The real reason why Darius Garland is coming off the bench in his debut against the Warriors

The LA Clippers are ready to fight Golden State Warriors on Monday night, the second night of a back-to-back set. It will also mark the debut of the Clippers of guard Darius Garland.

Garland was acquired from the Cleveland Cavaliers during the week of the NBA trade deadline, bringing him to Los Angeles and sending James Harden to the Cavs. But Garland has missed the past month since the trade while working to recover from problems with toes in both feet.

After weeks of strengthening and rehabilitation, Darius Garland will make his debut for the Clippers against Draymond Green and the Golden State Warriors. But to a little surprise, Garland will not start in his first game.

“The thought of just getting him off the bench so he doesn’t have to play with Kawhi (Leonard) so he can find his own rhythm, his timing and just try to get everything through him,” head coach Tyronn Lue said in his pregame media availability on Monday. “Just being aggressive, getting our tempo up, so that’s kind of the thought process behind getting him off the bench. It’s to try to get him up to speed sooner rather than later. That’s what he’s going to do until we get his minutes and then of course he’ll be our starter.”

Between offseason foot surgery and a sprained right toe, Garland has played a total of 25 games this season, which is why the Clippers have been so careful to slowly bring their prized point guard back.

In addition to coming off the bench, Garland will face a minutes restriction for the foreseeable future until Garland gets into game shape and the Clippers are comfortable with where he is in his return to contention.

“I’m just happy he’s going to be on the floor,” Lue added. “I’m just excited for him and then just let him play. Be aggressive, try to wind him up, try to get the timing down and play loose. I just want to get him off the floor, see what we can do, how we can adjust certain things, but just excited to put him on the floor.”

In his introductory press conference, Garland told members of the media that Tyronn Lue plans to use him like Kyrie Irving did, and Lue confirmed those plans.

“That’s what I told him,” Tyronn Lue explained in early February, shortly after the trade. “He went back and watched a ton of film from those days. We’re going to put the ball in his hands, he’s got to be able to make plays for himself and his teammates. He’s got the ability to do that.”

“If you look at all the charts, he’s second in the league in making quick decisions on pick-and-rolls and plays, so he knows how to play the game. We’re going to need every bit of that, his ability to score the basketball, make guys better, create tempo, generate tempo. He can do it all.”

In his 408-game career spanning seven NBA seasons, Darius Garland averaged 18.8 points, 2.6 rebounds, 6.7 assists and 1.1 steals per game while shooting 45.3 percent from the field and 38.6 percent from three.