Cavs hope Darius Garland’s better playmaking feel from 2020 on continues

Darius Garland seemed to be more comfortable in 2020 for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

I get it, and I’ll be the first to say it. Cleveland Cavaliers fans would all likely agree that Darius Garland did not have the rookie season we would’ve hoped for in 2019-20.

Garland struggled to a large degree overall, and him having his issues on-ball defensively against opposing point guards was evident. Garland’s scoring was fairly underwhelming for a player of his skill level at 12.3 points per game, as was his shooting clip of just 40.1 percent.

On the plus side, Garland did pick it up in the 2020 portion of the schedule for the Cavs from a playmaking perspective. He had more than his season average of 3.9 assists per outing and an identical 2.6 turnovers per game.

I would also hope with him ready to roll and not second guessing as much in relation to his meniscus tear back at Vanderbilt that seemingly had an impact on him, per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, Garland should improve as a shooter. Garland had a foot injury in training camp that didn’t help him early on, either.

In the 2020 portion of Cleveland’s schedule before Garland missed what would be Cleveland’s last five games leading into the novel coronavirus-induced hiatus, and ultimately the end of 2019-20 for the Cavs, Garland had 5.1 assists to 2.6 turnovers per outing.

That’s obviously not eye-popping, but Garland was getting players such as Kevin Love, Collin Sexton, Kevin Porter Jr. and/or Larry Nance Jr. better looks and more in their preferred spots. More so in the 2019 part of the schedule, Garland was more unsure of himself, and he seemed to be second-guessing more, and his timing on lob passes over the top was off on a considerable number of occasions.

For the Cleveland Cavaliers next season, though, they’ll be hoping to see that 2020 playmaking feel from Garland.

From a passing standpoint, Garland was playing with more conviction it seemed in 2020 of his rookie campaign.

He was initiating more productive ball-swings earlier on in the shot clock, and though Garland will need to be more assertive in 2020-21 as a scorer/shooter, it was good to see him turning a corner as a passing decision-maker in the Cavs season’s last two or so months.

In January, DG averaged 5.3 assists per outing to 2.9 turnovers, in February had 4.8 assists to 2.2 turnovers per game and in his last 10 games overall had 4.9 assists to 1.8 turnovers per outing. Garland was demonstrating better timing for hitting shooters coming around off-ball screens, was getting in better entry passes to bigs and was initiating ball-reversals quicker.

So while Garland again needs to show more as a scorer next season, and ideally could hit a higher clip than 35.5 percent on triple attempts with his natural ability, Garland was efficient on floaters and if he can get more whistles, that will get his confidence going more in games.

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While I’m not going to read much into Garland’s pickup game clips, I do agree with Cleveland.com’s Cameron Fields, who highlighted a few weeks back how Garland has big-time capability as a playmaker for Cleveland if he can put it all together.

It’s clear that the Cleveland Cavaliers hope to see Garland demonstrate his better playmaking feel from the 2020 portion of the Cavs’ 2019-20 schedule, though. Albeit again we definitely need to see Garland show more as a scorer to unlock his full playmaking potential.

On the bright side, his effective field goal shooting percentage on pull-ups of 44.6 percent, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data, was frankly, pretty solid for a rookie that barely played in college.

In any case, while Cleveland reportedly views 2020 NBA Draft prospect LaMelo Ball of the NBL’s Illawarra Hawks as a player that’s in their top tier, and he has so much potential as a passer, as KJG’s Amadou Sow emphasized, there’s much more uncertainty about Ball as a shooter than Garland.

That’s in regards to if the Cavs have the chance to draft Ball, for context, and anyhow, if they do, I understand why.

If Garland gets of an opportunity to show he could be Cleveland’s primary playmaker of the future, still, though, perhaps he could improve his shooting efficiency and hopefully continue to build on his better 2020 playmaking from his rookie campaign.

On the other hand, if Garland has another rough start to next season, we could maybe see him demoted, with Kevin Porter Jr. inserted at the starting 2, his natural position, and Collin Sexton as the defacto 1. That’s if Ball is not drafted by the Cavs I’d think, for context.

We’ll have to see what plays out, but Garland is more than capable of having a resurgent second year and stepping up, I believe. Defensive wing help and/or a better driving presence than Cedi Osman via the draft from Auburn’s Isaac Okoro, for instance, could help Garland’s case also.