Can Darius Garland Take the Steph Curry Leap?
When the Clippers acquired Darius Garland in exchange for James Harden at the trade deadline, they were immediately set with their point guard of the future. Darius Garland is ten years younger than James Harden and that does not even do it justice how young he truly is.
Darius Garland’s career has shown many comparisons to the trajectory of Steph Curry’s career. Both players are viewed as undersized point guards that were drafted in the top seven of their respective drafts. Curry started his career in the shadow of Monta Ellis who was viewed as the star of the future for the Warriors franchise. Darius Garland also started his career and was immediately seen as the less likely star compared to Collin Sexton. Both of their franchises very quickly realized who the rising star was and ended up trading the latter. The Warriors traded Monta Ellis in a package centered around Andrew Bogut who brought the Warriors a championship as their starting center in 2015. The Cavaliers, on the other hand, traded away Collin Sexton in a package centered around Donovan Mitchell. The duo of Garland and Mitchell showed success together, even winning 64 games in the 2024-2025 NBA season. Ultimately, injuries prevented them from achieving the ultimate success which forced the Cavs to trade Garland to the Clippers in return for a healthier star, James Harden.
Prior to winning the 2014-2015 MVP, Steph Curry finished the season before that at the age of 26. Darius Garland is also 26 and him taking a super leap similar to Curry is not a long reach. In that season, Curry averaged 24.0 points, 4.3 rebounds, 8.5 assists, 1.6 steals, and 0.2 blocks. Darius Garland’s stats as a starter on the Clippers are 23.0 points, 2.1 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.2 blocks. Not only do they have similar numbers but their play-styles are very alike as well. Both of them are among the best shooters in the league with easily the best handle in the league. Their playmaking is on an elite level as well as their abilities to play off the ball. Both players are very good on-court teammates to have as they use their off-ball gravities and on-ball playmaking and shooting to be offensive powerhouses.
Despite being seen as a vet on this Clippers team compared to the younger players on the roster such as Keaton Wagler, Kobe Sanders, Bennedict Mathurin, and Yanic Konan-Niederhauser, Darius Garland is still a very young talent in terms of having another level of his game to unlock and Clippers fans should be excited for the potential ahead.