The LA Clippers and Cleveland Cavaliers have agreed to a trade centered on point guards James Harden and Darius Garland, league sources confirmed to The Athletic.
The Clippers acquire Garland, a two-time NBA All-Star, while the Cavaliers land the 2018 MVP and 2025 All-NBA selection in Harden. The Clippers will also receive Cleveland’s second-round pick in 2026.
This deal came together in less than a week. Harden played in a Jan. 25 game against the Brooklyn Nets, then traveled with the Clippers on their road trip, appearing in a win at Utah and a loss at Denver. He went with the team to Phoenix over the weekend and was seen visiting his alma mater, Arizona State, but was downgraded to out for “personal reasons” hours before Sunday’s game. He was listed as out again Monday night against the Philadelphia 76ers, which is when The Athletic and other outlets reported on the possibility of this trade.
For Cleveland, the move creates a dynamic backcourt by pairing Harden with 2026 All-Star shooting guard Donovan Mitchell. Harden had veto power over any deal and a player option this offseason that includes a partial guarantee. This trade places him with a team better positioned to avoid the Play-In Tournament while strengthening his path toward a new contract.
Cleveland also gets a much bigger guard in Harden, one of the league’s best and most frequent isolation scorers and pull-up 3-point shooters, and a high-level playmaker who raises a team’s offensive floor. Harden has also been durable, having missed only seven games to injury since joining the Clippers in 2023. He turns 37 years old in August.
Cleveland has already reshaped its roster in recent days, sending De’Andre Hunter to Sacramento and draft picks to Chicago in exchange for Dennis Schröder, Keon Ellis and two-way forward Emanuel Miller, and waiving Luke Travers in a corresponding move.
For the Clippers, they get a younger foundational player in Garland. He was an All-Star last season for the league’s top offense, turned 26 years old last month and is under contract through 2028.
The son of former Clipper Winston Garland, Darius was the fifth pick of the 2019 NBA Draft by the Cavaliers out of Vanderbilt. This season, Garland is averaging 18.0 points and 6.9 assists per game while shooting 36 percent from 3 and 86.1 percent from the free-throw line, but has only played in 26 games. Garland missed the start of this season following surgery to repair left-foot turf toe and has been sidelined since Jan. 14 with a right great toe sprain.
