After another disappointing playoff exit, the Cleveland Cavaliers have another offseason filled with a ton of difficult decisions. Standing pat appears to be the best option for the Cavs, but that’s going to be a hard sell to a fanbase that’s seen the team fall flat on its face in the playoffs for three consecutive years. To that end, perhaps they would be more willing to entertain trade offers for some of their core players, including All-Star point guard Darius Garland.
One popular suggestion is for the Cavs to send Garland to the Orlando Magic in a trade that would presumably bring back a package headlined by Jalen Suggs. But according to the rumor mill, this appears to be a highly unlikely scenario to materialize.
“For all the noise these days around Darius Garland in Cleveland, we’ve been reliably told that the Cavaliers and Magic have not held substantive conversations on a Garland deal … and that Cleveland has little interest in helping Orlando improve its standing in the Eastern Conference,” NBA insider Jake Fischer reported on The Stein Line.
On paper, it looks like Suggs would be a better fit alongside All-NBA selection Donovan Mitchell than Garland has ever been. Offensively, the Cavs have flourished with a Mitchell-Garland partnership, but it’s on the defensive end where they’ve been found lacking. In the playoffs, this problem becomes an even bigger issue, as opposing teams can target both small guards on screening actions and compromise the Cavs’ defense as a result.
Suggs is one of the best defensive guards in the NBA, so he wouldn’t have as big of a target on his back as Garland has. But the Magic are on an upward trajectory and an offensive upgrade could vault them into the upper-echelon of teams in the East, so the Cavs’ unwillingness to help them out makes a ton of sense.
Cavs to run it back?
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While it’s disappointing for the Cavs to have won 64 games this past season only to get embarrassed by the Indiana Pacers, there are plenty of merits to running it back. For starters, they weren’t quite healthy enough during the second round of the playoffs, with Garland suffering from a toe injury that clearly limited his mobility on both ends of the floor.
Perhaps with a cleaner bill of health, the Cavs could exorcise their playoff demons of the past few years and finally break through in 2026.
