Cavs: Some PT again at Nets would be meaningful for Darius Garland

Darius Garland has had a heck of a bounce-back season for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and has had 17.4 points and 6.1 assists per outing. Prior to a left ankle sprain leading to him having missed seven games, Garland had been in a particularly nice groove, too.

While some injuries to others played into a bit, he did have 21.2 points and 7.4 assists per outing in his last 10 games prior to those absences as well. On the year, Garland’s deep shooting has often been on display, too, which has been good to see; he’s hit 39.5 percent from three-point land on the season.

Now, it was tough to have seen Garland sustain that ankle injury, considering how well he had been playing, but the Cavaliers took the right approach in ensuring Garland is seemingly brought along gradually.

It has also enabled the likes of two-way guys in Jeremiah Martin and Brodric Thomas to have some more playing time/opportunities, which given how Cleveland had been struggling anyway, was meaningful.

That said, while it’s clearly not a game that fans will exactly be circling, nor was Friday’s loss to the Washington Wizards, Garland should again get some playing time on Sunday at the Brooklyn Nets. That’d be a plus for him.

We should see DG get some PT again for the Cavs at the Nets.

Garland didn’t play a ton at Washington, but he provide some energy and make some good plays as he so often does. He had 12 minutes of PT off the bench at the Wizards, and although he didn’t light up the traditional box score, he did hit a three, and dished out two assists.

It was mostly just a plus to see him out there, even with it then being 12 minutes. And I’d imagine that Cleveland could have Garland get in there again, perhaps in 15-16 minutes or so, in Sunday’s season finale at the Nets.

Regardless of who is in there, whether or not Kevin Love is playing, for example (right calf strain injury management sidelined him Friday), some PT for DG would be meaningful for him to have something to build on heading into the offseason.

Getting some pick-and-roll work with Jarrett Allen, for instance, would be productive for him, and we could very well see some pick-and-pop sequences with him and Dean Wade, a stretch big we should be bullish on looking at next season.

In addition to the playmaking, some run at Brooklyn should be a positive from him in the scoring sense, and again him to regain some rhythm heading into the offseason. That’s whether or not the Nets do end up resting some key guys. But their superstar trio of Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving could be set to be in action, while Joe Harris (gluteal strain) is sidelined.

In any case, for Garland, it would again be meaningful for him to get out there in some minutes in feasibly two or three spurts for the Cavs, as that could allow him to regain momentum, to an extent, heading into the offseason.

Getting him more PT alongside Collin Sexton, and again Allen, would be a plus, to go with that in the individual scoring and playmaking sense too.

It’s tough to foresee exactly what will play out in this season finale for the Cavaliers, but Garland getting some PT in there would seemingly project as a key storyline to watch in this end of 2020-21 season tilt at the Barclays Center.

If that doesn’t end up playing out for Garland, though, it’s not a huge deal; albeit I would think he very well could.