The Cleveland Cavaliers are set to finally see the much-needed play of their star point guard soon.
Before the team’s 112-101 Friday loss against the Toronto Raptors, head coach Kenny Atkinson revealed that Darius Garland is now getting closer to making his 2025-26 season debut for the Cavs.
“He had some really good scrimmage time with the G League team,” Atkinson said, via cleveland.com's Ethan Sands. “Today he went through the full shootaround, so we’re getting close here. Really close.... I think there’s been no setbacks, not even any soreness or anything.”
“We made sure they got up and down. It wasn’t just drills. They did some drills, but he hooped. We kept our two-ways back so they could get into scrimmage with him, [and] make it really as game-like as we possibly can. In that scenario, he’s obviously No. 1 priority in terms of getting him back on the court.”
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Garland underwent an offseason surgery upon sustaining a toe injury from the previous NBA Playoffs. He remains under rehabilitation, but made recent significant progress as he participated in on-court drills and scrimmages of the Cavs’ G League affiliate Cleveland Charge.
The 25-year-old averaged 20.6 points and 6.7 assists from last year, helping the Cavaliers clinch a top-seeded 65-win campaign.
As their injury list has been problematic with Donovan Mitchell (hamstring), Jarrett Allen (finger), Max Strus (foot) and Sam Merrill (hip) out, Garland’s looming on-court play would be a rejuvenating one for the Cavaliers to hopefully get off from a fair 3-3 season start.
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