This post was originally published on this site.
Jettisoning what is currently the better player for an injury-prone guard usually wouldn’t be worth a W. This is a gamble on the Clippers’ part. But it’s one they had no choice other than to make.
Harden wanted out, again, because that’s what happens when you get in the James Harden business. Garland’s injury track record is a red flag. That the Clippers are receiving a draft pick here is equal parts stroke of genius and absolutely harrowing. A variation of “What don’t we know about his medicals?” should be voicing itself on a loop inside everyone’s minds.
Again, though, Harden boxed the Clippers into a corner with his trade request. If they weren’t going to pay him beyond this season or next, they had to move him. Shipping him out for draft picks was a non-starter—not because they shouldn’t, but because which team is forking over the moon for a 36-year-old Trade Request King?
This isn’t just about Garland being a decade his junior. He was an All-Star (and All-NBA snub) just last season. You punt on (some of) your 2027 cap-space plans and an aging Harden if you have the opportunity to land a potential bridge toward the future. Especially when it’s not costing you either of your movable firsts.
The spectre of Garland’s health looms over everything. If we find out following his physical that he’s more injured than we thought, swallowed all of his toes on a dare or some other sinister-adjacent revelation, we’ll have to recalibrate our impressions. Even then, his contract runs through 2027-28. That’s incredibly short-term and only a year out from becoming, at worst, expiring-salary ballast.
For now at least, Harden’s trade request has a chance to be a blessing in disguise for the Clippers’ future. That’s worth conceding some of their present-day upside.
And that’s assuming Garland won’t be ready to rock anytime soon. If he’s good to go in the near term, the Clippers are adding someone with the experience and tools required to play off Kawhi Leonard and power an entire offense, who’s only just entering his prime—a younger All-Star in distress with a less-than-flattering postseason track record of his own, but a younger All-Star all the same.
Dan Favale is a National NBA Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes.