Team workouts in Cavs in-market bubble should be especially productive for Darius Garland

The Cleveland Cavaliers are set to begin in-market bubble workouts next week, which should help out their youngsters.

It’s nice to know for the Cleveland Cavaliers that they’re set to begin in-market bubble workouts this coming Monday, given that the squad’s 2019-20, in terms of game action, has been over for a while.

The Cavs’ last game of this now-past season, with them not being an Orlando team, was a close loss to the Chicago Bulls before the NBA season’s novel coronavirus-induced hiatus, and what was ultimately the end of the campaign for Cleveland.

For the Wine and Gold, though, again, while it is not nearly the same thing as scrimmaging other teams, for instance, the NBA and NBPA before agreeing on non-Orlando teams being able to conduct in-market bubble workouts/minicamps was a W, somewhat. That’s for young players, more so, given that the workouts are voluntary.

From a player development standpoint, these in-market bubble workouts should really aid young players such as Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, Kevin Porter Jr. and Dylan Windler. Windler, who did not play at all during this now-past season due to complications involving a stress reaction in his left leg, recently got the “green light” to participate in these, per a report from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor.

While I’m not going to discount those others, for example, I personally see the team workout portion of this Cavaliers in-market bubble minicamp as being especially important for the first player mentioned.

The Cleveland Cavaliers upcoming team workouts in their in-market bubble should be very productive for Garland, in particular.

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For Garland, who had his ups and downs in his rookie campaign and shot an underwhelming 40.1 percent, but was hitting his stride more before missing the Cavs’ last five games leading into the hiatus due to a groin strain, team workouts should be plenty meaningful.

The opening portion of these in-market bubble workouts will be individual work, albeit for a young playmaker in Garland, it’ll be impactful being able to get some burn alongside/feasibly against Collin Sexton.

Granted, the Cleveland Cavaliers and other non-Orlando squads will only be able to get an hour of 5-on-5 burn in the team workout portion, but to me, that should be especially productive for Garland.

Garland, who had a solid 5.1 assists per game in his last 26 appearances for the Cavaliers, should benefit from at least getting some on-floor run with pieces such as seemingly KPJ, Kevin Love, who will reportedly be in attendance, and I’d think Windler, among others.

Some pick-and-roll work with Andre Drummond won’t be the case for DG, given that Drummond won’t be participating due to a family matter, per Fedor, but gaining on-floor chemistry with Love should be meaningful for Garland. The same should go for Windler and those others as well, to hammer that home.

For a young point guard in Darius Garland, these on-floor reps with his teammates are invaluable. Also, given that the Cavs haven’t been able to do things like team scrimmaging for so long now due to COVID-19, that’s even more so the case.

So while the Cavaliers could theoretically look to select a guard in the upcoming draft, I’d still imagine there’s a very good chance Garland is a crucial playmaker for them moving forward and if they can add a quality wing in the draft, that could aid Garland, too. Auburn’s Isaac Okoro comes to mind, in the defensive and secondary playmaking realm, in that regard.

In any case, for his development, it’s evident that in the playmaking and pick-and-roll scoring sense, which is an area where Garland needs to show more next season, these Cavs in-market bubble workouts from a perspective should be especially productive.

I’m not discounting how these voluntary workouts would look to aid other pieces, but DG needs to make great use of these.

Hopefully, the youngster looks sharp in individual work and when the 5-on-5 run presents itself, most notably, in that as well.