Darius Garland didn't ask Tyronn Lue for more shots, a bigger role, or a guarantee of touches. Standing at New Balance's Beantown Elite Experience this week, the Los Angeles Clippers point guard asked his coach for something far more specific — and far more dangerous. He told Lue he wants to play "a little bit like Kai," as in Kyrie Irving, "and how he played in 2016 in that Finals run."
Let that land. Garland just walked into the office of the only head coach alive who has a championship ring built on exactly that blueprint — and he requested the whole design. Lue's 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers came back from 3-1 down against a 73-win Warriors team, and Kyrie Irving was the engine of the comeback, capped by the cold-blooded Game 7 dagger over Stephen Curry. Now Lue has a 26-year-old two-time All-Star asking to be rebuilt in that image. Six months after Cleveland shipped him out for James Harden, Garland is telling the basketball world that the guy who used to coach him in Cleveland is the one man who can finish the job in LA.
The Nine-Toe Season Nobody Talked About
Before any Kyrie talk, understand what Garland survived to even have this conversation. His season quietly derailed in January with a right big toe sprain — but that was just the visible tip. In his own words this week, what started as a bone bruise from stubbing his toe in the front of his shoe turned into torn ligaments that required reconstruction. He played through it. For roughly half a season, Garland says he was "out there playing with nine toes."
That's not a metaphor. It's a point guard — the most foot-dependent position in sports, the guy whose entire game is built on the shifty, stop-on-a-dime handle that made him an All-Star — running on a reconstructed foot with a sprain on the other one. "It was a mental fog most of the time," Garland admitted. "Because we're using our toes 24/7. So just out there trying to run on it and play defense, slide, and everything like that. It was pretty tough."
He didn't sit. He put on his hard hat, as he put it, and played through the fog. That detail matters because it reframes everything the league thinks it knows about him.
The Trade Everyone Got Wrong
When the Clippers dealt Harden to Cleveland for Garland and a second-rounder on Feb. 3, the immediate consensus was that Cleveland won the deadline. The Cavs got the future Hall of Famer to run next to Donovan Mitchell — a "win-now" flex from a contender. The Clippers got a banged-up guard and a future-facing rebuild.
Six months later, the ledger looks different. Cleveland rode Harden to the Eastern Conference finals — and got absolutely swept by the New York Knicks, 4-0, with the closeout game a 130-93 humiliation in Rocket Arena. Harden, at 36, was brilliant in moments and invisible in others, exactly the risk the Clippers decided they didn't want to carry into another spring. The Knicks went on to win the whole thing. The Cavs' big swing bought them a conference finals appearance and a sweep.
Meanwhile, in 19 games after the trade, Garland averaged 19.9 points and 6.4 assists for LA while shooting 43.8 percent from three — up from 36 percent in Cleveland — and that was with half a working foot. Now the foot is reconstructed. Now he gets a full training camp, a full offseason, and a coach who has already told him the plan: "He's different from James and we can play different with a faster pace," Lue said. "We can play him off the ball more."
The 2016 Kyrie Blueprint Is Not What You Think
Here's the hot take: Garland asking to play like 2016 Kyrie is not a nostalgia act — it's the smartest request any point guard could make to this coach. The 2016 Kyrie version wasn't the ball-dominant handle god of Brooklyn. It was a two-way, off-ball, crunch-time killer who let LeBron run the offense and still averaged 27.1 points in the Finals while shooting 40.5 percent from three. It was the version that guarded Curry and then ended his season with one dribble move and a fadeaway.
Lue himself said it best: having a young point guard under his tutelage "is the first time I have had one since Kyrie." Lue has been waiting a decade for this. Garland is a better passer than Irving ever was — his underrated playmaking is the thing he says gets overlooked — and he's asking to add the killer instinct layer. That combination, in a Lue system, is a nightmare to game plan against.
Post-Kawhi LA Is Suddenly Garland's Team
Don't miss the context: Kawhi Leonard is gone. The Clippers traded him to Toronto on June 30 for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two first-rounders, a pick swap and two seconds. The roster now runs through Garland: Ingram as the wing scorer, Dick as the shooter, Kris Dunn as the defensive guard, Brook Lopez protecting the rim, and rookie Keaton Wagler — the No. 5 pick Garland helped scout — learning from him directly. "Calling me big bro and stuff," Garland said of the young guys. "It's crazy to hear."
This is no longer a superteam sidecar situation. This is Garland's franchise. And he knows exactly what people are saying: that the injuries made him forgettable. "They tend to forget about you," he said. "But that's what another 82-game season is for: to go ahead and revamp yourself, show everybody what you're capable of."
The Prediction
Garland says he has "nothing to prove," which is exactly what players with everything to prove say. But the numbers, the health, and the fit all point the same direction: Garland is my pick for 2026-27 All-NBA dark horse, and this Clippers squad — Ingram's size, Dick's gravity, Lopez's rim protection, and a 2016-Kyrie-aspiring engine at the point — is a 48-to-52-win team in the West. The revenge game against Cleveland is already circled. And if Garland plays all 82 with ten toes, the man who coached the greatest comeback in NBA history might just have the point guard to do something similar in LA. The blueprint is on the wall. He asked for it himself.
Marcus Bennett
Marcus Bennett breaks down games with a focus on style, pace, momentum, and matchup factors that help readers better understand the betting board.