Kendrick Perkins just said something that no one saw coming about the Cleveland Cavaliers. The former player, who is now an analyst, thinks that the front office is treating Donovan Mitchell better than they ever treated LeBron James.

That's a shocking accusation since LeBron led Cleveland to its only championship while fighting the Warriors' dynasty.

When Perkins talked about the pressure Mitchell is under now that the Cavs got James Harden in February, he didn't hold back.

"There's no other player that's under the amount of pressure that Donovan Mitchell is to get it done. Bare minimum Conference Finals. I repeat, the Cleveland Cavaliers, in my opinion, have done more for Donovan Mitchell than they did for LeBron James when it comes to being aggressive and adding pieces around him," Perkins stated.

The comparison comes from Cleveland's recent efforts to save its season. The Cavs had a hard time in 2025-26 after finishing first in the East last year.

They finally got Harden at the trade deadline. Many people thought they were out of the running, but the arrival of the seven-time All-Star changed everything.

Perkins's remarks came at a time when he was upset with how Cleveland handled LeBron's Finals runs. The front office's sense of urgency wasn't as clear when James kept facing the Warriors dynasty and needed help.

Now they've taken strong steps to make sure Mitchell succeeds, which shows a clear difference in how committed the organization is.

The stress Perkins talked about is real. Cleveland let down their fans in the last playoffs by losing to the Indiana Pacers, even though they had a great regular season.

Harden has been in the playoffs before, but he hasn't always played well in Game 7s and has a history of disappearing when the pressure is on.

LeBron James sits out his third straight game with injury concerns

Perkins wonders what Cleveland did for LeBron years ago, but the King is fighting a different battle now.

He has a bruise on his right hip and arthritis in his left foot, which have kept him out of the last three games. The Lakers say he might not play in Thursday's game against Chicago.

This is interesting because Los Angeles hasn't fallen apart without him. LeBron has missed 21 games this season, and the Lakers are 14-7 in those games. That record goes up to 10-2 when both Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves are healthy.

But don't confuse depth with replacement. When LeBron plays, the Lakers are eight games over .500, which shows how big an impact he still has.

At 41, he still scores 21.4 points, gets 7.0 assists, and grabs 5.6 rebounds per game while shooting 50.4 percent from the field.

He needs to work on his three-point shooting, which is only 31.3%, but the overall numbers speak for themselves.

The team that the team plays on Thursday, Chicago, has only won three of its last ten games and is in 12th place in the East.

The Lakers might keep LeBron on the bench if he's not completely healthy because they have tougher games against Denver and Houston coming up.

Written by

Utsav Gupta

Edited by

Kaamna Dwivedi