To say James Harden and Daryl Morey have a history together would be an understatement. They were one of the most successful marriages in basketball until they weren’t. Morey fully believed in Harden’s style of play for the better part of a decade. He worked with him and Mike D’Antoni to create an efficient, small-ball team with the Houston Rockets that was truly ahead of its time.

That Rockets group never reached the Finals, but were good enough to do so. They unfortunately ran into the Kevin Durant Golden State Warriors — a team that was possibly the best collection of talent assembled on an NBA roster.

The Harden and Morey partnership continued with the Philadelphia 76ers. It worked well there until it came time to negotiate a new deal. Harden wanted a long-term max contract extension after the 2023 season. The Sixers didn’t give it to him, which led to Harden calling Morey a liar to a somewhat disinterested crowd in China.

Harden’s breakup with Morey and the Sixers was messy. Those hard feelings seemed to have lingered two and a half years later.

Morey had a press conference on Friday afternoon addressing the Sixers’ moves at the deadline. In them, he said that the rest of the conference didn’t make any moves that impacted their ability to win the East, which would include the Cleveland Cavaliers trading for Harden.

“Folks have speculated on the improvements of our East competitors,” Morey said, “I don’t see it personally. There weren’t any needle movers in my opinion.”

It’s hard to see this as anything other than a shot at Harden.

Even if you don’t think the Darius Garland for Harden swap drastically improves the Cavs, the change is significant enough to be a “needle mover.” You don’t take away someone with as high a usage as Garland had and replace him with a very different high-usage guard in Harden, and not see that as a meaningful change.

Also, the Cavs are one of the hottest teams in the league. They’ve won eight of their last 10 game mostly without Garland, and vaulted past the 76ers in the process. Adding someone coming off an All-NBA season would seem to qualify as changing the landscape of the conference.

The Cavs play the 76ers once more this season on March 9. We’ll see what kind of showing Harden has in that game.