Cavs: Darius Garland has generated more FTs lately, which has paid off

Darius Garland has continued to make noticeable strides this season for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and it’s clear that as opposed to his rookie year, his prior knee injury at Vanderbilt hasn’t been affecting his mindset.

That was reportedly the case last season, and it showed. Garland wasn’t creating space/showing the shiftiness he’s displayed so often this season for Cleveland in Year 1, and that largely played into it.

This season, though, he again has, and that’s led to marketed improvement for the young lead guard. He’s had 16.6 points and 5.7 assists per outing, and Garland has hit 39.9 percent of his three-point attempts.

In Garland’s last 11 games active, he’s had 17.8 points and 5.3 assists per outing as well. Granted, he has had 3.2 turnovers per game in that stretch, and 3.0 per outing overall this season. Albeit with how consistently Garland makes key plays for himself and for other Cavs players, such as Collin Sexton, Larry Nance Jr. and Jarrett Allen, for instance, that’s not a big deal.

One thing, in particular, from the youngster that I’ve been pleased with more so lately has been how he’s been able to get to the free throw line, though.

Throughout games, that matters for guards, and while Garland still does need to put on some more muscle/add a bit of weight over the next offseason I believe, it’s been a plus to see him be more assertive in getting more free throws recently.

Generating more free throws lately has paid off for Garland for the Cavs.

Of course, Garland has been knocking down triples and gotten to his spots as a shooter, so that’s helped him make a significant game-to-game impact for the Cavaliers. The playmaking he’s provided is, more often than not, going to lead to him doing his part, too, and that’s generally been there.

I’m not discounting either of those things here, to clear the air there.

But to me, recently, it’s been refreshing to see Garland fully utilize his bag with his handle, ability to freeze bigs with his lob-throwing expertise, and his quickness all in aiding him to get to the free throw line more.

He’s not been nearly as deterred by contact, either, which has nice to see. This isn’t realistically what was displayed in Cleveland’s blowout loss at the Utah Jazz on Monday, one where they were extremely shorthanded, but it has for Garland for a good stretch, anyhow.

Now, Garland did have a left groin strain pre-All-Star break and did miss Cleveland’s first game of the second half at the New Orleans Pelicans, for context, but he’s, by and large, been plenty fine it seems. And he has appeared at essentially full strength for a solid chunk, just to get that out there.

Anyway, for Garland, the way he’s been able to seemingly absorb contact/have more willingness to take free throw chances/put stress on officials to make calls in the paint by his craftiness lately has been paying dividends.

On the year, Garland has had 2.4 free throw attempts per outing, which has been fairly encouraging, but in March, especially, he’s had 3.6 attempts per contest in 12 games played from the charity stripe. From there, he’s knocked in 83.7 percent of those (an average of 3.0 made).

And that’s another positive sign to me from how he’s been playing recently, where he’s shown more and more good things game-to-game, typically, as KJG’s Dylan Conatser seemingly demonstrated.

Moreover, with Garland getting more free throws lately, to me, that sort of thing has only aided him in getting more in-rhythm as a perimeter shooter as games progress, which is a plus. That seems to play out some for Sexton, for example.

Hopefully this sort of development from Garland, at least in terms of the willingness for him on-ball to generate a healthy amount of free throws, can be something of a blueprint for him for his approach going forward. That’s in relation to scoring balance/keeping defenders off balance, if you will.