Post#1688 » by nate33 » Sat Dec 20, 2025 3:23 pm
I'm rethinking the Darius Garland situation in Cleveland.
Cleveland is currently 15-14 and are tied with Atlanta in the 8th/9th position in the East. They are paying $163M in luxury taxes to keep that roster together. And now, Mobley is out for 4 weeks with a calf strain. They might not even make the top 6 and be forced to win a play-in against a team like Atlanta, Miami or Boston just to make the playoffs. It is a complete trainwreck.
It's looking like the Big Four concept is a failure. You can't have a team with Mitchell, Mobley, Garland and Allen without paying a monstrous luxury tax, and it's crazy to pay a monstrous luxury tax for a middling .500 team. They're not trading Mitchell or Mobley, so one of Garland or Allen must go. And Garland has always been the awkward fit because he and Mitchell make such a diminutive backcourt.
I think we are at the point where we might be able to poach Garland without spending any real pick capital. One issue is that very few teams have the ability to trade with them because being over the second apron makes it nearly impossible for them to make moves. They can't aggregate salaries and they can't take back more than they send out. And the luxtax situation next year looks pretty rough too because they will be paying higher repeater tax multiples. Also, with so many other PG's on the market (Trae, Ja, Lamelo) there clearly isn't much of a demand for Garland. Cleveland is going to be disappointed if they're expecting a pick haul. And finally, Garland needs more time to truly recover from that toe injury. Nobody is going to trade for him and then rely on him to get them through the playoffs this year.
The trade I propose is effectively us trading McCollum and Whitmore for Garland, Lonzo and a vet-minimum scrub. It would actually be two trades: one is Lonzo plus vet-minimum guy (Bryant? Nance Jr.?) for our Olynyk TPE. The other is McCollum and Whitmore for Garland. The two trades combine shave $18.8M off of their payroll which would save them a whopping $118 MILLION in luxtax payments (plus roughly $14M in prorated salary savings). Think about that for a moment. Their owner would save $132M dollars this year by doing that trade. And next year, they were looking at another $90M in luxtax payments, and with this deal, that drops to 0. So $200M+ in savings to essentially trade a broken down Garland into a young, healthy and cheap Cam Whitmore who plays more of a position of need.
As for our incentive, the main thing is that it costs us nothing. We need to spend that money anyhow, so why not spend it on a 25-year-old former All-Star who could conceivably get back to All-Star form if we just give him another 9 months to rest and heal? And it allows us to maintain the tank because we offload McCollum but we then tell Garland to sit out until his toe is right. If the gamble works out, we have another core piece. If it doesn't, Garland's salary comes off the books in Summer 2027 just as the first of our young guys (Sarr and George) are up for new contracts, so there won't be any trouble with the long term cap sheet.
One other side benefit - Lonzo Ball might be perfect for us. He is a pass first guy who will try very hard to set up his teammates and set a good example on defense, but at the same time, his shot is totally broken and he will likely help us tank.
