The extended offseason seems to be paying off for young Cleveland Cavaliers players.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have not been in game action since March 10, in what was a close loss to the Chicago Bulls. Then, the novel coronavirus-induced hiatus happened, and with the Cavs then not being a team invited to Orlando for the NBA restart, their 2019-20 campaign, at least game-wise, was over.
Along with that, recently in an interview with Citizen CNN, NBA commissioner Adam Silver noted how his “best guess” is seemingly kicking off next season in January.
That had to do with maybe a better potential for fans being at games, which would obviously help from a revenue standpoint. Albeit Silver did touch on how we’ll how to see it seemed for “rapid testing,” etc in relation to COVID-19.
So when looking at this from a Cavaliers perspective, you’d have to expect some rust early on next season, considering the squad again has not played in game action since March. And preseason action won’t be nearly the same thing as regular season contests, assuming there is that.
Leading up to that point, though, it’s paramount that the Cavs are able to keep their players engaged as best as they can, and furthering the development of young pieces such as Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, Kevin Porter Jr. and others will be so crucial.
Fortunately, the Cavs are beginning their own in-market downtown bubble for most notably, team workouts, with still some individual work, too, on Wednesday. There will be six sessions to play out in that regard, and these should be invaluable for Cleveland head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, to help from a development standpoint for especially young players, but also for team chemistry.
In the realm of youngsters, according to a report from Basketballnews.com’s Spencer Davies on Tuesday, a source told him that Sexton is “looking monstrous” and “huge” after working on his frame, and next season, that should only aid him as a scorer.
Along with that, Davies alluded to how Garland, who went home to Nashville for most of this essentially extended offseason it seemed, has “come back to Cleveland with a better physical frame.”
Davies also said how that source touched on Garland has been “throwing down alley-oops in 1-on-0 workouts, asserting the fact that he’s healthy and has his legs under him without any limitations.”
Garland last season was underwhelming overall as he shot only 40.1 percent, but we did see flashes, and as a playmaker, he had a better 5.1 assists per outing in his last 26 games as compared to the season overall at 3.9 assists per game. Defensively, he was a sieve throughout, though.
That said, he didn’t come into his rookie season in an ideal sense, with how he wasn’t able to work on his game and was rehabbing from a meniscus tear that cut his collegiate season before short at Vanderbilt to just five games.
For further context into how DG, who is currently listed at 6-foot-1 and 192 pounds, has looked, a report from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor also hit on Garland’s improved frame and how he’s focused on “transforming his body.” Here was more on that from a source of Fedor’s.
"“He looks different,” a source said. “Skill set and talent is all there. But physically, he looks different. He knew that would have to be a priority and he’s taken that really seriously. He’s more shifty. We saw a lot of craftiness this year. He had that West Coast swing when he was just balling and we beat Denver on the road and he had those up-and-unders and scoop shots. So, you saw that craftiness. But he’s way more shifty than he showed as a rookie. He looks like he’s moving a whole lot differently.”"
That’s really encouraging when it comes to Garland, and hopefully, we see that play out next season.
Fedor also touched on how Porter, in relation to what jumped out to me from his report, noted how Porter should featured via screens more to highlight his playmaking. From there, Fedor hit on how sources have said that KPJ “has focused on his 3-point shot — extending his range and becoming more consistent with mechanics after hitting just 33.5% from beyond the arc in 2019-20.”
Fedor also went into more detail about what a source said following that from Porter as a shooter.
"“He’s so talented there’s not much he can’t do. He just moves so different,” a source said. “His shot looks really fluid right now. His form is a little higher than it was. He is a flat out bucket-getter so don’t want to mess with him too much, but just elevating it and putting a little more air under it. That’s been really good for him.”"
So what’s the key takeaway from these reports from the Garland/KPJ perspective, then?
We’ll emphasize how both should improve for the Cleveland Cavaliers next season.
We’ll begin with Garland.
Garland should be more capable/aggressive on-ball as a scorer for the Cleveland Cavaliers
Based on these reports of a better frame, for Garland, he should be improved on-ball as a scorer. Garland again only shot 40.1 percent in 2019-20, but hopefully, he should be more aggressive with him looking, as Fedor’s source put it, “more shifty.”
While his overall percentage as a shooter wasn’t great, Garland hitting 39.2 percent of his three-point attempts, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data, was solid.
And for a rookie that was not himself, Darius Garland having an effective field goal shooting clip of 44.6 percent on pull-ups wasn’t bad, and him hitting 46.7 percent on driving floaters, per NBA.com’s shooting data, was impressive. So was a 46.6 percent hit rate on step backs.
With Garland for next season for the Cleveland Cavaliers, though, with him completely ready to roll and trusting himself health-wise, that should lead to less indecision as a scorer in the pick-and-roll, which he seemed to have.
And having that shiftiness more should help him hopefully create more separation off-the-bounce, which he wasn’t able to do nearly often enough as a rookie, probably to a large degree, because of his previous meniscus injury.
So with year 2 in mind for Garland, based on these reports, we should see him more aggressive as a scorer throughout games and I’d imagine be able to have more free throw attempts (he only had 1.2 per game in year 1).
In turn, more on-ball capability in the scoring sense will only aid Garland as a passer, which would bode well for Sexton, Kevin Love, seemingly Andre Drummond, assuming he’s back by way of picking up his $28.8 million player option for next season, and others.
So how about Porter, then?
Porter’s pull-up shooting should improve for the Cleveland Cavaliers
Porter, from my perspective in a bench key scoring/playmaking role, could very well be poised for a big leap forward in year 2, and should end up playing a starting minutes-share either way.
Porter is a player that I’d imagine, and Fedor’s report also suggested it to an extent, should be a lead playmaker in stretches, realistically sans Garland. His assist rate of 14.7 percent was a big positive from his rookie season, and Porter had a 17.1 percent assist rate in his last 12 games of 2019-20.
Porter’s ability to generate space off-the-bounce consistently jumped out in the scoring sense, even more so, though, and his finishing package with both hands makes him so difficult to account for as a driver.
But as Fedor alluded to, Kevin Porter Jr. only hit 33.5 percent of his three-point attempts as a rookie, albeit his catch-and-shoot triple clip was a robust 40.7 percent, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data.
For Porter for next season, however, with a bit higher release on his shots/reportedly better mechanics, that should help him improve his pull-up shooting. On a high frequency of 37.0 percent, Porter only had an effective field goal shooting clip of 34.0 percent, and he hit only 25.7 percent of his pull-up three-point looks.
With the extended offseason and with how Porter’s shot/mechanics are looking better and more fluid, though, I expect us to see KPJ improve as a pull-up shooter next season. He should seemingly be able to capitalize more frequently on the space he can generate off-the-bounce with his ability to change speeds so effortlessly.
I can’t say that with certainty, but with his driving capability, passing willingness and seemingly being aided by more spacing often with a player such as Dylan Windler (whose now healthy) with him out there, KPJ should be better in the pull-up game.
Overall, it’s great to hear that the extended offseason is paying off for the Cleveland Cavaliers youngsters.