With Cleveland Cavaliers fans processing the Darius Garland-James Harden trade, everyone is wondering how and why Garland's value plummeted like a bowling ball off a skyscraper, and what made him so expendable in Cleveland.
New intel from Yahoo Sports' NBA insider Kevin O'Connor sheds some light on the situation. Late on Tuesday night, O'Connor revealed that he's heard from sources that "Cavs players in the locker room didn't trust Garland" and that they were frustrated by his recurring unavailability.
Cavaliers players and staff may have been fed up with Darius Garland
O'Connor also reported that players, coaches, and the front office in Cleveland all shared feelings that Garland wasn't always doing everything necessary to stay on the floor.
While O'Connor didn't specify, one can reasonably assume that Cavs people weren't impressed with Garland's injury prevention work and general commitment to durability.
Garland has never been a consistently healthy player. His 75 games played last season were a career high, and he hadn't reached the 70-games played threshold in any of his first five NBA seasons before last year.
This new information from O'Connor suggests that the Cavs weren't confident that Garland would reach that mark many times again.
Darius has appeared in just 26 games this season due to toe issues. Garland's left big toe ruined his postseason in 2024-25 and was a big factor in the Cavs suffering an earlier-than-expected exit at the hands of the Indiana Pacers.
Garland underwent surgery in June to fix the issue, making his ongoing toe problems this season all the more frustrating.
As everyone knows, availability is one of the most important skills in the NBA, and for a team looking to win a championship, its best players must be durable.
It sounds like the Cavaliers finally came to the collective conclusion that Garland simply wasn't going to ever be that guy for them.
It also didn't help Garland's case that Cleveland was 13-13 this season with him in the lineup, and 17-8 when he sat. This included a January in which the Cavs went 4-3 with Garland and 6-2 without him, including a five-game win streak.
Garland's absence allowed for the emergence of Jaylon Tyson, and it gave Cleveland a greater clarity about how to win games moving forward, an assignment that's been harder for the Cavs to get a grip on this season as compared with last year's regular-season steamroll.
The eye test indicated that Garland was no longer a fit, and this new inside scoop from O'Connor falls right in line with that.