The Cleveland Cavaliers re-signed James Harden to a multi-year contract in September, after his first partial season with the team ended in the Eastern Conference finals, the franchise’s first trip there in eight years. Eleven games into his first full season in Cleveland, the Cavaliers are 5-6 and seventh in the East.

Former NBA player DeMarcus Cousins is the latest voice to weigh in on Harden, and on the show Run It Back, he cast doubt on the 37-year-old guard winning a championship as a starter. Cousins made the comments before Cleveland’s 124-112 loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Monday night.

DeMarcus Cousins Sees a Different Title Path for James Harden

Cousins was weighing the title outlook for Cleveland’s starting backcourt of Harden and Donovan Mitchell.

“I believe Donovan Mitchell still has time to go get one,” Cousins said. “James, I mean, time’s not necessarily on his side right now. And I don’t see him getting one as a starter ever in any situation.”

He then laid out the alternative he could picture: “So it would be him on a team that just happened to. Going back to maybe a [sixth-man] role or something like that.”

Harden knows that role. He won the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award in 2012, six years before he was named league MVP, and he has made 11 All-Star teams since.

He has made more than 1,000 regular-season starts in his career. He started all 70 games he played last season, 44 with the LA Clippers and 26 with Cleveland, and he has started all 11 for the Cavaliers this season.

Cousins framed the gap between the two guards in terms of time. Harden turned 37 in August and is in his 18th NBA season. Mitchell, who entered Monday averaging 24.0 points, turned 30 in September and is in his 10th.

Harden’s production has also dropped. He averaged 23.6 points across his 70 games for the Clippers and Cleveland last season. After the Cavaliers acquired him, they went 19-7 over his 26 games, during while he averaged 20.5 points and 7.7 assists.

Through his first 10 games this season, he averaged 15.7 points and 5.8 assists while shooting 36.6% from the field and 36.2% from the 3-point range. His career average is 24.0 points per game.

Monday’s game in Charlotte came after Cousins spoke. Harden started and finished with 11 points on 3-of-9 shooting, including 2-of-7 from the 3-point range, with 5 assists and 4 turnovers in 25 minutes.

Cleveland was outscored by 22 points while he was on the floor. The Hornets built a lead as large as 33 before Cleveland cut the final margin to 12.

That followed a 7-point night on 2-of-9 shooting in Saturday’s 109-97 home loss to the New York Knicks, the team the Cavaliers face next.

Harden spoke about the team’s start after a 124-116 loss at Oklahoma City on November 4, days before Cousins weighed in. The defeat dropped Cleveland to 4-4.

“We’re eight games in and we have to start figuring it out soon,” Harden said.

“Consistency is key,” Harden said. “Wherever we can find that consistency throughout the course of the year, it’s going to help us win a lot of games. We have shown steps of growth and flashes of being really really good. We’re just inconsistent.”

Cleveland is 1-2 since then. It beat the Philadelphia 76ers at home and then lost to the Knicks and Hornets. Harden had 17 points in the win over Philadelphia.

Cleveland also committed to Mitchell this offseason, signing him to a multi-year extension in July, two months before Harden’s new deal.

The Cavaliers visit the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET, then play at the Miami Heat on Friday and host the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday.