Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland has toe surgery, could miss start of season

At the very least, the sobering news of Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland's toe surgery on Monday will end the trade rumors.Garland is expected to be sidelined 4-5 months, which will take him into the start of the 2025-26 season. The two-time All-Star underwent surgery to repair his left big toe, which caused him to miss four games in the postseason — the last two in the Miami Heat series and the first two against the Eastern Conference champion Indiana Pacers. When he finally returned against the fast-paced Pacers, he was only a shadow of himself. In the deflating Game 5 loss to Indiana, which dominated the series 4-1, he managed just 11 points and dished out three assists in 31 minutes. Garland turned the ball over five times and shot 4-for-16 from the field and 0-for-6 from 3-point range. He was criticized mightily for sitting out the games, mostly by the national media. On social media, some questioned his manhood. The 6-foot-1, 192-pounder said after the season ended that people didn't understand exactly what he was going through. "I was playing with a steel plate (in my shoe)," he said. "I definitely wasn't myself. A lot of you didn't know what I was going through physically." When Garland was sidelined, his exquisite ballhandling and playmaking were sorely missed, especially against the Pacers, who attack the entire 94 feet. The Cavs said in a statement that they expect Garland to "make a full recovery and resume basketball activities by the start of training camp" in October, but sources told ESPN that Garland could miss some regular-season action. He originally suffered a sprained toe in Utah on March 23 but remained in the lineup. The 25-year-old aggravated the injury during Cleveland's first-round series against the Heat. His surgical procedure was performed by Dr. Nicholas Strasser at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in consultation with Cavaliers team doctor James Rosneck of the Cleveland Clinic and Dr. Bob Anderson of OrthoCarolina. Garland was one of two players to average 20 points, five assists and shoot 40 percent or better on 3-pointers this season. The other player was Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, second in the MVP voting. Garland buried 212 3-pointers this season, third most in team history. Even though Cavs president of basketball operations Koby Altman said he didn't envision making any changes to the core of the team in the offseason, rumors have been circulating that Garland and possibly center Jarrett Allen could be on the trading block. One rumor making its rounds was Garland being traded for Orlando Magic point guard Jalen Suggs. Now that Garland went under the knife, those rumors should cease. He's averaged 18.9 points and 6.7 assists in his six-year career in Cleveland. Garland was the fifth-overall pick in the 2019 draft from Vanderbilt. Bob Finnan can be reached at rfinnan30@gmail.com. Follow him @BobCavsinsider on X.