Cavs: 2 ways an improved frame can pay dividends for Darius Garland

#2: For the Cavs, Garland should be more effective in transition

The second way Garland’s improved body/frame should pay dividends for him, or feasibly, the second-most impactful way should be the transition game.

Garland, again, wasn’t himself and/or didn’t seem to fully trust his knee, and though we saw flashes of it off-the-bounce, he didn’t seem to necessarily have that extra gear. In the open floor, he didn’t appear to just step on the gas much, if you will, or at least have the quickness needed to really do damage in secondary transition if he was able to get a favorable cross-match.

But an improved body/frame could enable Garland to be more productive in the open floor, to go with that shiftiness, and as he gets more comfortable, potentially be more willing to attack the basket in transition/secondary transition.

That’d be with him showing more confidence in trusting his body to get shots up/absorb contact from opposing guard defenders more so than he was able to in his first season in the open floor. He won’t be in the same athletic realm of Sexton or Kevin Porter Jr. in that way, but the frame development can only help DG in that sense.

Garland in transition scoring only placed in the 15th percentile in 2019-20, per Synergy Sports. The frequency wasn’t necessarily a ton at 11.7 percent, but if Garland has more quickness back, we could very well see him look to push more, too.

And hopefully, him getting stronger this past offseason will enable him to seek out contact more in the open floor and drive it more when that’s applicable if opposing guards on their heels in primary coverage. Last season, I thought in the transition game, Garland was too passive, and seemingly settled for jump shots at times that weren’t the easiest looks, or was frankly, too unselfish.

Again the prior injury probably played into it some, though. Albeit that seems to be fully behind him.

With him having been able to improve his body/sure up his frame, that should only help him on-ball as a scorer in settled offense, and as illustrated, take advantage as a driving threat more in the open floor.