Jim Ingraham: Rolling Cavaliers look ready for playoffs and beyond

For the Cavs, it's officially go time. The trades have been made, the injuries to key players have been endured and survived (hopefully). The James Harden trade looks like a home run. The bench is loaded with insatiable, indefatigable gamers who know their way around a backdoor cut. Jarrett Allen is arguably the Cavs' MVP and the most dependable two-way big in the league, and Max Strus is warming up in the bullpen. Since Dec. 29, the Cavs are 22-8 ... and Kenny Atkinson has never seen a coach's challenge he couldn't win. Honk if you are ready for the playoffs. For that matter, honk if you just feel like honking, which you should. For the first time in a long time, the underappreciated, overlooked Cavs are right where they should be, which is right where the upper-level NBA teams hang out. Indeed, barring any more injuries, don't look now, but the upcoming playoffs are setting up nicely for the Fighting Atkinsons. The Cavs have 19 games left in the regular season. The playoffs come after that, and this Cavs team appears more ready, more prepared, more hungry and more Cav-a-liscious than any Cavs team in recent memory. Let's start with the backcourt, which is arguably the best backcourt in the NBA. Donovan Mitchell and James Harden were brought here to be Donovan Mitchell and James Harden. Mission accomplished. Oddly enough, when healthy — and unleashed — this Cavs backcourt duo is a trip to the NBA Finals away from being the first Cleveland sports championship team since the Cavs' 2016 championship bunch, which was led by you-know-who. That rallying cry alone rings a delicious bell in The Land, thanks to its author, whose name, coincidentally enough, is being bandied about as a potential season-long guest of honor on next season's Cavs team, which, if it all comes together in a potential grand and glorious going-away party to end all grand and glorious going-away parties, should be pretty grand and glorious. Should all of that play out the way it potentially could, in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, it would doubtless become the sports documentary to end all sports documentaries, one, in fact, that is already easily imagined: "The Last Dance: Cleveland: This is For You! ... Again!" Starring LeBron James, Donovan Mitchell and James Harden. The vendors couldn't print sweatshirts fast enough. Could it actually happen? Why not? Better yet, it SHOULD happen. It should happen because, well, come on! A Cavs team led by James, Mitchell and Harden that wins the NBA Finals? There wouldn't be a dry eye in the house. They might not even need a house. Another Cleveland outdoor championship parade, led by the retiring James and sidekicks Mitchell and Harden? They don't make movies like that anymore. They don't even think about making movies like that anymore. Could something like that happen in real life? Well, of course, it could. It already has. James saw to that by beating the Warriors in Game 7 a decade ago. Who wouldn't want to go to a parade like that, right? They wouldn't even have to call J.R. Smith. He would be there in a heartbeat. Nobody gets tired of going to a parade, right? Especially when the guests of honor are James, Mitchell, Harden and especially Smith. Seeing Smith alone would make the trip worthwhile. None of this could happen, of course, without the OK from James, Mitchell, Harden and Smith. I mean, if you are going to go to all the trouble of organizing and staging a championship parade, you might as well do it up right by inviting a one-man parade himself ... right? Smith was built for these kinds of assignments. At the very least there probably would be suggestions from suggesters wanting to know if James would be willing to take part in another parade. Only James knows the answer to that. What the rest of us know or, at least, think we know is whether he really is going to retire after this NBA season. If James says he isn't retiring after this season, then you and I have wasted a couple of hours on this column. There has been, however, speculation throughout this season to the effect that James may decide to return to Cleveland and play one final season before walking off into the sunset. If that's the case, how does a Cavs roster that includes James, Mitchell and Harden sound? What we know for sure is that when it comes to getting what he wants, James takes a backseat to nobody. If he wants to play one final season before retiring, and he wants that season to be in Cleveland, with Mitchell and Harden, who are we to not say, "Hey, LeBron, that is an excellent decision!" Contact Jim Ingraham at jingraham4@gmail.com.