Cavs without natural PG behind Darius Garland, when he’s back, is no big deal

The Cleveland Cavaliers have missed Darius Garland and Collin Sexton, the former of whom still was out in Wednesday’s thrilling double overtime win over the Brooklyn Nets, for the past eight and five of the past six games, respectively. That’s been due to a right shoulder sprain for Garland and a left ankle sprain for Sexton.

The Cavs have been without the likes of Matthew Dellavedova thus far this season because of a concussion he suffered in preseason play, too, and Dellavedova has had a history of concussions suffered.

The timetable for the veteran reserve is not a set one at this time, and with Dante Exum having been traded to the Houston Rockets last week, behind Garland, the Cavs don’t currently have a natural point guard. Fortunately, Garland was a near-game-time decision on Wednesday, and one would assume he could potentially play Friday versus Brooklyn.

Even before Exum was dealt, though, he suffered a high grade right calf strain and it appears as if he could miss up to the rest of the season’s first half, so the Cavs have had to have guys fill in as de facto primary playmakers a bunch. That was Sexton for a bit as well.

On the plus side, Garland seems close, and should get more comfortable as he gets back into the swing of things, one would think.

Garland has seemingly looked like himself this season to this point, too. That’s as opposed to last season, when he was reportedly not feeling that way in relation to him still second-guessing because of a prior meniscus injury that cut his Vanderbilt/college career to only five games.

Garland has looked sharp, to a large degree, thus far, though, and has had 17.2 points, 6.3 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals per contest through his first six games active of his Year 2.

Albeit swinging back, with the uncertainty involving Dellavedova, I don’t see the lack of a natural point guard behind Garland, when he’s ultimately back, as being a key issue at the moment/coming stretch of games.

The lack of a natural 1 behind DG, when he’s back, is not a big deal for the Cavs.

While I’d expect Collin Sexton to fill the role, to an extent, in instances with Garland off the floor, when he’s back in there, Damyean Dotson has actually done a nice job as a de facto 1 for Cleveland. I know it’s resulted in some of the playmaking splits being inflated sans Garland, and Sexton a good bit, too, but Dotson having an assist rate of 16.7 percent so far is nothing to sneeze at.

Now, we want Dotson to improve upon him only hitting 28.3 percent of his three-point attempts, sure, albeit he’s helped pick up some of the playmaking slack sans DG. And in some instances with Garland off the floor, looking onward, I firmly believe Dotson can keep helping the Wine and Gold in the playmaking realm.

Along with Dame, I have to give Cedi Osman his playmaking love, too. Osman, although he’s been something of a rollercoaster ride when it comes to his shot, and hopefully he’ll be mostly in a bench role, has been often on-point as a passer.

Osman, while I know you need to factor in the injury bug, is still second to only Garland in assist rate this season for the Cavs at 19.5 percent.

And both him and Dotson have only had turnover rates of 8.1 and 8.7 percent, and they’ve done a really nice job generating open looks for others, along with Larry Nance Jr., too. Nance is tied for second in assists per game on Cleveland with Osman with 3.9.

Anyhow, factoring in guys like Dotson, Osman, Nance and that both Isaac Okoro and Dylan Windler can help in the playmaking realm, Cleveland is fine without a natural 1 behind DG, when he’s back. And Sexton going bonkers for a career-high 42 points on Wednesday, which was due to him going bonkers for 22 points in the two overtimes, proved he can get them on-ball buckets if need be, obviously.

Regarding Windler, that’s when he’s back in the fold, involving playmaking, though, which would seem to be soon, as he was a full practice participant on Monday. And he was sidelined on Wednesday due to a clerical issue involving the hardship exception after Cleveland waived Yogi Ferrell, via Spencer Davies of Basketball News.

To make it clear, however, the Cavs do definitely need Garland’s primary playmaking for significant stretches, as they’ve missed his shooting/pick-and-roll capabilities in that starting 1 role.

But in instances/spurts he’s on the bench, again projecting onward, I believe they can do just fine from a playmaking-by-committee approach if Darius is mostly good to go in games/active soon enough.

Granted, with Garland hopefully getting more comfortable, to go with Sexton, the Cavs, who were second-last in three-pointers made per game coming into Wednesday, can contribute to the Cavs getting things going more in that area, too.

To reiterate in that realm, though, Cleveland’s litony of injuries, also regarding Kevin Love, have played largely into that.