutes without him, that offensive rating rises to 123.5.

Harden was signed to a three-year, $97MM contract this offseason. Due to cap constraints, the Cavaliers don’t have many options beyond hoping Harden can regain his old offensive form to offset his defensive shortcomings.

Here’s more on the Cavaliers:

• Coach Kenny Atkinson took a lot of flak during the conference finals when he said, “Analytically … there’s an ‘expected score,’ and we’ve won two out of the three games,” Atkinson said with the Cavs trailing the Knicks 3-0. Does he regret that comment in retrospect? Sort of, he told The Athletic’s Joe Vardon. “I think when you look back on it and take the context of the question, I’m not sure that was taken into account, which I know was a little bit of a lesson for me — like, you can just take a sound bite (and run with it),” Atkinson said. “I would just say there was no coach more complimentary of the Knicks and honest about our performance and how they dominated us. So you live and learn a little bit with those things. But like I said, 99 percent of my comments were how they dominated us. They were by far the better team. I answered the question, as it was taken, (which was) ‘And you’re down 3-0, what hope do you have of even giving to your guys?’ We get a lot of information … and I wasn’t lying in that sense, but in no sense was it like, ‘Oh, man, we deserve to be winning.’ Like zero — zero — thought of that.”
• Riley Minix’s new two-way deal is for two years, Hoops Rumors has learned. Minix re-signed with the club over the weekend after he was waived from his two-way slot on Thursday. Minix, a 26-year-old small forward, appeared in one game with Cleveland before he waived but has seen action in the last two games, contributing a combined 10 points and five rebounds in 27 minutes.
• Jaylon Tyson (right ankle sprain) is listed as questionable for tonight’s game against the Knicks, according to Danny Cunningham of Locked On Cavs (Twitter link). He has missed the team’s past six games with the injury.