Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert now wishes he wouldn’t have guaranteed his team would win an NBA title before LeBron James.

Gilbert said James’ departure taught the Cavaliers a valuable lesson, one that Oklahoma City seemed to have learned recently in its decision to trade James Harden to Houston. When the Thunder realized Harden was not going to accept a long-term deal, the club traded him before losing him as a free agent.

”The key thing, whoever you are and wherever you are, you can not wait,” Gilbert said. ”The big lesson was if a player is not willing to extend, no matter who they are, no matter where they are playing, no matter what kind of season you had, you can not risk going into a summer and having them leave in unrestricted free agency and get nothing back for it.”

via Associated Press