The Cleveland Cavaliers have long stood their ground on keeping the backcourt of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland together. Should the front office finally waver in their desire to continue that partnership, they will have trade suitors around the league.
Michael Scotto was confident in believing rival teams would be eyeing Garland, if the Cavaliers made him available. The NBA insider delivered that message on a recent appearance for the YES Network.
On the Pregame Show @ChrisShearnYES spoke with Senior NBA Insider @MikeAScotto regarding Giannis Antetokounmpo, the point guard trade market & much more!#NETSonYES pic.twitter.com/l2uEdzcKEl
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) December 14, 2025
Scotto said, "I want to throw another name at you Chris, Darius Garland of the Cleveland Cavaliers. ... Some teams believe that if he was their main guy, he could be a difference-maker. So, I think there's going to be a lot of interest in him before this trade deadline."
It would be fair to call Garland a ceiling raiser for the Cavaliers. At his best, the All-Star point guard has proven capable of putting Cleveland over the top as a unit. 2025-26 has not been his, or the team's, best. If that continues to be true, revisiting a polarizing decision would be all too familiar for this franchise.
Darius Garland will have a trade market — if the Cavaliers want it
The 2024-25 season showed everyone why splitting up Garland and Mitchell was not the pressing need that it was thought to be in the past. The results of those two playing together were more than favorable for Cleveland.
The Cavaliers guards shared the floor for 1131 minutes during last year's regular season. They posted a net rating of 9.5 together.
2025-26 does not offer as extensive of a sample size. However, the initial fall-off has been there.
Amid the Cavs' overall struggles, Mitchell and Garland have followed suit in coming up short as a duo. The two are now posting a -0.3 net rating in their 206 minutes played together thus far.
That is not enough evidence to suggest the pairing is broken. However, it can reopen the avenue to second guess their original decision a little. The Cavaliers have struggled on the whole, and if it persists, eventually the personnel does get the heat.
There are plenty of other sources for discontent to consider addressing with the roster before looking at the backcourt duo. In any case, it would be surprising for the Cavaliers to make any major decision of this nature without giving the team every opportunity until February to figure it out.