As the Cleveland Cavaliers traded Darius Garland at the deadline in a deal that had the team acquiring James Harden, it put the relationship between the team and the young point guard to an abrupt end. While Garland exits the Cavs after the Clippers trade, he speaks on the lasting effects of the relationship with his first team.
There could be some speculation from the basketball world about Garland having felt a type of way after being dealt, but he would say in an interview with Andscape that there are “no hard feelings.” He would admit he was “skeptical” at first when hearing about the trade, but would end up being “good with the change.”
“I tip my hat off to the whole Cleveland organization. They did put a lot in me, invested a lot in me, and took a lot of risks. So, I tip my hat off to them. But now I’m in another good situation over here in L.A. trying to do something, trying to rebuild this whole brand of the Clippers, and try to make it one of the biggest teams in L.A.,” Garland said.
“I couldn’t turn down this opportunity to play with another Hall of Famer [Leonard] and having a ball in my hands damn near 99 percent of the time,” Garland continued.
Darius Garland on why the Cavs traded him to the Clippers
Ken Blaze-Imagn Images
While Garland still deals with the toe injury, he would even talk about how a trade away from the Cavs appeared to be inevitable. He would say that being dealt to the Clippers was probably part of his injury history.
“It was going to happen regardless, either at the [trade] deadline or this summer. [My agent] Rich [Paul] had that conversation with me last summer,” Garland said. “But yeah, the toe definitely had a factor in it. They didn’t know if I was going to be healthy for this season, which I will be…And I guess I really wasn’t part of the plan.”
Garland looks to turn around Los Angeles while the Cavs have other business in capturing the Eastern Conference.