Drama In Cleveland: Darius Garland Wants Traded Away From Donovan Mitchell, But The Cavs GM Doesn't Want To Split Them Up

So the huge Cavs hit piece story came out basically two seconds after Cleveland's season ended this year with a 4-1 gentleman's sweep to the Celtics, and the big thing that was acted upon immediately is that JB Bickerstaff lost the locker room, but the inside details were actually much more important. Who cares about a coach in the NBA anymore, am I right? But the fact that the roster construction questions such as can Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell play together, or can Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley play together, were included were much more important to the future of the franchise. And I would say the biggest shock was that if Donovan Mitchell intends to stay, Darius Garland and his camp intend to leave. They don't have any beef or anything, but Garland hasn't performed up to his 5-year, $200 million deal, and his reasoning is that he has to play alongside another ball dominant player. 

Well the thought is that if Klutch Sports comes to Koby Altman and says we want a trade, they'd have to give it to him. It's a players league afterall, so the trade machines have been fired up on Cavs twitter for a week now. Well, that is until this morning when Koby Altman gave his thoughts on the situation.

He says that there's more evidence that says it works than evidence that says it doesn't, plus he reminded everyone that it's only Year 2 of the project. I'm not sure that's enough to off-set what I saw from Garland with my own two eyes this year, but I don't hate the idea that we're not just going to give into these players demands if it makes our team worse.

.....except we totally are, right? Like, we just fired our Head Coach because it might give us a better chance to possibly re-sign Donovan Mitchell in the offseason.

This is, has been, and always will be a players league. So I'd be shocked if Darius Garland and his camp doesn't get what they want, but the way Altmann is talking today, it looks like he wants to try and blame this entire thing on JB Bickerstaff and run it back with a similar, healthier roster.

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I would say trading away your 5-year, $200 million player is a sweeping change. So either Koby is going to get strong armed by Klutch Sports, or he's going to stick to his guns, risking playing an unhappy player. This could get interesting.