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Kevin Pelton
A number of Authors
In what is likely to be the largest deal before Thursday’s NBA trade deadline, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the LA Clippers agreed Tuesday to swap level guards Darius Garland and James Harden in a one-for-one deal that additionally sends a 2026 second-round choose to the Clips, per ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Each groups are hoping this commerce of 2025 All-Stars with practically an identical salaries will produce higher outcomes throughout disappointing campaigns. The Cavaliers are battling for positioning in the midst of the Japanese Convention playoff race after ending atop the standings a season in the past, whereas the Clippers’ current sizzling streak has lifted them solely into the play-in match after a dreadful begin.
Let’s break down the implications of Cleveland and Los Angeles exchanging level guards and what it means for the remainder of the 2025-26 season and past.
Cleveland Cavaliers get:
G James Harden
LA Clippers get:
G Darius Garland
2026 second-round choose
Grades for each groups
Cleveland Cavaliers: B
What this deal means for the Cavaliers: The extra I give it some thought, the extra I like Cleveland including Harden to jolt a workforce that ranks eighth in offensive score this season after main the league in 2024-25 with 64 wins.
Garland’s toe injuries have been a key think about that decline. He has been coping with toe points since April, and offseason surgical procedure hasn’t solved them. Garland suffered a bruise to his troublesome left toe shortly after returning in November, and he’s now sidelined by a giant toe sprain on the precise foot.
When he has been accessible, Garland, 26, is capturing simply 36% on 3s, down from 40% a season in the past. His utilization price has declined too, whereas Garland’s steal price can be the bottom since his rookie season. These struggles are mirrored in workforce efficiency. The Cavaliers have been outscored by 3.0 factors per 100 possessions with Garland on the courtroom, according to NBA Advanced Stats, which is the worst of any participant on the workforce who has logged greater than 500 minutes.
To remain afloat, Cleveland has relied heavily on Donovan Mitchell, who’s averaging 33.9 minutes per recreation and has his highest utilization price since enjoying for the Utah Jazz. An prolonged absence for Mitchell may very well be devastating for the Cavaliers, who’re two video games again of second place within the East however solely three video games from falling into the play-in match.
Past that, Cleveland would ideally wish to lighten Mitchell’s load the remainder of the way in which. He handled a calf pressure and an ankle sprain throughout final season’s playoffs, capturing simply 24.5% from 3-point vary in the course of the Cavaliers’ convention semifinals upset loss to the Indiana Pacers.
Enter Harden, who remains to be enjoying at an All-Star stage at age 36. He ranks eleventh in my wins above alternative participant (WARP) metric this season, tops amongst gamers who weren’t chosen for the All-Star Sport now that former Clippers teammate Kawhi Leonard was picked Tuesday as an harm alternative. Harden had performed 44 of a attainable 47 video games earlier than sitting out the previous two on account of private causes, and he’s averaging 35.4 minutes per recreation.
Sure, Harden and Mitchell, 29, each wish to have the ball of their palms. Nonetheless, I believe Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson can draw on Harden’s previous experiences to maintain each gamers wholesome and recent.
When Harden performed with Chris Paul for the Rockets, getting inside a recreation of the 2018 NBA Finals, Houston coach Mike D’Antoni strictly staggered their minutes to maintain one on the ground every time the rating was aggressive. Harden and Paul performed collectively about 20 minutes per recreation, giving Harden 15 or so minutes per recreation because the lone playmaker and Paul round 12 minutes.
The present enjoying time for Harden and Mitchell interprets to an analogous stagger, so we’re speaking about lower than half the sport they’re going to possible be enjoying collectively. When that is the case, I believe Brooklyn Nets-era Harden needs to be the mannequin.
Taking part in alongside Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, Harden completed 28% of the Nets’ performs with a shot, a visit to the free throw line or a turnover — much like Garland’s 27% utilization price final season — however averaged 10-plus assists per 36 minutes. Given Mitchell’s historical past of enjoying off the ball alongside true level guards and the ending capacity of bigs Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley out of pick-and-rolls, Harden ought to be capable of do the identical with the Cavaliers.
Defensively, the 6-foot-5 Harden’s dimension supplies extra choices for hiding than the undersized backcourt of the 6-foot-1 Garland and the 6-foot-2 Mitchell did. Given Mobley’s defensive versatility, it is attainable Harden may find yourself checking energy forwards at occasions, making the most of his uncanny capacity as a publish defender.
Actually, I perceive the priority about including Harden to a workforce with NBA Finals aspirations given his monitor document of playoff underperformance. Nonetheless, this is not breaking apart a Cleveland workforce that was rolling like final season. The almost definitely consequence for the Cavaliers barring a commerce was a loss throughout the first two rounds of the playoffs — the identical because the earlier three postseasons.
No one is aware of Garland’s well being higher than Cleveland, and if the Cavaliers have been satisfied he wasn’t more likely to return to final season’s All-Star stage of play frequently, transferring on now made sense.
Harden was the very best participant whom Cleveland may possible purchase in a one-for-one swap. The Cavs should navigate Harden’s participant possibility for 2026-27, however they’re going to absolutely be joyful to pay up in the event that they attain the convention finals for the primary time since LeBron James‘ departure in 2018.
LA Clippers: B-
What this deal means for the Clippers: a drastic change after all from their present path, which was constructed round contending now whereas preserving cap area accessible for the star-studded crop of potential 2027 free brokers — a gaggle that features Mitchell.
From that standpoint, buying and selling Harden would have made extra sense in December, when the Clippers have been as many as 15 video games beneath .500. They subsequently ripped off 16 wins in a 19-game stretch to get again within the play-in spot dialog within the Western Convention and counsel they is likely to be able to a playoff upset.
Nonetheless, I can perceive the Clippers pulling the plug on their win-now technique. Projections utilizing ESPN’s Basketball Energy Index gave them only a 5% likelihood of reaching the highest six and ducking not solely the play-in match but additionally any likelihood of a first-round matchup in opposition to the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder. The Clippers must climb to at the very least eighth within the standings to have an opportunity at avoiding the Thunder within the first spherical, and the BPI has that taking place lower than 40% of the time.
Extra shocking is the Clippers’ willingness to tackle Garland’s contract, which runs by way of 2027-28 at $44.9 million. Earlier than this commerce, beginning middle Ivica Zubac was the one Clippers participant beneath a assured contract past 2027, at a extra manageable $21 million.
With Garland and Zubac on the books, the Clippers nonetheless have a path to max-level cap area in the summertime of 2027, however they will not be capable of provide two max gamers the prospect to workforce up in L.A. with out future strikes.
It is definitely attainable that Garland is again to enjoying at a star stage by then. We have seen him bounce again from a down season earlier than. Garland’s efficiency thus far is eerily much like that of 2023-24, when his mouth was wired shut for a month following a jaw fracture. Again then, Cleveland resisted calls to interrupt up the Garland-Mitchell backcourt, and Garland responded with the very best season of his profession in 2024-25. Because the lower-spending workforce on this commerce — an unfamiliar place — the Clippers do not face the identical urgency to win now because the Cavaliers.
If Garland returns to the extent he performed ultimately season, this deal may very well be an enormous win for the Clippers. They’re swapping a 36-year-old who was in pursuit of a brand new contract — absolutely the reasoning behind the willingness of the Clippers and Harden to work collectively on discovering a commerce — for a participant who’s greater than a decade youthful. Within the Dunc’d On Each day Duncs publication, Dan Feldman could not discover a historic analogue the place two past All-Stars so different in age were traded primarily for each other.
Getting youthful may very well be particularly vital if the NBA strips a number of draft picks from the Clippers as punishment for attainable wage cap circumvention regarding the league’s investigation of Leonard’s sponsorship deal with Aspiration. We have seen this season how vital the power offered by late-second-round picks Jordan Miller and Kobe Sanders has been to the Clippers’ turnaround.
The Clippers’ pursuit of 2027 cap area additionally ran counter to current NBA trades. Stars have been extra more likely to change groups by way of trade-and-sign extensions than hit free company for the reason that Clippers signed Leonard in the summertime of 2019, which is historical historical past in entrance workplace phrases. If Giannis Antetokounmpo and different stars discover new houses this summer time, the Clippers would possibly need to forgo hoarding cap area both manner.
My largest concern is in the end that Garland’s toe issues would possibly show harder to shake than a fluke harm to his jaw. Given his small stature, any decline in Garland’s quickness can be difficult to beat. Take into account the upcoming Clippers medical examination one of many highest-stakes physicals in current NBA reminiscence.
