Darius Garland has the potential to be the Cavaliers’ best player

The Cleveland Cavaliers selected guard Darius Garland from Vanderbilt University with their fifth overall selection in the 2019 NBA Draft despite only playing five games in college, but the selection was about the star possibility with Garland.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are amid a full-rebuild, and general manager Koby Altman and the organization selecting Darius Garland, despite a limited sample size in college, was based on potential.

Garland flashed all kinds of potential in the five games he played, averaging 16.2 points on 53.7% shooting (including 47.8% shooting from three-point range), to go with 3.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game (per Sports Reference).

One huge part of his game that was flashed in his brief college stint was shooting. The game today has such a big emphasis on being able to spread the floor and knock down three-point shots and Garland’s shooting, both off-the-bounce and off-the-catch, figures to be a huge tool.

He knocked down 11 of his 23 three-point attempts in college (per Sports Reference) and is never afraid to pull the trigger. One thing you’ll notice when watching Garland is that he can hit from anywhere; he has serious range on his three-ball.

He also has demonstrated an ability to be lethal in the mid-range game. He has a sweet pull-up and can initiate it with either hand, and this should help him operate off screens/dribble hand-offs, too.

His quick release should also give him a lot of value when he’s playing off-ball. When head coach John Beilein has Garland and Collin Sexton in the game at the same time, in particular, Garland’s ability to spot up from beyond the arc opens up the drive-and-kick possibility.

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Garland also brings the passing of a pure point guard, something that is lacking from the Cleveland Cavaliers’ roster as currently constructed. While he averaged just 2.6 dimes in college, that should not be a reason to be hesitant about his potential as a primary playmaker.

He averaged a really solid 4.3 assists per game in his senior year of high school en route to being named the Gatorade Tennessee Player of the Year.

In the McDonald’s All American Game, he had 11 assists, the most in the game, and while it was that sort of All-Star feel, it shows he’s a willing passer that has good vision/feel and can make things happen for others as well.

Doug Bontrager, the head coach of rival Father Ryan High School, exclaimed (per Michael Murphy of Tennessean.com) that Garland “scores in multiple ways and is by far one of the best passers I have encountered in my 31 years of coaching. He has all the shots and great vision.”

Hearing an opposing coach go out of his way to mention Garland’s supreme court vision and passing ability has to be comforting.

The vision is there. In the NBA game, he will have time to get acclimated to his teammates, something he did not have in college.

He’s shown the ability, especially in high school, to find open teammates and in Beilein’s spread offense that should create plenty of clear passing lanes/open looks, he should have no problem doing just that.

Garland’s game is not perfect and there are places he needs to improve. He is a smaller guard and is still just 19 years old, and is still learning how to play through contact when attacking the basket.

Along with that, he will most likely learn the hard way when going up against NBA big men.

A player can learn how to better play through contact, though. It is a lot harder to teach shooting and court vision.

To an extent, you either have it or you don’t, and it would certainly seem like Garland has both, even if he still needs fine-tuning.

Where it stands right now, Garland has the potential to be the best player on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ roster (though Kevin Love is currently, but Garland is as promising as it gets on Cleveland’s roster long term). Garland’s knock-down shooting ability, complemented by his passing vision make him a perfect mold for today’s NBA.

He’s got ways to go, but the potential for him to be a Trae Young, Damian Lillard or even Stephen Curry-esque player is there, but again, that is a long way away.