Point guard Darius Garland, who was traded from the Cavaliers to the Clippers earlier this month, won’t be ready to suit up for his new team when play resumes on Thursday, according to Law Murray of The Athletic (Twitter links).
As Murray outlines, Garland is practicing on a limited basis as he deals with a toe injury. The former Cav has been out since January 14 due to a right toe sprain and also continues to manage his surgically repaired left great toe.
Garland is considered week-to-week, Murray continues, and while he’s expected to play at some point this season, his Clippers debut likely won’t happen until sometime in March. The team doesn’t want him suiting up until he’s back to 100% and fully over his toe problems, Murray adds.
Garland, who was sent to L.A. along with a second-round pick in exchange for James Harden, got off to a slow start in the fall but had a productive stretch in December and January that got his season-long numbers back to around his career rates. In 26 starts for Cleveland, he averaged 18.0 points, 6.9 assists, and 2.4 rebounds in 30.5 minutes per game, with a .451/.360/.861 shooting line.
Since moving Harden and center Ivica Zubac at the trade deadline, the Clippers have been rolling out a starting five that features Kris Dunn as the de facto point guard alongside Derrick Jones Jr., Kawhi Leonard, John Collins, and Brook Lopez.
The Clippers will be the Clippers.
It’s hard for me to understand this trade because they were really rolling and then broke it up?
What kind of locker room is it that can’t hold it together during a wonderful run and guys ask out and then sent to the airport the next day?
This guy Garland has two more years after this at 40+ million dollars. It’s not often any plays a full season, what are the clips thinking?
The Cavs made out here in my opinion.
What are they thinking? They’re thinking that Garland is 10 years younger. They’re thinking that they don’t want to give Harden the max extension he wants. They’re thinking that if they let Harden walk they would still be over the cap and unable to use Harden’s space to imprint the team. The best thing to do, assuming they don’t feel like they could seriously compete this year, was to do what they did and hope to have Garland healthy for 2026-2027.
I truly think the Cavs traded Garland for the fact that they only have Mitchell signed for another year or so and want to maximize their chance of winning and one of the biggest issues the last two years is the unavailability of Garland (and others) over the last two years in the playoffs. With his current toe issues and his recent injury to the opposite toe they likely feel that those problems aren’t going away any time soon and they could be without him being into the stretch run and maybe the playoffs. With Harden they’re getting, at minimum, a great regular season offensive player with more size and a greater abilities to run the team and get to the foul line. He won’t have to be THEE guy taking the big shots as he has several offensive guys to lean on in Mitchell, Mobley, Tyson, Merrill and even Allen. He can simply distribute, pressure them enough to get to the foul line and be another ball handler. Problem is, the Cavs need to extend him because if not they won’t be able to use his salary to improve the team using his money if he leaves.
KnicksCavs, 1) there’s 100 guys who are 10 years younger and they could’ve done a little more due diligence than they did here in shipping out Harden so quickly.
2) They don’t have to give James Harden a max extension. He opts out and they sign and trade him to whatever destination he would like, but get somebody better or at least more reliable than Garland.
3) I don’t think teams let guys walk away for nothing anymore. It would be a sign and trade and receive something in return for LA.. But maybe you’re right.., they’re the clippers. I wouldn’t put it past them to watch a guy walk out the door without compensation. In my mind, they’ve almost done it here lol
4) Garland healthy for 2026-2027? OK fair enough. He’s a great player and an All-Star one year. Let’s sit him down and get ready for next year. Let’s forget about this excellent run that The Clippers have put together and just crap on the year. Great plan !!
The second half of your comment talks about the Cavaliers angle and I’m in agreement with you there. I believe they won the trade.
@Gary
1- Garland vs field: Any team that attempts to trade for Harden is a likely contender and likely unwilling to give away anything good that would nullify the addition of Harden.
2- Harden had one year Bird rights this giving him veto power on where he goes. He collaborated with management to choose where he wanted to go.
3-If Harden opts out then it’s HIS discretion, and up to the destination team, if they want to sign- and- trade with the Clippers. If they have the cap space then they can just sign him directly and leave the Clippers with nothing. Even in the sign- and- trade the destination team might not want to give the Clips anything of value, certainly not a young all-stsr caliber player with years left on his deal.
4- Even if they wanted to they could not use the money from Hardens salary to sign other guys because they’d still be over the cap. At lest with Garland they have the option of perhaps trading him this summer when teams might have cap space and trading didn’t go their need in the draft.
5- What run were the Clipps on? They were 6-4 in the last 10 games prior to the trade with a sub-50 record.
I was iffy about it as a Cavs fan but I think they feel Garland wasn’t going to be available this spring/summer.
Those are all excellent points KnicksCavsFan.
When you watch Garland play at full speed you’ll change your mind. He’s no Kyrie Irving, but he’s the closest to Irving you’ll find.
Cleveland I see what your point is here but 40+ million dollars and he’s not always ready to suit up.
I think the Clippers could’ve done better with a harden sign and trade somehow this summer.
I think it was a knee-jerk reaction by the Clippers and they made a mistake. At least see this run through this year since they were rolling.
Gary, I agree with you that Im not high on Garland as a positive asset. Super injured, as much as the players everyone calls made of glass. I like him offensively, but he’s undersized and going to be targeted in the playoffs if he’s ever healthy.
But on the other hand, I’m not actually sure the clippers could have done better. Contending teams aren’t lining up to extend James Harden, and rebuilding teams certainly aren’t going to. I’m also not convinced that Harden couldn’t have tanked their season regardless once he wanted out.
Unrelated, although I have NEVER seen Harden in a sympathetic light, I can kind of see wanted to be traded when a team is telling you in negotiations they can’t pay you the money you want (rightfully so) but then you learn the guy on the bench next to you has been getting paid extra under the table the whole time
Harden wanted out. He was going to leave next season and you need the cap room. This is the best trade they could have done. Clippers did it to themselves well before this season. The don’t own their picks so that can’t blow it up. They are stuck for 3 more years then blow it up.
I remember at the trade deadline everybody tried to tell us this was a terrible trade for Cleveland. This was a perfect trade. Garland is never going to get you out of the second round making more than $25 million of your cap. Always hurt and at 40 million is asked to do too much.