Darius Garland must show more as PnR scorer for Cavs next season

It’s not breaking news, but Darius Garland didn’t show enough last season for the Cleveland Cavaliers in terms of pick-and-roll scoring.

In year 1 for the Cleveland Cavaliers, young guard Darius Garland did not have the season he, the organization or the fan base wanted. Garland shot only 40.1 percent from the field and had a fairly underwhelming 12.3 points per game.

Granted, Garland was reportedly still seemingly affected by his meniscus injury back in his very short stint at Vanderbilt, and that led to second guessing plenty of the time it seemed early on for him. Garland mightily struggled on the defensive end, too, and there’s no disputing that, but he did note that back in June, he is fully healthy, and hopefully, next season, that can aid him and the Cavs.

Cleveland adding a quality defensive piece such as Auburn’s Isaac Okoro in the 2020 NBA Draft could aid Garland some from a team defensive/help aspect for the Cavs, also. As could playing some more with Kevin Porter Jr., as opposed to Collin Sexton more, for instance.

A recent report from Sports Illustrated‘s Sam Amico demonstrated how an opposing NBA executive did say he “strongly” believes the Cavs will end up trading their #5 pick, though. Garland could theoretically be a piece involved in a possible trade, too, perhaps.

But it is still so early before the draft, which for now is set for mid-October and could reportedly be pushed back, and it’s tough to read much into that report at least for now from Amico. That’s even more so with how the 2021 NBA Draft will be so star-studded and the Cavs could keep building leading into that.

Anyhow, in relation to the offensive end from his rookie year, it was at least encouraging for Garland that in the last two or so months of the novel coronavirus-shortened season (from the Cavs’ perspective), that he did show better playmaking feel. The vision seemed to be there for Garland, but he forcing passes too often a bunch before that point.

In Garland’s last 26 games active, he had a better 5.1-to-2.6 assist-to-turnover ratio, as opposed to his overall season splits in that regard at 3.9-to-2.6. Garland was making quicker decisions, and that aided pieces such as Kevin Love, and from an offensive standpoint, Sexton, who led the Cavs in 2019-20 in scoring with 20.8 points per game.

The scoring sense, especially off-the-bounce, though, was not a strong suit for Garland in his rookie campaign. Perhaps the prior meniscus tear he had did play into that, but it definitely seemed as if Garland was too hesitant to let shots go for a significant chunk of his first season. Although, he did get more comfortable in the latter portion leading into the hiatus and then season ending for Cleveland.

Nonetheless, when looking at next season for Garland, he needs to be productive in one particular area.

Garland needs to show more as a pick-and-roll scorer for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

During his rookie campaign, Garland was not able to create space consistently.

Perhaps the prior injury played into that, and he had a foot injury early on dating back to training camp that could’ve very well affected him early in the season, as Cleveland.com’s Cameron Fields essentially touched on. But for the most part, Garland was not nearly aggressive enough in the pick-and-roll scoring sense.

Again, maybe the prior injury had some to do with that, however, it seemed to be more so a confidence/lack of conviction issue. He grew more comfortable in the 2020 portion of the schedule on it appeared, though, and showed more flashes on-ball and off-the-bounce.

In any case, it’s clear as day that in his second season, Garland needs to show more as a pick-and-roll scorer when the opportunities arise for the Cavaliers. In 2019-20, on a frequency of 41.6 percent and 6.2 possessions per game, Garland placed in just the 33rd percentile in PnR scoring situations, per Synergy Sports.

Hopefully, this next season for Garland, we’ll see him take advantage more often when bigs are switched out on to him, which we didn’t see nearly enough of in year 1.

Garland did show more willingness in snaking pick-and-rolls to get to sweet spots as the season progressed leading to quality floater attempts or him hitting floaters when bigs dropped, but as a perimeter shooter, we need to see him more aggressive and let it fly.

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Garland has the ability to be a better shooter on pull-ups from three-point range than the 31.7 percent he was last season, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data.

The kid has a tight handle, and next season with him fully ready to roll, hopefully he’ll be able to generate more space off-the-bounce to get better looks in that regard to pair with his off-the-catch perimeter shooting.

He hit a healthy 39.2 percent of his catch-and-shoot triple attempts in 2019-20, and on another positive note, did at least shoot 46.6 percent on step backs, per NBA.com’s shooting data.

Early on next season, though, in a more general sense, it’ll clearly be up to Garland to prove it more in the PnR, because he’s going to get the opportunities.

I wouldn’t necessarily expect the PnR scoring frequency to be over 40.0 percent again for him, but it still will likely be a healthy clip, and he’ll need to take advantage of his ability to change speeds more, which would ideally help him improve as a finisher, which he needs to show in year 2.

Anyway, to reiterate, if Darius Garland doesn’t show more as a PnR scorer in year 2 and has near a 19.2 percent turnover frequency in those instances again, that could be a factor into him being moved to a bench role I would imagine fairly early on.

Now next year, though, I would like to see Garland used more via relocation, because off screen/off movement shooting is something he’s capable of doing well, and perhaps in work with Love and Larry Nance Jr., that could help him get good looks.

At any rate, a key area for Garland to improve upon for next season is pick-and-roll scoring and/or off-the-bounce scoring, because for him that would open up more playmaking opportunities for as he were to develop further and draw more attention.

If he doesn’t show more as a PnR scorer, which is such an important skill for lead guards, on the other hand, it won’t help his case for starting minutes.