{"id":589015,"date":"2026-02-07T20:43:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T20:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/589015\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T20:43:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T20:43:53","slug":"darius-garland-is-just-getting-settled-with-the-clippers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/589015\/","title":{"rendered":"Darius Garland is just getting settled with the Clippers."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Darius Garland is settling in with the Clippers after the shocking traded that brought him over from the Cavaliers.<\/p>\n

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Darius Garland 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 to the Los Angeles Clippers for\u00a011-time All-Star James Harden<\/a>, Garland talked about his upheaval during halftime of Wednesday\u2019s game between his current and former teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew about it. It wasn\u2019t a shock, though,\u201d the two-time All-Star said. \u201cIt\u2019s the business of basketball. Cleveland was great to me and my family, and I have respect for all of those guys over there. \u2026 Seven years was a really long time, and it was great. I\u2019m glad I\u2019m here now. The next chapter in my book.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Garland said he\u2019s ready to go and waiting for the OK to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s different from James and we can play different with a faster pace,\u201d Lue said. \u201cWe can play him off the ball more. It\u2019s going to be exciting. I\u2019ve known DG for a while and having a young point guard under my tutelage, I think it\u2019s the first time I have had one since Kyrie (Irving).\u201d<\/p>\n

Garland\u2019s uncertain availability, and the Cavaliers\u2019 need to get star Donovan Mitchell 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, an 11-time All-Star and the player with the second-most 3-pointers in NBA history.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are the toughest calls you have to make, but he goes up on my favorites list,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cI\u2019m going to miss him. We had a great relationship.\u201d<\/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

\u201cTy is going to be great for Darius,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cTy 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\u2019m rooting for him.\u201d<\/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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope T-Lue uses me like he did Kyrie in that championship run they had (in Cleveland),\u201d said Garland, whose father Winston Garland played 1 1\/2 seasons with the Clippers in the early 1990s. \u201cBut whatever T-Lue wants me to be, whatever position he wants me to be in, I\u2019m going to do that. I\u2019m here to win games.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Darius Garland is settling in with the Clippers after the shocking traded that brought him over from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,305,193,3846,79120,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-589015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-cavaliers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cavaliers","10":"tag-cleveland","11":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","12":"tag-clevelandcavaliers","13":"tag-darius-garland-clippers","14":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116031303076128635","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}