Three Christmas wishes for the Cleveland Cavaliers

#2: Darius Garland has a bounce-back season

The second wish that the Cleveland Cavaliers wish Santa Claus to deliver to them is to have Darius Garland bounce back this season. Garland’s rookie year was rather disappointing after the Cavaliers selected him with the fifth overall pick.

He was very inconsistent throughout the season and his year really did not have many high points. However, if there are two things that he still has, it is potential and youth. There is a reason that Garland was selected so high in the draft and that the Cavaliers selected another point guard after drafting Collin Sexton just the year before.

There are quite a few areas that Garland needs to improve on before he lives up to his expectations of a fifth overall pick.

The first being consistency in his shooting. It is obvious that Garland has the ability to shoot from three-point range, he just needs to improve on the quality of shots that he takes and not being as streaky of a shooter.

Another area is his inside finishing. This is something that is going to be difficult with the build that Garland has, even with him having gotten more toned up over an extended offseason, of which Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor detailed in a report (subscription required).

Garland is more of a finesse finisher that doesn’t seem to be a huge fan of contact. As a result of this, when there is a center waiting for him in the paint, more times than not the possession is not going to result in a Cavaliers’ bucket.

The next area that the Cavaliers are hoping Garland will improve on is his passing and playmaking. The Cavs were near the bottom of the league last year in assists. No one on the team is capable of carrying the team to success by playing iso ball like James Harden. So it is essential that with Garland potentially being one of the teams’ point guards of the future he begins focusing more on creating for others.

The final area in which the Cavs are wishing for Garland to improve this season is his defense. He was a defensive liability last season, to say the least. That said, it typically takes all rookies a couple of years to learn how to guard the grown men that make up the NBA, especially rookie point guards.

Ideally, Garland will make a big jump on the defensive end this season.