End-of-Season Media Availability | Darius Garland | 5.14.2025

End-of-Season Media Availability | Darius Garland | 5.14.2025

of the emotions that you’ve been trying to process over the past four hours. Um just trying to figure out what can we do better. Um how can we be better? How can I be better? Um yeah, just processing the entire series. everything went through last year, especially with your obviously. How does how does it all come together? Um, and it was a successful year. It was a good year. Um, didn’t end the way that we wanted to, but I think it was a step in the right direction. Um, a lot of good things happened this year. We got better. Um, had a great regular season just to end the postseason how we wanted last season as motivation for this season. Um, hit the offseason hard. Um, start working immediately. Um, watch film, see what we can get better at, see where I can get better at, and uh, yeah, come back stronger, come back healthier, come back mentally stronger, and, um, be ready to do it all over again next year. Daryus, you mentioned trying to process this and and come up with answers of of why it ended the way that it did and what you could have done better. What are those answers? Um, mentally stronger, physically stronger. Um, look myself in the mirror and see what’s inside and um, go with that. When you reagravated your toe, how long did they tell you that you were going to need to be up? Day by day. They told you day by day. Yeah. They didn’t give you no different timeline than that. And then you know when when you look back on on this particular playoff like is it what about this one is is most painful? um having a great regular season that we had um and proving the doubters wrong in a regular season and then not putting the effort in as we wanted to in the postseason. That’s what hurts the most. Um I mean a lot went into it. Um, I mean the injuries of course. Um, just the mental toughness, the physical toughness that we we’ve been through before. Um, then just trying to get over that hump. We’ve been here last year and it’s hard getting over that hump. So, we try to got to figure out what can we do to to make that next step to to get in the right direction. Thank you, Dan. Darius, why do you think that the regular season success you guys had as a team didn’t translate to this series? Um, focus uh for 48 minutes. Um, adjustments. Uh, that’s a really good team over there in Indiana. So, they’ve been there before. They’ve been to these coverers before. They know what it takes. Um, that’s what we’re trying to get to. So, come back strong, come back harder, and um, be ready to work. Donovan, Max, a couple of other guys have sat in that chair and talked about how next season is going to be. You’re going to be judged on what happens in the postseason, the regular season, isn’t going to be something that anybody cares about. Do you think that’s how it should be? That’s how it’s always been. Um, just didn’t start with us. Um, you’re always judged on how you finish in the postseason and um, we have a lot of growth. Um, but it’s a lot of positivity in this group. So, um, I know for a fact everybody’s going to hit the summer really hard. Um, because they’re going to have this in their mind. Um, this feeling isn’t good. It’s not sweet. Um, so I know our mindset as a team is to get better in all aspects and individually come back a lot stronger, come back a lot harder, um, a lot better than what you were last year. So, um, it’s no doubt in my mind that we’ll be a lot better and, um, the camaraderie will even get a lot better. So, um, it hurts right now, but when we put the work in, it’ll be it’ll be fun, and it’ll be good to see what we we break out next year. Darius, when you talk about getting better as a group, you know, Evan Moley, who’s an all-star for the first time, defensive player of the year. What do you think the next step is for him? And how much does that relate to the group’s growth as a whole that you’re kind of talking about? Um, his improvement will make our group improve. Um, we’ve been telling him for years now. Um, as he grow, we all grow. Um, I think he’s the catalyst of this group. uh he makes us a thousand times better when he’s aggressive and being an allstar defensive player of the year that we know and um he’s going to have a great summer. Um he had one last year and he came back an allstar for the first time like you said and defensive player of the year. So, um it’s another step for for him and for all of us, but um yeah, he’s definitely going to going to take the right step, but just get stronger um get into his spots, get into all the moves that he wants to get to and um and be right back in the same position or even better than he was this year. And then for yourself, you said something in Indiana you first came back that people aren’t going to understand what you’re going through. What did I can you say more about what did it really take for you to to get back into the playoffs and and what were you really going through that people didn’t know? Um it’s injury. and um playing with a spacer in between my toes, playing with a steel plate. Uh but I’m trying to be out there for my guys. I’m trying to win the series, try to win the games. Uh try and do as much as I can just to put our team in the best position to win. Um it definitely wasn’t myself out there. wasn’t it was pretty uncomfortable but um like I said trying to do anything to win the game six years in here what is it meant to you to sort of be I don’t know the steward of this your longest tenure guy here it means a lot um my first year we won 18 games 19 games so seeing the growth over the is uh it’s cool to see cuz you see it from the ground up. So um I mean you seen all the progress that we made um see all the moves that we made just to get to this spot and um I mean we’re in a good spot but we’re not we’re we’re not satisfied at all. It’s definitely a lot different levels than what we’re doing right now. And um we have to reach those levels to get to where we want to be. So um it’s really cool to see the progress of course, but um it’ll be even more sweeter when we get to the top where we really want to be at. How has your relationship with this city changed since you’ve been evolved, I should say? Uh I mean it’s it’s a lot of love for this city. I call it like my second home now. Um I love the city. a lot of people here. Um, it reminds me where I grew up, Gary, Indiana. So, um, it really does feel like home to me. So, um, I really appreciate everybody here. I appreciate all y’all here. Um, just the connection that we’ve grown and just talking to you guys on a day-to-day basis, basically. It’s super cool just to interact with you guys and like y’all damn near family to me now. So, uh it’s super cool just to have y’all around and see the fans. Uh even when I’m out like they’re always supporting. Um I mean it’s it’s all love here. Darius, you mentioned that in this series against Indiana, you couldn’t be yourself. So, in what way, if at all, does that make this harder to accept the outcome? Yeah, that’s what makes it harder for me. Um it’s like I’m there for the guys, but like I’m not there for the guys. I’m not 100%. So, um that’s what’s making it pretty tough. But, um I’m just happy I just got out there cuz I didn’t want to lead them out. Um want us to be fully healthy, of course, but we had all our guys out there, though. um even if we weren’t all 100%, we were all out there um trying to put our best foot forward and that’s all we can ask for. So, um I’m happy I went out there. Doesn’t matter if I was hurt or not. Um happy I went to battle with my guys and um everybody else that was banged up. I’m happy that they came out to to battle and participate in the war. You mentioned after game three that that you heard the criticism. Like how much did that hurt to hear like knowing everything that you were trying to do to get on the court? It was whatever. I mean everybody’s going to have a opinion. Um I know what I was going through physically. So like I said in Indiana, a lot of y’all don’t know what I was going through physically. So and a lot of y’all probably wouldn’t even go out there and play. So, um, and that’s what I did for my teammates and they wanted me out there. I wanted to be out there and that’s what it was. Last question. There’s been so much talk about the the hunger that the Pacers had and all these teams related to the championship. Just the level of hunger that it takes to get there. How can getting this close to where you were at and having all this promise that the season ended so abruptly maybe elevate that level of hunger for the Cleveland Cavaliers? Yeah. Um that’s what the summer’s all about. Uh just to attack what you didn’t succeed and what you wanted to succeed. Um you always have that in the back of your mind in the summer when you’re working out or uh when you’re tired and you have to take like three more extra reps, five more extra reps. like you’ll always have this in the back of your mind. Um because you do want to get to that next level. Uh you do want to win a championship and that’s all you’re thinking about. So um going to the in the summer with Mahar hat on ready to work and get better so we can get to that level. And Don mentioned the summer’s going to be loud. He expects people to write off the Cavs. What would you say to people who are willing to write the Cavs off? Write us off again. It’s just another year that we’ve been written off. Um, nothing has changed. A lot of people doubt us. Um, and it is based off of the playoffs. It’s based off of the postseason. So, they do whatever they want. When we go to work, we get better and we come back stronger next year.

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland spoke with the media at Cleveland Clinic Courts to recap the 2024-25 season.