After earning the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, the Cleveland Cavaliers were stunningly eliminated by the Indiana Pacers in the second round of the NBA playoffs, leaving the team’s fans and analysts wondering if the 2025 offseason could be one of change. In particular, could Darius Garland be on the move?
Popular NBA podcaster Bill Simmons certainly thinks so. Simmons, on the latest episode of his podcast, suggested Garland could be traded by the Cavaliers this offseason. To whom is unclear, but he thinks a potential deal with the Brooklyn Nets could make sense for both sides.
“I feel like Garland is going to be in play, and I think a lot of people in the league feel this way. And now in the last week, there’s been some media people and there’s been some buzz about it. There’s a couple pieces to this, which is Cleveland, the second apron, the tax. They have some real money stuff,” Simmons said.
“So if they trade Garland, they have to go down a little bit. I was looking at Brooklyn for him, and that’s going to be my ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if’ team. With Brooklyn, if it was Garland and Okoro, Cam Johnson coming back to the Cavs with the number-seven pick and some other asset, because I think he’s worth more than that. But there’s something there. And if you’re Brooklyn, you’re like, we finally have our guy. This is one of the best 25 guys in the league. He’s young, he’s gonna be [on] his own team, he could be our Haliburton, we’re going to build an entire roster around everything that he’s good at.”
The Nets, after shipping out veteran players Dennis Schroder and Dorian Finney-Smith, don’t have much else other than Johnson that could entice a team trying to compete for a championship like the Cavaliers. However, Cleveland could theoretically make a trade for Johnson in order to get under the second apron, opening up other trades in the process.
A potential wrench in the plans of a Darius Garland trade may be his health; the All-Star guard struggled with a toe injury during the playoffs, and earlier today, he underwent surgery and will be rehabbing for the next four to five months. The Cavaliers say Garland is expected to be ready for the start of training camp, but ESPN’s Shams Charania and Brian Windhorst reported that he “is likely to miss time to start the regular season.”
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