Cleveland Cavaliers: Where Darius Garland ranks against other starting PGs

The Cleveland Cavaliers used the fifth pick in the 2019-20 NBA Draft on University of Vanderbilt guard Darius Garland. Where does he rank among the other starting point guards in the NBA?

New Cleveland Cavaliers starting point guard Darius Garland is expected to have a huge role heading into his rookie season.

Garland, a rookie out of Vanderbilt, was one of the highest recruits in the 2018 recruiting class according to the 247 sports composite rankings.

He, unfortunately, suffered a torn meniscus five games into his freshman season and missed the remainder of the year.

In his five games with the Commodores, however, he was very good. Through five games, Garland put up per-game averages of 16.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 2.6 assists. He also carried an impressive 63.9 eFG% and an equally impressive 23.6 player efficiency rating (all stats per Sports Reference).

Perhaps the biggest indicator of Garland’s skill and the impact he had on the game was the fact that Vanderbilt was 5-0 in games he played and went 4-23 after he went down.

Being a top-five draft pick with such a small sample size should also be an indicator of Garland’s skill. He is a very good shooter with elite level ball-handling. From a point guard perspective, he needs to work on his distributing, however.

The Cavaliers are hoping they have the second-coming of their former star point guard, Kyrie Irving.

Ranking rookies amongst established peers can be a challenge because it’s hard to say whether a player will pan out or not. There is also one notable omission as Washington Wizards point guard John Wall will miss the most, if not all of next season, so he will not be included in the point guard rankings.