{"id":459541,"date":"2026-02-05T06:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T06:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/459541\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T06:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T06:58:09","slug":"clippers-garland-eager-for-next-chapter-after-trade-from-cavs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/459541\/","title":{"rendered":"Clippers’ Garland eager for ‘next chapter’ after trade from Cavs"},"content":{"rendered":"

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Darius Garland<\/a> could not have been more in transition than he was Wednesday night on his first day with his new team.<\/p>\n

Officially traded earlier in the day from the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> to the Los Angeles Clippers for 11-time All-Star James Harden<\/a>, Garland talked about his upheaval during halftime of Wednesday’s game between his current and former teams.<\/p>\n

“I knew about it. It wasn’t a shock, though,” said Garland, a two-time All-Star. “It’s the business of basketball. Cleveland was great to me and my family, and I have respect for all of those guys over there. … Seven years was a really long time, and it was great. I’m glad I’m here now. The next chapter in my book.”<\/p>\n

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Garland has been out since Jan. 16 with a big toe sprain on his right foot, and the Clippers have no timetable for his debut. But coach Tyronn Lue expects to implement a new game plan once the 26-year-old point guard is on the floor. Garland said he’s ready to go and waiting for the OK to play.<\/p>\n

“He’s different from James and we can play different with a faster pace,” Lue said. “We can play him off the ball more. It’s going to be exciting. I’ve known DG for a while and having a young point guard under my tutelage, I think it’s the first time I have had one since Kyrie [Irving].”<\/p>\n

Garland has played more than 70 games just once in his seven seasons because of injuries. He’s on pace to play 42 games this season.<\/p>\n

Garland’s uncertain availability, and the Cavaliers’ need to get star Donovan Mitchell<\/a> more scoring help, motivated Cleveland to swap their young floor leader for Harden, who is 10 years older.<\/p>\n

Cleveland got the scorer it needed, and one who can also run the point, while the Clippers managed to get younger as they head toward an offseason without a first-round draft pick.<\/p>\n

Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson called Garland one of his favorite players. Yet that bond was not tight enough to prevent the deal for Harden, a one-time league MVP and the player with the second-most 3-pointers in NBA history.<\/p>\n

“Those are the toughest calls you have to make, but he goes up on my favorites list,” Atkinson said. “I’m going to miss him. We had a great relationship.”<\/p>\n

Atkinson seemed to take comfort in handing Garland off to Lue, who is known for getting the most out of his players.<\/p>\n

“Ty is going to be great for Darius,” Atkinson said. “Ty was a point guard himself and understands the position. You know, my relationship with Darius, and to lose it, is kind of a tough day. But the positive is that he is coming to the Clippers and he will be with Ty. I expect him to be great here and I’m rooting for him.”<\/p>\n

It might not have been the change Garland was looking for, but he was starting to embrace the possibilities of teaming with Kawhi Leonard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I hope T-Lue uses me like he did Kyrie in that championship run they had [in Cleveland],” said Garland, whose father Winston Garland played 1\u00bd seasons with the Clippers in the early 1990s. “But whatever T-Lue wants me to be, whatever position he wants me to be in, I’m going to do that. I’m here to win games.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Darius Garland could not have been more in transition than he was Wednesday night on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-459541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}