Report: Pelicans and Spurs tried to trade for Darius Garland

Two NBA teams — the New Orleans Pelicans and San Antonio Spurs — reportedly attempted to acquire Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland via trade this offseason.

“The New Orleans Pelicans and San Antonio Spurs tried to trade for Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland this offseason, an NBA source told Hoops Wire,” Ashish Mathur wrote.

“The Cavaliers told the Pelicans and Spurs they weren’t trading Garland, the source said.”

Mathur’s rumor seems to support a report from Yahoo! Sports’ Jake Fischer in July which indicated that the Cavaliers had rebuffed any trade interest in Garland up to that point.

“The Spurs will be one team to monitor for [Andrew] Nembhard moving forward, sources said, after San Antonio registered trade interest in Nembhard this offseason,” Fischer wrote. “Before San Antonio brought Chris Paul to organize the Spurs’ offense around Victor Wembanyama, sources said San Antonio called various teams around the league exploring veteran guards who have still yet to enter their primes. Cavaliers All-Star guard Darius Garland was another talented ball-handler the Spurs called about, sources said, although Cleveland has rebuffed any inbound trade interest for Garland to date.”

Garland’s future with the Cavaliers was seemingly up in the air earlier in the offseason, when he was fresh off an underwhelming showing for Cleveland during its time in the 2024 NBA Playoffs. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said last month that he believes Garland seriously considered requesting a trade out of Cleveland.

“I do think there was a time where Darius was seriously considering whether or not he should try to press the issue with a trade,” Windhorst said. “And this is all – again – buried in nuance. Did he ever ask for a trade? To my knowledge, no. Was there an indication that he might ask for a trade? Yes.

“So, he can look you square in the eye and say, ‘I love Cleveland. I want to be a Cavalier. I love Donovan Mitchell. I never asked for a trade. Let’s go Cavs, woo, woo, woo.’ And everything be true. That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t on the table.”

The 24-year-old saw his productivity on the offensive side of the ball take a major dip in the 2024 NBA Playoffs compared to the 2023-24 regular season. He saw his scoring average drop from 18.0 points per game to 15.7, and he shot 42.7 percent from the field and 35.2 percent from deep in the playoffs compared to 44.6 percent from the floor and 37.1 percent from 3-point range in the regular season.

But despite Garland’s lackluster play in the playoffs, he remains one of the better point guards in the NBA today, and the Spurs stand out as a team that could benefit a lot from acquiring him.

For starters, the Spurs don’t have a lot of capable playmakers on their roster outside of Chris Paul, who is one of the better facilitators in the history of the league. But even for as great as Paul is from a passing standpoint, he is 39 years old. Garland stands out as someone who would be a better fit for the timeline of star big man Victor Wembanyama, who is only 20 years old.

Garland doesn’t exactly stand out as a hand-in-glove fit for the Pelicans as he does for the Spurs. The Pelicans already have quite a strong backcourt after the team traded for Dejounte Murray to pair with C.J. McCollum.