Darius Garland went from a building block of the Cleveland Cavaliers to being traded for James Harden earlier this month, and he thinks he knows why.
The Los Angeles Clippers guard blamed his lingering toe injury as a major factor that went into Cleveland’s decision to trade him. Garland felt that a trade was inevitable, and the Cavaliers simply saw the opportunity to improve now by swapping him for Harden.
“It was going to happen regardless, either at the [trade] deadline or this summer,” Garland told Marc J. Spears of Andscape. “[My agent] Rich [Paul] had that conversation with me last summer. 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. But they thought that James had something that I didn’t, I believe. He has experience in playoffs and All-Star numbers still to this day, even though he wasn’t an All-Star this year. But yeah, they want to win right now. They have a group, too. And I guess I really wasn’t part of the plan.”
Garland added that he was initially “skeptical” of the move, but is now looking forward to having the ball in his hands more and playing with the likes of Kawhi Leonard on the Clippers.
The Cavaliers’ decision to make this deal was a major win-now move. Garland is a two-time All-Star who only just turned 26 and should have plenty of good years ahead of him. Harden is 36, but more experienced and with a stronger resume.
Garland was not healthy late last year or for large parts of this year, which also concerned the Cavaliers. Despite that, he was still averaging 18.0 points and 6.9 assists per game in 26 appearances for Cleveland this season.
