The Cleveland Cavaliers traded for Keon Ellis and Dennis Schroder on Saturday night, and plenty of fans took the deal as a surefire indication of Lonzo Ball's imminent departure. While that was a logical assumption, it was based on the wrong player.
For it is Darius Garland, not Ball, whose fate in Cleveland was just altered dramatically. Ball was already a goner. There's no chance the Cavs are going to pick up his team option for next season, and they might trade him in the next few days.
What the Ellis-Schroder arrival means for Garland is far more relevant. It makes the All-Star guard more expendable than ever in Cleveland.
Darius Garland is on his way out of Cleveland
Minutes after Saturday night's trade blew up on NBA social media, Yahoo Sports' Kevin O'Connor was the first major voice to pick up on the Garland angle.
"Two quality backcourt rotation pieces," O'Connor wrote. "Garland suddenly feels quite expendable if it’s for a bigger wing."
O'Connor floated Brooklyn Nets' Michael Porter and New Orleans Pelicans' Trey Murphy as two names that fit that "bigger wing" label, but we won't explore those possibilities here and now. Would Brooklyn still be interested in giving up MPJ for Garland, by the way?
What's more intriguing in the present moment is to review how and why Cleveland's new guard depth makes them a squad that can thrive without Garland moving forward.
Let's imagine that Koby Altman decides to retain Garland past the deadline, with plans to trade him this coming offseason. Altman knows that he can extend Ellis (after Feb. 9) for three years and $52 million.
With Donovan Mitchell and Craig Porter Jr. under contract through next season (Porter has a team option), and with Schroder locked in through 2027-28, the Cavs would have a full season to roll with a guard corps of Porter-Mitchell-Schroder -Ellis.
Everything points to these four players being among the NBA's best guard groups. There's a load of talent between the four, and more importantly, plenty of skill and size variation.
Mitchell is the alpha scorer, of course, but Schroder provides plenty of scoring juice off the bench. Porter and Ellis are bigger guards who provide more defensive value than the other two. All four of these guys are excellent athletes.
Kenny Atkinson could roll out a starting backcourt of Porter and Mitchell or Mitchell and Ellis, depending on matchups. Either pairing is a better two-way (i.e. winning) situation than Mitchell-Garland, which has always been too small and not good enough defensively, despite its offensive firepower.
Now, if Garland were to remain in the mix, one of these four guys would get pushed out of minutes (Schroder or Porter, likely), and the beautiful balance envisioned above would get thrown out of whack.
Does this mean Altman already has a Garland deal lined up to execute before the deadline? That feels unlikely, but if anything, Saturday night provided a crystal clear message that Garland's days in Cleveland are numbered.