CLEVELAND, Ohio — On Wednesday afternoon, Darius Garland took to X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, posting a message that read less like a transaction footnote and more like a personal exhale. A thank-you, a reflection and a final embrace of a city that watched him grow up.
“I’ll never forget the night I was drafted to Cleveland back in 2019 and everything I’ve gained since,” Garland wrote. “This city taught me more than I could’ve imagined. To the coaches, staff, front office, the Gilbert Family, my teammates, and the fans — thank you for the love and support. Cleveland will always be a second home, and I’ll carry these memories with me forever. — Always love, 10.”
With those words, Garland closed a seven-year chapter that was as foundational to the Cavaliers’ post-LeBron rebuild as any decision the franchise made.
The trade that sent Garland and a second-round pick to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for James Harden was made official later Wednesday. But the emotional weight of the move had little to do with contracts or cap math. It was about saying goodbye to the longest-tenured Cavalier, the face of a rebuild and the guard who helped pull the franchise out of the ashes of the LeBron James-era.
“At the same time, we deeply appreciate what Darius Garland has meant to this franchise and the city of Cleveland,” Cavs president of basketball operations Koby Altman said in a statement. “Over the past seven seasons, Darius grew into an All-Star, a leader, and the heartbeat of our team. This decision was not made lightly, as Darius consistently represented the Cavaliers and our community with grace and joy that resonated with his teammates and our fans, both at Rocket Arena and across the NBA.
“We are incredibly grateful for everything he has given this organization. The difficulty of this trade reflects the utmost respect we have for him, and we wish him nothing but success as he begins the next chapter of his career with the Los Angeles Clippers.”
Garland arrived in Cleveland in 2019 as a 19-year-old guard with a smooth handle, a soft shooting touch and more questions than certainty. The Cavaliers selected him fifth overall out of Vanderbilt, despite the fact he had played just five college games before a torn meniscus ended his season.
He was stepping into a franchise only one year removed from four consecutive NBA Finals appearances. But the rebuild that followed was raw, messy and often forgettable.
The early rosters reflected it. Garland shared the floor with players remembered more as trivia answers than cornerstones. The Cavaliers were losing, learning and searching for direction.
Garland’s rookie season mirrored the chaos. Advanced metrics were unforgiving. He was labeled one of the least effective players in the league. But Cleveland was asking a teenage guard to steer an offense without structure, spacing or experience around him.
As the roster stabilized, so did Garland.
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By the 2021-22 season, the Cavaliers had found their footing and their joy. And added wins earned Garland his first All-Star selection.
At his best, Garland was as an artist, a conductor. The shifty handle. The hesitation dribbles. The no-look passes that bent defenses. He made Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen better, turning lob finishes into nightly routines. He played with visible enthusiasm and an unselfishness that resonated inside the locker room.
For a small-market franchise, finding a player like Garland is rare. Finding one willing to grow alongside others is rarer still.
That made the pairing with Donovan Mitchell both necessary and complicated.
Offensively, it worked. Better than many expected.
Together, Garland and Mitchell helped transform Cleveland into an elite regular-season offense, one that posted the second-best offensive rating in NBA history during the 2024-25 season.
But the postseason exposed limits.
The Cavaliers reached the playoffs three times during Garland’s tenure, advancing past the first round in each of the last two seasons. Defensively, the Garland-Mitchell backcourt struggled to hold up against bigger, more physical opponents. Garland’s impact fluctuated, at times diminished by injuries and matchups that neutralized his strengths.
Those moments shaped the narrative of what Garland ultimately wasn’t able to accomplish in Cleveland — helping push the Cavaliers beyond the Eastern Conference semifinals and into true title contention alongside Mitchell.
They also coincided with some of the most difficult stretches of his career.
During the 2023-24 season, Garland suffered a fractured jaw that sidelined him and altered the rhythm of his year, forcing him to drink his meals through a straw. Around the same time, he dealt with the passing of his grandmother, a personal loss that weighed heavily on him. The season never fully recovered.
The physical challenges continued. Garland underwent offseason toe surgery in 2025, an injury he has continued to manage. For a player whose game is built on quickness, agility and sudden change of pace, the limitations have been noticeable. The hesitation dribbles arrived a beat later. The separation was harder to find.
Still, Garland played.
Broken jaw. Steel plate in his shoe. Elimination games. When the Cavaliers needed bodies on the floor, Garland was often there, even when he wasn’t at his best.
Over seven seasons, he appeared in 408 games (404 starts) for Cleveland, averaging 18.8 points, 6.7 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 1.15 steals in 33.1 minutes per game. A two-time All-Star (2022, 2025), Garland finished ninth in franchise history in points scored (7,671), third in three-pointers made (956) and third in total assists (2,738).
In another era, they might have come with a longer runway.
But today’s NBA moves faster. Stars change teams. Windows are evaluated brutally. The Cavaliers reached a point where they could no longer wait for further development.
That doesn’t erase what Garland gave Cleveland.
He arrived when the franchise was lost and helped guide it back to relevance. He raised the team’s ceiling, restored excitement to Rocket Arena and embraced a city that asked him to grow up in public. The Core Four — Garland, Mitchell, Mobley and Allen — was real, even if it was never enough.
As Garland heads to Los Angeles to begin the next phase of his career with the Clippers, he takes with him the lessons of Cleveland. The resilience forged through injuries, the humility shaped by loss, and the understanding of who he is as both a player and a person.
The goodbye may have come via social media, but the imprint remains.
Cleveland watched Garland become himself. And for a franchise rebuilding from nothing, that mattered more than it sometimes realized.
