Cavs: Collin Sexton and Darius Garland’s floater games are underrated

Cleveland Cavaliers guards Collin Sexton and Darius Garland’s floater games are underrated.

Collin Sexton fully established himself as the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ most dangerous scorer in his second season. He truly put it all together in Year 2 in that way, and Sexton led the Wine and Gold with 20.8 points per game in the 2019-20, which has concluded for the Cavs.

They were not invited to the season’s resumption in Orlando later this summer, with the squad having the league’s second-worst record going into the novel coronavirus-induced hiatus at 19-46.

Regardless, it’s evident that Sexton should be the Cavs’ primary option next season, now, and that could help preserve Kevin Love, too, with him shifting to a second option role.

Sexton again showed he is fully capable of being a quality catch-and-shoot three-point threat and should be a floor spacing presence going forward. He hit 38.0 percent of his three-point attempts in 2019-20. Along with that, he hit 42.1 percent of his catch-and-shoot three-point attempts, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data.

Sexton further proving himself as a perimeter shooter also helped his pull-up progression, as did him showing considerable improvement in being able to change speeds off-the-bounce, which was very encouraging.

Sexton loves his pull-ups in the mid-range, and he’s highly capable of hitting those to always give Cleveland a viable threat in settled offense with Sexton’s speed. Additionally, though, Sexton has an underrated floater game, and Darius Garland, in relation more to driving floaters, does as well.

Sexton and Garland’s, in relation to driving ones, floater games are sneaky good for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Sexton is a very solid finisher on a fairly high volume via floaters. According to NBA.com’s shooting data, Sexton hit 28 of his 56 floaters on the season in 2019-20, a 50.0 percent hit rate.

While the hit rate was not nearly the same on driving floaters at 43.5 percent, on a volume of 138 attempts, that’s still a respectable percentage on those shots, especially considering how Sexton is a constant threat as a driver to the basket and with his perimeter shooting growth.

Sexton has good touch and his timing in his release of floaters before often bigs or helpers come out too much often leads to him getting shots off with plenty of space. Garland’s floater game is not something we’ve seen nearly to the same extent as Sexton and early on, it wasn’t something he seemed too comfortable with, but it was a positive for him, ultimately.

Garland does not have nearly the speed Sexton has, no, but him coming off only a five-game stint at Vanderbilt due to a meniscus tear may have played into that a bit.

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As his rookie year progressed, though, he did show plenty of flashes of pull-up shooting ability, and his timing in his release of floaters/touch improved.

He is not nearly the threat of Sexton in that realm on standard floaters, however; on floaters, Garland had a 40.0 percent hit rate, hitting 10 of 25 attempts, again, per NBA.com’s shooting data.

That being said, on driving floaters, where volume is going to be higher, Garland did hit 46.7 percent of his 92 attempts, which was a respectable number. He hit 15 of 26 on driving bank shots, too, which was a 57.7 percent hit rate.

While we did again see flashes of it, Garland I believe was more so not aggressive enough in taking pull-up shots, but honestly, his effective field goal shooting clip of 44.6 percent on pull-ups as a rookie, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data, was not bad.

That’s also more so the case with him having a really high frequency of 45.1 percent, but if Garland can improve in that area/generate more space off-the-bounce, it will make his floater game more of a threat in settled offense.

If that were the case for DG, it’d also open up/make him more efficient in hitting lobs to bigs such as Andre Drummond, who is reportedly likely to pickup his $28.8 million player for next season. The same would go for Larry Nance Jr. and/or a promising cutter in Kevin Porter Jr.

Moreover, while we know Sexton loves his pull-ups, the threat he poses as a floating option shouldn’t be discounted, either, and makes him even more of a three-level scorer.

Also, while he does need to show more willingness to pull it in the pick-and-roll game, Garland’s floater game, in the driving sense, is underrated.

If he can prove to generate more space on pull-ups with him gaining more quickness, it will only help him on floaters. If defenders start to cheat to that, Garland find cutters/shooters, such as Sexton and Kevin Love, after rotators come.