Report: Cavs have high asking price for Darius Garland, turned away every team thus far

A recent report indicates that the Cleveland Cavaliers are informing rival teams that it will require a pretty penny to acquire guard Darius Garland in a trade.

“Sources tell Cleveland.com that any team asking about Garland has been turned away thus far, being told the asking price is high despite Garland coming off a dreadful season and chatter about his camp looking for an exit strategy if Mitchell re-signs long term — the current leaguewide expectation,” Chris Fedor wrote.

Earlier this month, Garland saw his name connected to the San Antonio Spurs and New Orleans Pelicans in trade rumors.

“The San Antonio Spurs are ‘very interested’ in trading for Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland, an NBA source told Hoops Wire,” Ashish Mathur wrote.

“The Spurs want to acquire a dynamic point guard and pair him next to Victor Wembanyama, the source said.”

Additionally, Garland reportedly isn’t the only player on the Cavaliers that the Pelicans are interested in acquiring.

“So, poultry farming analogies aside, that means the Cavaliers will have to entertain moving Darius Garland or Jarrett Allen, two players that sources share the Pelicans are interested in acquiring, to get Brandon Ingram,” Evan Dammarell wrote.

During the 2023-24 regular season, his fifth season as a member of the Cavaliers after the team selected him with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, he was arguably the squad’s second-best offensive player behind only Donovan Mitchell. After all, he averaged the second-most points per game (18.0) on the team while also leading the Cavaliers in assists per contest with 6.5.

But when the 2024 NBA Playoffs rolled around, Garland was a shell of his regular-season self. For one, his scoring output and efficiency both dropped by a noticeable margin, as he averaged just 15.7 points per contest on 42.7 percent shooting from the field and 35.2 percent from 3-point range.

He had a particularly forgettable series in the Cavaliers’ first-round matchup against the Orlando Magic, considering he averaged 14.9 points per game and arguably had his worst offensive performance of the 2024 NBA Playoffs in Cleveland’s Game 3 blowout loss. Garland mustered just five points on 2-of-10 shooting from the floor and knocked down just one of his four attempts from deep.

Also, with the Cavaliers’ season on the line in Game 5 of their second-round series against the Boston Celtics, Garland didn’t provide Cleveland with the scoring punch it so desperately needed, considering he shot 4-of-17 from the floor and 0-of-4 from 3-point range in a game that saw the Cavaliers score only 98 points as a team.

But Garland’s playoff woes notwithstanding, he has been one of the better point guards in the NBA over the last couple of seasons, and so the Cavaliers are seemingly right to have a high asking price for the 24-year-old.