5 Cleveland Cavaliers who shouldn’t be back if they stumble in the playoffs

Darius Garland

If the Cleveland Cavaliers get trounced by the New York Knicks to the point that there are questions about this team truly being able to compete with the core that it has, the obvious piece that would go is Darius Garland. He’s the only player on the team with a negative defensive box-plus minus and is the one player you could dangle to a team to entice them to trade away a star of equal measure, that best fits what the Cavs are trying to do.

To be clear, I’m not advocating trading Garland for someone like Malcolm Brogdon. We’re talking Luka Doncic, Damian Lillard, or someone of that ilk. But mainly just those two men. You’d have to do some clever nonsense to get teams interested, sure but if the team gets destroyed in four games, you’re going to have to look at why.

The Cavs’ defense is suspect with Garland on the court and while he’s a great offensive player, and fits in well with the offense they have, you certainly aren’t going to deal Donovan Mitchell, not after what you just gave up to get him. Nor are you giving up Evan Mobley, who is the future of this team.

If the team struggles, it’ll likely be on defense, and it’ll like be due to Garland’s poor defensive play. So if you can find a mega star swap out there, you do it. But only if you need to.