Cavs Received Calls On Darius Garland From Suns, Magic

It appears that opposing teams have been sucked in by the trade rumors surrounding Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland.

One of those teams was the Phoenix Suns, per ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. Another was the Orlando Magic. But the Cavaliers are not shopping Garland.

“The Suns, from what I’m told, reached out and had interest in Garland,” Windhorst said on ESPN Cleveland, via RealGM. “It was not the Cavs who wanted to trade Garland.”

This is likely how the Kevin Durant-to-Cleveland rumors started. Durant, of course, was eventually traded to the Houston Rockets.

“The Cavs said the only way they would ever consider this would be if the Suns sent Kevin Durant plus other assets,” Windhorst said. “And the Suns didn’t hang up the phone. I’ll just point out that the Suns own the Cavs’ 2029 first-round pick because they got it from the Jazz last year. And getting back your own picks in the distant future is somewhat attractive.

“But the Cavs to do that trade would have had to offload salary because they just couldn’t take it on. I do think they had some calls about bringing in third teams. It just wasn’t one call.

“And it wouldn’t have been just Durant. And it wasn’t them looking to trade Garland, but they made more than one call. This was a while ago.”

Windhorst added that the Magic also reached out, but eventually chose the path of trading with the Memphis Grizzlies for Desmond Bane.

Garland had surgery earlier this month to repair the left big toe injury that troubled him during the 2025 playoffs. He is expected to miss four to five months.

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