Top five prospects for Cavs at fifth overall in the 2019 NBA Draft

#2: Darius Garland – Vanderbilt

The number two guy on this list is point guard Darius Garland out of Vanderbilt. Garland only played five games for the Commodores this season, but in his five games he averaged 16.2 points per game on 63.9% effective field goal shooting, to go with 3.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game (per Sports Reference).

He shot 47.8% from three-point range, too, which while a short sample size (his season was cut short due to a reported meniscus tear), was still very impressive.

The Cavs also had representatives who were at Garland’s private workout over the weekend, according to Terry Pluto of the Plain Dealer. That shows they are very interested in Garland’s potential playmaking for the long-term, I would imagine.

The Cavs are so early in the rebuild that they shouldn’t worry about need and should just go with the best player available if they feel Garland is that player (though he may not be, according to information from ESPN’s Jonathan Givony as of Tuesday).

Yes the Cavs drafted Sexton a year ago, but it’s also fair to wonder if Sexton has the court vision and the feel for the position to be a long-term starting point guard. Sexton’s best fit long-term could be as a sixth man coming off the bench, anyhow.

Maybe if Garland didn’t go down five games into the season, instead of this being viewed as a three-player draft, it would be a four-player draft. ESPN’s Mike Schmitz seems to think Darius Garland can be an All-Star and franchise building block, as he has a tremendous handle, and I believe is a much better playmaker than his assist numbers indicated (and Schmitz noted).

As Schmitz also mentioned in the video Garland is a tremendous shooter, both off-the-catch and off-the-dribble, and his dead-eye accuracy is something the Cleveland Cavaliers really need.

The Cavs have a lot of needs, but with them so early in their rebuild, getting the best prospect available is probably the most important thing for them right now.

If they feel that Garland is the best prospect on the board if they are ultimately picking fifth (we’ve detailed other potential scenarios as well), they should absolutely draft him regardless of positional need.

A few days ago I probably wouldn’t have ranked Garland here, because before the Anthony Davis trade, Garland was likely the player the Los Angeles Lakers would pick fourth overall, according to Tania Ganguli and Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times, so Garland falling to the Cavs didn’t seem realistic.

However, now it doesn’t seem like the New Orleans Pelicans would take Garland with them already stacked at guard with Lonzo Ball, Jrue Holiday, and Josh Hart and even with New Orleans potentially trading down, the potential point guard teams such as Givony mentioned in the Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves, it doesn’t seem completely unrealistic that the guard target would end up being North Carolina’s Coby White, anyhow.