Garland had a great audition, but is he the answer long term?
The Los Angeles Clippers gambled at the trade deadline, shipping out James Harden to bring in Darius Garland as the lead guard they had been missing all season.
On paper it looked like a smart swing, since Garland is a two-time All-Star who can score and set the table for everyone around him.
The reality got messier than that, and with the season over, there is a fair case he belongs in the long-term plan and an equally fair one that he is just a name they end up moving.
A Strong Player When He Played
When Garland was on the floor for Los Angeles, he gave the offense the jolt it had been missing, running the show and creating shots the team had no way to manufacture without him.
He finished the year averaging 18.8 points and 6.7 assists while shooting close to 40 percent from three, still the production of one of the better offensive guards in the league when his body lets him play.
His debut stretch flashed what the front office had paid for, a 23-point night against the New York Knicks and another sharp game against the Minnesota Timberwolves that had people picturing a real backcourt next to Kawhi Leonard.
What the Clippers never got was a long, healthy look at him, since the good nights kept arriving in twos and threes before something pulled him back out.
The Injury Cloud
Garland's body kept getting in the way, and that is the part that should keep the Clippers up at night.
He suited up for just 45 total games on the season between Cleveland and Los Angeles, only 19 after the trade, a toe that never settled down capping his minutes and keeping him out of back-to-backs.
The team finished 42-40, backed into the play-in, then coughed up a fourth-quarter lead to the Golden State Warriors and missed the playoffs for the second time in five years.
Garland put up 21 points and eight assists in that last game, nowhere near enough, and afterward he admitted he had been playing on nine toes and needed to get healthy.
Why the Fifth Pick Changes Everything
The Clippers landed the fifth overall pick in the June 23 draft, a selection that fell to them through the Pacers in the Ivica Zubac trade, and that bit of lottery luck quietly changes how they should think about Garland.
A top-five pick means a young guard on a cheap deal might be walking in healthy, and a roster aging alongside Leonard suddenly has reason to look ahead.
If the front office trusts that rookie to develop into something real, paying an injury-prone guard premium money gets harder to justify than flipping him while the value still exists.
Los Angeles has to figure out soon whether Garland is the bridge to whatever comes after Leonard or a contract that goes sideways the next time his toe does, and the pick is what makes it a tough question.
