{"id":614241,"date":"2026-02-20T19:14:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/614241\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T19:14:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:14:20","slug":"darius-garland-confirms-cavs-skepticism-of-injury-history-amid-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/614241\/","title":{"rendered":"Darius Garland confirms Cavs&#8217; skepticism of injury history amid trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/los-angeles-clippers\/clippers-news-darius-garland-injury-update-hints-return-soon\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles Clippers newcomer Darius Garland continues to deal with a toe injury<\/a>, he was traded from the <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/cleveland-cavaliers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> at the deadline in a deal that also included star <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/players\/b25d09c6\/james-harden\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">James Harden<\/a>. While <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/los-angeles-clippers\/clippers-news-darius-garland-reveals-what-fans-should-expect-from-his-game\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fans await the debut of Garland in a Clippers uniform<\/a>, he would speak about why he was dealt and how his injuries probably have something to do with it.<\/p>\n<p>Garland&#8217;s name had been in a bevy of rumors leading up to the Cavaliers&#8217; trade at the deadline, with Los Angeles being the winner of the sweepstakes. Speaking with Andscape, Garland would speak on how a trade away from Cleveland was inevitable and how the current toe injury <a href=\"https:\/\/andscape.com\/features\/darius-garland-sees-trade-to-los-angeles-clippers-as-a-good-situation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">\u201chad a factor in it.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was going to happen regardless, either at the [trade] deadline or this summer. [My agent] Rich [Paul] had that conversation with me last summer,\u201d Garland said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t 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\u2019t, I believe. He has experience in playoffs and All-Star numbers still to this day, even though he wasn\u2019t an All-Star this year. But yeah, they want to win right now. They have a group, too. And I guess I really wasn\u2019t part of the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Darius Garland calls the Clippers a \u201creally good situation\u201d<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3706650\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Garland-on-the-bench.jpg\" alt=\"Los Angeles Clippers Darius Garland watches the game against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second half at Intuit Dome.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\"  \/>Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>With the hopes of <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/los-angeles-clippers\/exclusive-clippers-darius-garland-james-harden-trade-brian-shaw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Garland making the Clippers compete better<\/a> this season and beyond, there&#8217;s no denying his talent as a star point guard in the NBA. Garland hasn&#8217;t played in a game since Jan. 14 with the Cavaliers, as he speaks about how excited he is to be with Los Angeles, calling it a \u201creally good situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut now, I\u2019m over here in a really good situation. I have the ball in my hand a lot more, where I could do me a little bit more. I have another superstar [Leonard] next to me. I can go get it as well,\u201d Garland said.<\/p>\n<p>Garland is looking to return soon and help the Clippers improve as the team has a 27-28 record, ninth in the West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Los Angeles Clippers newcomer Darius Garland continues to deal with a toe injury, he was traded from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,193,559,791,560,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6,14502],"class_list":{"0":"post-614241","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","10":"tag-clippers","11":"tag-darius-garland","12":"tag-james-harden","13":"tag-la","14":"tag-la-clippers","15":"tag-laclippers","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","18":"tag-losangeles","19":"tag-losangelesclippers","20":"tag-nba","21":"tag-nba-injury"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116104559291572831","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614241","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=614241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}