The Cleveland Cavaliers could very well be without their second-best offensive player to begin the 2025-26 campaign.
Point guard Darius Garland had surgery on his left big toe earlier this offseason after he had a nagging toe injury that impacted him during the Cavaliers’ time in the 2025 NBA Playoffs.
Garland could miss some time to start the coming season as he recuperates from his injury, and Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson indicated that he doesn’t expect the guard to be ready for the start of training camp.
The 25-year-old has also opened up on his toe injury and said that he “had no big toe at the end of last season.”
Assuming Garland will miss at least some time to start the 2025-26 regular season, the Cavaliers will have to find someone to fill in for him in the starting lineup until he makes his return.
Here are four players that could potentially hold down the fort in the opening lineup should Garland not be able to play when Cleveland’s 82-game slate kicks off.
Lonzo Ball
The Cavaliers acquired Ball via trade earlier this offseason. Cleveland parted ways with guard Isaac Okoro — a former top-five pick who spent every one of his first five NBA seasons with the Cavaliers — in the deal.
Ball is the only true point guard on this list in the sense that he’s a facilitator first and foremost. He’s also far and away the best playmaker of anyone who will be mentioned. He’s averaged 5.8 assists per game for his pro career and as many as 7.2 in a single season. Ball has the skill set needed to play more of a traditional point guard role in the starting lineup.
Someone will need to step up from a playmaking standpoint if Garland is out of the lineup, and maybe no player on the Cavaliers’ roster is better equipped to do so than Ball.
The biggest factor that could keep Ball from being inserted in the starting lineup is his injury luck, as he suited up in just 35 contests across his final three seasons in Chicago.
He may not be prepared to play extended minutes at the beginning of the season.
De’Andre Hunter
Hunter’s insertion into the opening lineup would seemingly make guard Donovan Mitchell Cleveland’s de facto floor general, but Mitchell has shown a lot of growth as a facilitator during his time with the Cavaliers. He has the playmaking ability to lead an offense in spurts.
After all, Mitchell averaged a career-high 6.1 assists per game with the Cavaliers not long ago in the 2023-24 campaign. Even in the 2024-25 season, he averaged the second-most assists of any player on the team (behind only Garland).
While putting Hunter in the starting lineup would give Mitchell more playmaking responsibilities, it would also give the team more defensive chops. Teams often pick on Garland when the Cavaliers are on defense because of his size and subpar impact on that end, but opponents likely wouldn’t have success trying the same strategy on Hunter.
At 6-foot-8, Hunter has great size for a forward, and he also possesses some solid defensive versatility.
On paper, Hunter would make the Cavaliers’ starting lineup noticeably better on defense if he were to replace Garland. Plus, Cleveland wouldn’t lose all that much from a scoring standpoint either, as Hunter is a really skilled offensive player.
He scored 17.0 points per game with the Cavs and Atlanta Hawks last season, and he’s averaged 14.8 points per game for his career.
Sam Merrill
If the Cavaliers want to continue to live and die by the 3-point shot in the coming season, perhaps Merrill makes the most sense to be Garland’s replacement in the starting five.
Cleveland ranked second in the league behind only the Boston Celtics in 3s made per contest a season ago, and Merrill was a big reason for that. He shot 37.2 percent from 3-point range on good volume, as he attempted 5.2 3s per game.
He might be in store for a career year with the Cavaliers, too. Merrill and the Cavaliers agreed to a four-year contract extension back in late June. With Okoro and guard Ty Jerome no longer on the team, people shouldn’t be surprised if Merrill is an even more integral part of Atkinson’s rotation in his fourth season in Cleveland.
A starting lineup that features Mitchell, Merrill, forward Max Strus and big man Evan Mobley would be tough to stop on offense with all of the shooting between the four of them. Mitchell and Strus are proven 3-point threats as well, and Mobley added a reliable 3-point shot to his repertoire a season ago.
Maybe Merrill will start some games to begin the season and help Cleveland solidify itself as the preeminent 3-point shooting team in the NBA. The Celtics likely won’t hold that title in the coming season after all of the offseason moves they made.
Jaylon Tyson
Of the four players mentioned, Tyson is probably the biggest long shot to be Garland’s short-term replacement in the opening lineup. He has proven very little at the NBA level, as the 22-year-old, who’s heading into just his second season at the highest level, was not a consistent rotation piece as a rookie in the 2024-25 campaign.
However, in light of his excellent all-around play for the Cavaliers at Summer League, he might just be ready for a much larger role. He contributed in so many facets of the game across three games this summer, as he averaged 19.7 points, 6.0 rebounds, 6.7 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.3 blocks per contest.
Not only does Tyson have a compelling case for more minutes as a sophomore in light of how he performed at Summer League, but starting him would keep the other players on the team in their usual roles. It’s possible that the likes of Ball, Hunter and Merrill would lose their rhythm in a starting role with the Cavaliers. All three of those players have spent plenty of time coming off the bench in recent seasons.
Maybe Tyson would flourish with all of the opportunities he would get to show off his skill set if he served as Cleveland’s temporary starter. It’s an option that the Cavaliers should consider, even if inserting him in the lineup in place of Garland seems to be far from the most likely outcome.