The regular season is finally here, as the Cleveland Cavaliers open their 2019-20 campaign on the road at the Orlando Magic on Wednesday. Here’s a few reasons why you should tune in.
The Cleveland Cavaliers did not have the best preseason, as they lost three of four contests, and their only victory came against Argentinean club San Lorenzo de Almagro.
With the Cavaliers having a number of injuries and a bunch of jumbled-up lineups, along with a mostly-new coaching staff, including first-time NBA head coach John Beilein, it was understandable for Cleveland to have their share of head-scratching moments in preseason.
It’s also unfortunate that going into the season, reserve big Ante Zizic is likely out for roughly three more weeks due to reported plantar fasciitis in his left foot (per the Cavs), and big John Henson seems fairly banged up and feasibly could miss two or so games.
With that being the case, Cleveland might as well give two-way bigs Tyler Cook and Dean Wade a bit of run in the season’s opening games to spell the likes of Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson and/or help Larry Nance Jr., though.
On the bright side in regards to the preseason, there were a number of bright spots from rookie guard Darius Garland, as he had 9.0 points on 62.5% effective field goal shooting, to go with 2.7 assists in 16.8 minutes per game in three of the four contests (per NBA.com).
He missed one game due to precaution being used so an ankle tweak didn’t have the possibility of becoming more of a nagging issue.
Speaking of Garland, the first reason to tune into Cleveland’s season debut against the Orlando Magic is his first NBA game.
Garland’s first game, and likely as a starter, too
Plus, “it’s probable” according to Beilein, and as was transcribed by Basketball Insiders’ Spencer Davies, that Garland will start, which would be a welcome sight for Cavs fans.
Matthew Dellavedova, who is dealing with a reported right thumb sprain, I’d hope isn’t starting, because given the Cavaliers being in a full-rebuild, and with Garland’s deep range, tight handle and impressive passing vision, he should start.
As I detailed before, even if healthier, Delly should come off the bench anyway, to allow Garland to work with starters a bunch, including young guard Collin Sexton, and Dellavedova should bring his passing and point-of-attack defensive boost to the second unit.
Against the Magic, Garland I’d expect to have plenty of success against the likes of veteran D.J. Augustin, which should lead to a good amount of opportunities for Garland to hit his stepbacks and mid-range looks.
Along with that, at times against Orlando wing Evan Fournier or big Nikola Vucevic on occasion in switchouts should enable Garland to draw more defensive attention, and potentially get some lobs up to Tristan Thompson or perhaps Nance, and realistically, I’d think with Garland’s passing vision, he should do a nice job at initiating ball-swings/get his share of hockey assists at least.
Defensively, Garland will have trouble getting through NBA screens, however. That’s to be expected, though, and it’s not as if he’ll be the only Cavalier likely struggling on the defensive end, considering Cleveland had the NBA’s worst defensive rating in 2018-19 (per NBA.com).
Now, on to the second reason to tune into the Cavs’ 2019-20 debut.