The Clippers and Cavaliers have had advanced talks about a blockbuster trade that would send James Harden to Cleveland and Darius Garland to Los Angeles, sources tell Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated.
Harden, a 6’5″ guard, missed his second straight game on Monday due to personal reasons. Head coach Tyronn Lue said the former league MVP was at his home in Phoenix, but he didn’t elaborate further (Twitter link via Joey Linn).
Kelly Iko of Yahoo Sports also hears the Cavaliers are trying to acquire Harden, citing league sources who say Cleveland has been interested in the 36-year-old since December, when L.A. was off to a miserable start.
The Clippers, meanwhile, have a “longstanding interest” in two-time All-Star Garland, a 6’1″ guard who has battled injuries in 2025/26. The former No. 5 overall pick, who turned 26 last week, has missed Cleveland’s last eight games with a Grade 1 right great toe sprain.
Garland underwent surgery over the offseason to address a great toe injury on his left foot. He missed the first eight games of ’25/26 while recovering from that surgery, then re-injured his left big toe in November, causing him to miss another five games (eight if you include not playing both ends of back-to-backs).
Shams Charania of ESPN reports (via Twitter) that the Clippers and Harden are working together to find the three-time scoring champion a new team before Thursday’s deadline.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported on SportsCenter earlier on Monday (YouTube link) that the Cavaliers were considering making a major trade, and this would certainly qualify. While they’ve played better recently, the Cavs have fallen short of expectations this season in part due to injuries, currently holding a 30-21 record after going 64-18 last year.
Although the Cavs are the only NBA team over the second tax apron, a straight-up swap of Garland ($39.45MM) for Harden ($39.18MM) would be legal because Garland makes slightly more money. The Clips also have enough space to take on Garland’s extra salary, tweets cap expert Yossi Gozlan.
As ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes (via Twitter), Harden has an implied no-trade clause after signing a one-plus-one deal (one-year contract with a player option in year two) to re-sign with Los Angeles last summer. He also has a 15% trade kicker.
Only $13.32MM of Harden’s $42.32MM salary for next season is guaranteed. But he also could turn that player option down in lieu of a new contract. If Harden agrees to be traded and turns down his option, he would lose his Bird rights, per Gozlan (Twitter link), but his salary for this season is still large enough that he could get a major payday using Non-Bird rights.
Garland, meanwhile, is in the third season of a five-year, rookie scale max extension. He will earn a guaranteed $42.16MM in ’26/27 and $44.89MM in ’27/28.
As Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal writes, rival teams have gotten the impression Garland prefers to be a team’s primary ball-handler, rather than acting in a both on- and off-ball role alongside Donovan Mitchell. There have long been questions about Garland’s fit next to Mitchell, as both are point guard-sized and neither is a great defender, though Mitchell at least has the strength to guard up a spot or two.
Harden has averaged 25.4 points, 8.1 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 1.3 steals on .419/.347/.901 shooting in 44 games this season (35.3 minutes per contest). Garland has made 26 appearances (30.5 MPG), averaging 18.0 PPG, 6.9 APG and 2.4 RPG on .451/.360/.861 shooting