The reports came out in May that if Donovan Mitchell re-signed with the Cavaliers, Darius Garland’s agent (Rich Paul of Klutch Sports) was expected to talk to the Cavaliers about finding the guard a new home.
Mitchell re-signed, but Garland isn’t looking to leave. Here’s what he told Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com at Summer League Sunday:
“I don’t want to be traded. Those are just rumors.”
He’s likely going to get his wish. Rather than a growing buzz about trading Garland or Jarrett Allen after Mitchell re-signed, the opposite happened. Things got quiet, and the talk shifted to Cleveland preferring to keep its core four of Mitchell, Garland, Allen, and Evan Mobley together—that group has finished fourth in the East the past two seasons and advanced to the second round this past season.
Keeping this core together puts pressure on new coach Kenny Atkinson to get more offense and more ball movement — and with that, more wins — than J.B. Bickerstaff did with essentially the same roster. Both the backcourt of Garland and Mitchell, and the frontcourt of Allen and Mobley, have never quite meshed and made each other better than the sum of their parts. Atkinson has to find a way to get them to lift each other up.
Which will be tough in an East that got better this offseason.
