Cavs: Darius Garland not being a Rising Star is just flat out wrong

This season, it’s been good to see Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland really look to be himself, as that was reportedly not the case last season. That was because of Garland then not fully trusting his knee in relation to his prior injury that cut his lone collegiate season at Vanderbilt to just five games.

I thought Garland showed positive signs in his close to his rookie year, and it was nice that in the playmaking realm, he was figuring things out in the 2020 portion of the schedule.

This season, again, though, we’ve seen Garland take considerable strides, and this is displaying more of why the Cavaliers selected him in the 2019 draft with him comfortable.

Garland’s had 16.1 points and 5.9 assists per game, and has shot 44.0 percent overall, and has hit 38.4 percent of his three-point attempts.

Anyhow, it’s been a pleasure to see Garland’s shiftiness game-to-game on-ball, which has been crucial for him in the scoring sense. But that’s also aided him as a playmaker for hitting lob feeds to Jarrett Allen, of whom he already has great chemistry with, and in making productive dishes to catch-and-shoot threats, too. His timing/vision has shown notable improvement.

Garland has shown plenty of promise in Year 2, and I’m pumped to see what he’ll be able to do for Cleveland in the second half of this season upcoming here.

Granted, even while perhaps extended rest heading into the All-Star break could’ve played into it, Garland did leave near midway through the third quarter of Cleveland’s last game in what was a disappointing loss to the Indiana Pacers due to a left groin strain and did not return.

We’ll have to see in regards to that/if he will miss time, which would appear somewhat realistic, as he did miss Cleveland’s last five games leading into the hiatus/end of 2019-20 for them last season. Albeit I wouldn’t imagine he’ll be out for a particularly extended period, and the All-Star break will help.

Anyway, it’s apparent that Garland has shown plenty of positive signs, and looks to have a very bright future in this league based on how he’s rebounded from last season in Year 2. That said, while it’s not necessarily a huge deal, it was still beyond unfortunate that Garland was not named as a player that was a Rising Star.

The NBA, given the COVID-19 concerns, won’t be actually play a Rising Stars Game this season, which has featured the Team U.S.A. vs. Team World format for a number of years now. In relation to the players named to those rosters for this season, though, you can view those below.

It’s still hard to fathom that with what Garland’s shown this season, that he wasn’t named a Rising Star.

With what DG’s shown for the Cavs in Year 2, that’s flat out wrong.

To get this out there: I acknowledge the US-World format is feasibly the reason for Garland not having been named a Rising Star. That’s how the format has been since 2015, and I get the premise, really, with the league catering to the international element/having that flavor to it.

Albeit there have still been a number of players more than deserving that were not named as Rising Stars. And in this case, while they look to be solid role players, guys like Theo Maledon, Mychal Mulder and though I’m a fan of his/believe he has a nice future, Precious Achiuwa, being named over Garland?

Again, the Team US vs. World format was the reasoning for guys such as Garland not having been given the distinction, and I get the promise/draft positioning for him, but Anthony Edwards, who has had an up-and-down rookie campaign, over DG?

One could argue that’s questionable even. And while he’s clearly deserving based on the production when he has played, and has had 17.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists per outing, and made an impact defensively as well, De’Andre Hunter has been active in 18 games.

Even though Garland did miss eight games early on this season because of a right shoulder sprain, he still has been active in 28 of Cleveland’s 36 games played thus far, by comparison.

And Garland still having made his presence felt on-ball as a scorer consistently has seemingly aided his case, and among rookie and sophomores, only Ja Morant and LaMelo Ball have averaged more assists per contest this season.

So again, though I get the format is the reasoning, quite frankly, for Garland having been snubbed, when dudes like Maledon, Mulder (who has played 10.6 minutes per outing on the year) and Achiuwa, get the recognition over a crucial player like Garland, it’s disappointing. And as stated with the reasoning above, Edwards and Hunter getting the nod over him, too, just is frustrating.

Heck, Collin Sexton was in the game repping the Cleveland Cavaliers, which was played, for context, last season, but was just as an alternate, even. Whereas Garland, who could down the road maybe end up becoming a star in the league, with his handle, touch, range and vision, was snubbed, even in Year 2.

I guess that’s added motivation for him the rest of the season, then?

The league should, honestly, simply change the format back to Rookies vs. Sophomores going forward, though.