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ESPN Senior Writer- ESPN.com NBA writer since 2010
- Covered Cleveland Cavs for seven years
- Author of two books
Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star guard Darius Garland had surgery Monday to repair the left big toe injury that troubled him during the playoffs and is expected to miss four to five months.
The Cavs said in a statement that they expect Garland to "make a full recovery and resume basketball activities by the start of training camp" in October. But Garland is likely to miss time to start the regular season, sources told ESPN.
Garland was first diagnosed with the injury on March 23 in Utah but missed regular-season just two games. He aggravated the injury during Cleveland's first-round series against the Miami Heat and ended up missing four playoff games.
He returned during the series against the Indiana Pacers but was slowed at times by the nagging injury.
The procedure was performed by Dr. Nicholas Strasser at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in consultation with Cavaliers team doctor James Rosneck of the Cleveland Clinic and Dr. Bob Anderson of OrthoCarolina.
Garland was one of two players to average 20 points, 5 assists and 40% shooting on 3-pointers this season, along with Denver Nuggets' star Nikola Jokic. He made 212 3-pointers this season, third most in team history.
