Darius Garland looks poised to light it up for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
I know, I know, I know, and so do other Cleveland Cavaliers fans. The 2020-21 season is in its infancy; we’re four games in for the Wine and Gold.
With that major caveat laid out there, though, it is apparent that Darius Garland seems like a different player. Garland, even while we did still see flashes last season, did underwhelm, generally, in Year 1.
Albeit his prior meniscus injury at Vanderbilt that limited his collegiate career to only five games was reportedly still in the back of his mind, and that seemingly affected his play, per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor. After an extended offseason in which Garland was reportedly able to work on his game and tone up his frame, though, he appears to be fully back.
That’s helped him get off to a promising start to his second season, as Garland is a big reason why the Cavs are 3-1, and he’s had 7.8 assists per contest in his first four games. He’s opened up Year 2 posting 18.5 points per outing on 48.3 percent shooting, too.
But one area for Garland, in particular, has jumped out regarding this beginning of Year 2 for him, of which makes me optimistic about DG heading into the 2021 calendar year.
Garland’s pick-and-roll play for the Cavs gets two thumbs up heading into 2021.
Garland, as was touched on a bit after his first two outings, looks to be a different dude in the pick-and-roll. As a ball-handler, and more so in the scoring sense as compared to last season, he looks more in-control.
Garland has again had his shiftiness on display so far, which clearly wasn’t the case in 2019-20, in large part due to the prior injury in the back of his mind, as Fedor detailed. To begin his second season, by comparison, the 20-year-old has been more assertive as a scorer, and we’ve seen him go the basket with more decisiveness in the PnR. That’s led to two thumbs up from me.
That shiftiness has been something that’s paid off fairly regularly for him in that sense, and hesitation moves in his bag, to go with him showing the capability to hit drop off feeds to Andre Drummond and JaVale McGee have led to indecision from bigs.
That’s led to easier layups for Garland, and while the percentage isn’t the best in the restricted area for him, he’s hit 58.8 percent from there so far, per NBA.com’s shooting data.
The sample size is only four games, sure, but that’s a positive sign, as has been more willingness to take it there. For further comparion’s sake, he hit only 44.1 percent of his shots from the restricted area in Year 1, again, per NBA.com’s shooting data. And his quickness/handle in the PnR as a scorer has plenty to do with that improvement.
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In addition to the shiftiness/improved finishing, Garland, while his passing feel has seemingly improved as a PnR ball handler, as has been for Collin Sexton, Garland’s shooting in that area, has jumped out, too.
Garland has done a nice job punishing droppers in the mid-range area with pull-ups at times, but has occasional floating touch, in those scenarios, has looked good also.
Hopefully he takes that a step further in 2021, but let’s not discount Garland hitting lob feeds/nice drop feeds to bigs when the pull-ups/floaters aren’t there as a counter.
Now, Garland you’d still like to get some more free throw trips, perhaps in the PnR on occasion, albeit in a general sense, anyway. Garland has 1.5 free throw attempts per outing thus far, and a near-identical to 2019-20 free throw rate of 10.0 percent.
That said, Garland has looked so much more comfortable, as a scorer, in particular, and he’s shown more assertiveness to get near the rim in PnR and the finishing has been far better so far.
That should only continue to bode well for him and the Cavs settled offense, and Garland’s passing operating out of the PnR has, as has the overall sense, warranted a two thumbs up response from me at the start of 2020-21.
Lastly, I could see Garland, who has had a scorching start from three-point land at 45.5 percent, given his improved timing in hitting rollers/spray-outs to shooters, get more of these sort of jump-shot fouls in the PnR as the year progresses. He got Derrick Rose here.
https://twitter.com/FOXSportsCLE/status/1343027535349739521?s=20
That wasn’t much of a foul on Rose, honestly, but Garland knocked it down. Garland thus far has shown PnR scoring growth, and while him placing in the 50th percentile in those situations to start this season, per Synergy Sports, isn’t perhaps a huge endorsement, the approach/feel/quickness have been on display.
Garland only placed in the 33rd percentile as a PnR scorer last season, too, per Synergy; the kid is growing in that area before our eyes.
Moreover, I hope to see this kind of assertiveness from Garland in the PnR moving forward into 2021, as that will go a long way for him personally, and open up more opportunities for his teammates.