Cavs: Darius Garland could have explosion in season’s second half

We’re seeing why the Cleveland Cavaliers are so high on Darius Garland, and the 19-year-old is showing that he could be in line for an explosion in the second half of his rookie campaign.

Fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers seemed to be well-aware that rookie guard Darius Garland was probably going to take a while to get it going. Garland only appeared in five games in his collegiate career at Vanderbilt due to a reported meniscus tear, and seemingly for precaution, the Cavs did not play Garland at all in Summer League.

Now Garland did have a rough start to his rookie year, too, and the rust showed.

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He was seemingly unsure of himself, and he was passing up off-the-catch three-point looks, a key strength of his coming into the league, far too often, and that resulted in him taking far too many tough two’s over length too deep in the paint.

Plus, he seemed to be pressing in terms of throwing passes into logjams far too often, but on the bright side, some of his dishes were simply great looks that were wasted by misses on clear shots.

Anyhow, Garland is still going to make rookie mistakes, and his assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.36, as noted by NBA.com, isn’t outstanding.

That being said, he’s showing more and more signs that he could be the primary playmaker of the future for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

To recap for a quick second here, let’s take a look at Garland’s scoring and playmaking splits in November and December, courtesy of NBA.com.

November (15 games):

• 11.3 points per game on 46.3% effective field goal shooting
• 3.0:2.5 assist-to-turnover ratio

December (14 games):

• 11.8 points per game on 51.3% effective field goal shooting
• 2.7:2.4 assist-to-turnover ratio

Okay, so those splits again, show that Garland has had his share of growing pains, and he’s had trouble as a finisher near the rim as a driver, but as a rookie at 6-foot-1, that was to be expected.

On a positive note, though, he’s shooting 36.5% from three-point range on a frequency of 45.3%, according to NBA.com’s shot tracking data, and he’s beginning to show why he could really pick it up in the second half of 2019-20.

Garland was big down the stretch in Cleveland’s comeback win over the Detroit Pistons on Thursday and finished with 20 points on eight-of-14 shooting, to go with seven assists and only three turnovers, as noted by ESPN. Tristan Thompson was phenomenal with a career-high 35 points, according to Basketball Reference, to go with having 14 rebounds, three assists and three blocks, of course, but again, Garland finished strong in that one, which was awesome to see.

In Cleveland’s shocking road victory over a legitimate title contender in the Denver Nuggets, however, Garland really stole the show.

DG had 18 points on eight-of-16 shooting, to go with eight assists to only two turnovers, along with two steals, as indicated by ESPN. Those eight assists tied a season/career-high for Garland, according to Basketball Reference, and his chemistry growing with players such as Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman and Tristan Thompson has allowed the rookie to showcase his full passing tool box more.

These Garland lobs to TT never get old, for instance.

https://twitter.com/FOXSportsCLE/status/1216196026463326210?s=20

https://twitter.com/cavs/status/1216206185444982785?s=20

Wraparound feeds to Kevin Love or Sexton, beautiful pocket passes to Thompson and Ante Zizic, the lobs and innate timing in finding cutters, such as Alfonzo McKinnie and Osman, and Kevin Porter Jr., though he’s reportedly out until feasibly through the All-Star break due to a left knee sprain, has been demonstrated from Garland throughout the year, and recently, in particular.

Zizic, who I believe should have an expanded role after the February 6 trade deadline, got an easy bucket after Garland looked off Denver shutting off a wraparound feed here, resulting in a gimme.

https://twitter.com/cavs/status/1216190091732742148?s=20

Additionally, though it still will be tough for Garland to finish right near the rim at just 6-foot-1, DG is getting it more comfortable getting space for his pull-up triples and is getting better on his floaters. He buried several of the latter to put Denver, who came back from 17 down at one point to be right back within one possession, away, as Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor highlighted.

Here was some of that on display on Saturday.

Sexton, who had 25 points on nine-of-18 shooting, which included four-of-seven from three-point land, was big as well, and Thompson praised both postgame.

Moreover, I know it’s just a six-game sample, but Garland is averaging 16.7 points on 53.2% effective field goal shooting, to go with 5.8 assists to 2.2 turnovers per contest in January, as documented by NBA.com.

Along with his recent uptick, Fedor previously hit on how a source estimated essentially that the real Garland, factoring in his injury from college, will be his true self in terms of ability around the All-Star break for the Cavs.

It’s beginning to look like DG is getting to that point 39 games into the year, but either way, the second half of the season explosion for him seems very possible, and I’d say from a playmaking standpoint more so, too, than Sexton’s from a scoring perspective post-All-Star break in his rookie year.

That’s even considering that I could see Dante Exum, when he’s recovered from illness, having a bigger role with Porter sidelined, and seemingly after that, anyhow, given how he should be a solid reserve playmaking presence.

Regardless of Kevin Love, given recent reports/on-court frustration, feasibly being traded near the deadline, or others, Garland seems to be growing more and more confident, and Thompson, who could realistically be a player the Cavs want to keep around long-term as their leader, seems to recognize that.

Anyway, I’m all the way with Hoops Habit’s Tony Pesta on the Garland “hype train.”

CHOO-CHOO!