The Cleveland Cavaliers will enter the 2024-25 season with a new head coach and a new face.<\/p>\n
Kenny Atkinson is stepping in for J.B. Bickerstaff, who is now the head coach<\/a> of the Detroit Pistons, a division rival. Then there\u2019s 2024 No. 20 pick Jaylon Tyson<\/a>, who may end up being 2020 No. 5 pick Isaac Okoro<\/a>\u2019s replacement. However, the Cavs are making a run<\/a> at Brooklyn Nets forwards Cam Johnson<\/a> and Dorian Finney-Smith<\/a>, who will be more trusted as established players. To complete the deal, they may need to utilize Okoro in a sign-and-trade transaction<\/a>.<\/p>\n What has not changed is their core.<\/p>\n Evan Mobley<\/a> is on the verge of signing a $224 million max<\/a> rookie contract extension. Jarrett Allen<\/a> is being vouched for<\/a> by team leader Donovan Mitchell<\/a>, who recently signed a three-year contract extension<\/a>. Meanwhile, Darius Garland<\/a> insists that he doesn\u2019t \u201cwant to be traded\u201d and that \u201cthose are just rumors<\/a>,\u201d per cleveland.com\u2019s Chris Fedor.<\/p>\n Garland\u2019s recent interview must have sounded like music to Koby Altman\u2019s ears. To be frank, if the rumors surrounding Garland were much ado about nothing, he didn\u2019t seem to be in on the joke.<\/p>\n In mid-May, The Athletic<\/em> reported that Garland could request a trade<\/a> if Mitchell signed a contract extension. The next week, Altman fervently stated his belief in the backcourt pairing<\/a>. He wasn\u2019t just doing this just to prop up the team\u2019s electrifying stars. Rather, he was explaining why he wasn\u2019t ready to split them up.<\/p>\n As Garland\u2019s own agent had the opportunity to shoot down the rumors and didn\u2019t, who could blame him?<\/p>\n On the same day that Altman had a presser about keeping the backcourt duo together, the characteristically coy and cryptic Rich Paul said, \u201cthere is not much to say<\/a>\u2026 As of now, there\u2019s nothing to discuss on that.\u201d<\/p>\n A man who professes to be blunt and direct, Paul didn\u2019t say Garland doesn\u2019t want to be traded. He didn\u2019t say that those were just rumors. Truthfully, due the connection between NBA insider Shams Charania has with Klutch Sports, they probably weren\u2019t. In fact, The Athletic<\/em> was reporting more from Klutch Sports\u2019 perspective than Garland\u2019s.<\/p>\n As a result, the most logical inference is that Paul is the one who suggested he\u2019d ask Garland to be moved if Mitchell returned.<\/p>\n Notably, there\u2019s never been rumors of a rift between Mitchell and Garland. However, Garland is coming off of an underwhelming season that was affected by him sharing ball-handling duties with Mitchell. Even more to the point, Mitchell casts a shadow that dims Garland\u2019s light.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not inescapable. Nonetheless, it\u2019s real, and could have a legitimate impact on his free market value. To that point, just consider Paul George<\/a>, DeMar DeRozan<\/a>, Klay Thompson<\/a>, and Buddy Hield<\/a>, marquee free agents who had to pull teeth to get long-term contracts.<\/p>\n Garland is a promising player who fits the modern NBA, but he\u2019s not quite a star. If he has another substandard season, it\u2019ll be that much harder for him to break into that stratosphere. Again, that doesn\u2019t just affect superficial things like his follower count, but his future earning potential as well.<\/p>\n That being said, the situation will become more clear by next offseason. If Garland bounces back, all will be well in The Land. If Garland doesn\u2019t, he and Altman may have to reconsider their position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Cleveland Cavaliers will enter the 2024-25 season with a new head coach and a new face. Kenny Atkinson is stepping in for J.B. Bickerstaff, who is now the head coach of the Detroit Pistons, a division rival. Then there\u2019s 2024 No. 20 pick Jaylon Tyson, who may end up being 2020 No. 5 pick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":85985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1608,62,4721],"tags":[1937,900,1185,4774,2389],"class_list":["post-85979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cavaliers","category-basketball","category-nba","category-trade-rumors","tag-darius-garland","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-koby-altman","tag-rumors","tag-rich-paul"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Cavs\u2019 Darius Garland Directly Addresses Pesky Trade Rumors<\/h2>\n
Rumors or Reality?<\/h3>\n