Darius Garland Rumors

In many ways, Nance returning to Cleveland was quite possibly the league’s worst-kept secret. Even during his time in New Orleans, Atlanta and Portland — the places he went after a first Cleveland stint that lasted a little more than three years — Nance remained part of the Cavaliers’ family. He was involved in the team’s high-stakes fantasy football league. He kept strong relationships with various members of the organization, including Altman and general manager Mike Gansey. He proudly watched the All-Star-level growth of old teammate Darius Garland. He cheered on his brother, Pete. Spent summers here. Stayed embedded in the community.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

LeBron wants to be on a contender, he wants to play meaningful games — and meaningful playoff games — and be in the heart of the conversation. Additionally, LeBron has consistently sought to maximize his revenue. LeBron opted and will get paid. That means if he asks for a trade, his new team would have to match LeBron’s salary. For example, a lot of fans tried to link him to a return to Cleveland (league sources told NBC Sports the Cavaliers are not that interested, but let’s use them as a hypothetical): With a third team, a deal can be made if it’s LeBron for Darius Garland and Max Strus Why would the Cavs do that, giving up young players and getting 15 years older (and arguably worse) in the short term to rent LeBron for a year or two. And trading LeBron to Cleveland is a lot less complicated than most other destinations.

NBC Sports

Yossi Gozlan: Seeing many trades on the timeline sending LeBron James to Cleveland. Cavaliers would need to do a 100% salary match and stay under the second apron due to aggregation. Example: Darius Garland, DeAndre Hunter, & Jarrett Allen works and leaves room for the $5.7 million MLE.

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Donovan Mitchell: "No, because like I'm not brown like you know when there's being like I said it goes back to being comfortable who you were like I'm I'm not going to do it the same way that he did it. You know what I mean? And who knows maybe we get there sit what do you do six times in a row? Maybe we do that sit for the next six years. Maybe we don't like you know what I mean? But my goal is to find ways to you know we're not the LeBron James Kyrie Irving Cavaliers. We do it differently. We do it with Evan. We do it with myself. We do it with DG. We do it with Max. we do with Jay, all the guys on the roster, and it's just different."

YouTube

In “5 Good Minutes with Windy”, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said that Phoenix was the one to reach out to Cleveland about acquiring Darius Garland, not the other way around. “The Suns were the ones to reach out that had interest in Garland”, Windhorst said. “It was not the Cavs that wanted to trade Garland.”

Fear the sword

The Cleveland Cavaliers reportedly tried to make a big splash to bring another star onto the roster. Yahoo Sports' Kevin O'Connor said on his podcast on Monday that he "heard" the Cavs offered Darius Garland in a trade package for Kevin Durant before the 15-time All-Star was traded to the Houston Rockets on Sunday (41-minute mark). "When exploring a KD deal, they've at least shown a willingness to think big and go for a big star player," O'Connor said. "So maybe they would."

Bleacher Report

The Sacramento Kings have identified Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland as a trade target as they seek to address the team’s vacancy at lead guard this offseason, multiple league sources told RG.

Responsible Gaming

The 2025-26 season, of course, is less than five months away, which suggests that it is likely Garland will miss preseason and regular-season games. “Darius could miss 10 (regular season) games,” a league source explained.

New York Times

Shams Charania: Darius Garland is likely to miss time to start the 2025-26 season, sources said. He was first diagnosed with the injury on March 23 in Utah and managed it to end the regular season before reaggravating and playing through the toe in the playoffs

Twitter

Sources say Garland, who missed four playoff games, was still feeling pain and soreness in his big toe nearly a month after the team’s Game 5 Eastern Conference semifinal loss to the Indiana Pacers. After trying to give it extended time to heal on its own, everyone decided that surgery was the best option. The belief is this step will finally remedy the problem, provide him some much-needed relief and perhaps keep it from recurring next season.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Shams Charania: Cleveland Cavaliers star Darius Garland underwent surgery to repair great toe injury and will be sidelined approximately 4 to 5 months.

x.com

Michael Scotto: Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland had surgery today to repair his great toe injury. His status will be updated in approximately 4-5 months. Garland is expected to make a full recovery and resume basketball activities by the start of training camp, team says.

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However, NBA insider Jake Fischer recently touched on a potential Cavaliers-Magic trade. "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," wrote Fischer.

Sports Illustrated

NBACentral: "I think there's some belief that Darius Garland might be available under the right circumstances... I think the Cavs are listening and open minded."

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