The Darius Garland chatter has been picking up around Phoenix, but one Suns insider is pouring cold water on the whole thing.
The talk started to snowball after the NBA handed down punishment to the Los Angeles Clippers for their handling of Kawhi Leonard and the salary cap circumvention that came with it. The Clippers’ owner was fined $30 million, and the organization lost five future first-round picks. That sent the internet into a frenzy, and with Los Angeles apparently facing a season in which it won’t be competing, the idea of a reset has only grown louder.
In Phoenix, that has fueled speculation about Garland as a possible answer at point guard. But according to one Suns insider, there’s nothing moving in that direction.
"Ok I am going to chime in here on all of these Darius Garland hypotheticals. There have been no discussions between the teams.
I do not expect there to be any in the near future. So, I would say this is not going to happen.
Suns are going to give Jalen Green every opportunity to prove he is a good fit with Book and this year we should find out if that can work."
The Suns have been weighing how Green fits alongside Booker, and the organization is set on giving him a real chance to show it can work. Green brings scoring punch similar to Garland’s, but the fit next to Booker is still unconventional because both players naturally lean toward scoring rather than running the offense in a traditional way.
Even so, Phoenix enters next season with real confidence in the trio of Booker, Green and Dillon Brooks.
There’s also the practical side of the equation, and it works against a Garland deal. The Clippers would be looking for premium draft compensation after losing so much of their future haul, and the Suns simply don’t have the kind of draft capital to make that kind of offer after their previous trades for Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal.
So for now, the idea remains just that - an idea. The Suns want to see what they have with Green, especially after he missed 50+ games last year, and the Clippers probably aren’t eager to send Garland to a divisional rival for pennies on the dollar.
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