King James Gospel
Fansided

Cavs: 3 reasons Darius Garland should bounce back in year 2

By Dan Gilinsky

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland handles the ball. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland handles the ball. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
4 of 4
Next
Cleveland Cavaliers
Cleveland Cavaliers big Kevin Love and Cleveland guard Darius Garland talk in-game. (Photo by David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Reason #3: Garland should have more off-ball chances for the Cavs

Thirdly, I’d expect Garland to have more off-ball/catch-and-shoot chances in year 2.

He hit a healthy 39.2 percent of his catch-and-shoot three-point attempts in year 1, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data. And next season, we could very well see more catch-and-shoot looks from Garland after deliveries from players such as Collin Sexton, who displayed passing growth last season and even more so leading into the hiatus.

Love, Cedi Osman, Kevin Porter Jr. and Dylan Windler, who didn’t play last season due to injury but should seem to be fully ready to go next season, could help Garland in the off-ball realm.

Additionally, the Cavs could feasibly draft one of Isaac Okoro, Deni Avdija, Onyeka Okongwu or Obi Toppin next month, who could all help in generating quality off-ball looks and/or alleviate playmaking burden for Garland to some degree.

Moreover, while it’s uncertain just how much of a volume there might be, I could foresee Garland get more off-screen scoring opportunities next season with him realistically getting more comfortable off-ball in some respects.

We could very well see Garland in year 2 be more of a relocation threat next season, and a two-man game with Larry Nance Jr., Love and/or Avdija/Windler could definitively aid in getting Garland more off-ball. That can help get him more involved throughout games, and could help open up cutters to counter that, too, and possibly DG himself on occasion.

With a number of options, also with Windler and with Porter’s playmaking feel/vision, we could seemingly see more off-ball/catch-and-shoot chances for Garland, and for a young player, that could help his progression.

In terms of the defensive end, while I’d still expect Garland to have his share of struggles, him improving in getting through off-ball screens would aid Cleveland to some extent.

Next. Darius Garland's off-the-bounce shooting will determine his ceiling. dark

But in the overall sense, I firmly believe we’ll see Garland bounce back in year 2, especially as a scorer/shooter.