Darius Garland‘s second-year improvements helped to accelerate the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ rebuild. The 6-foot-1 guard has made massive strides in all areas of his game and a player who once looked like a questionable pick has turned into a strong building block for the Cavaliers’ future.
The criticism towards Garland was never fair however as he wasn’t able to have a full offseason going into his rookie season due to injury. The point can also be made that Garland was a rookie learning what can be argued as the hardest position in basketball while also being thrown to the wolves.
Garland looked lost and it was obvious that he couldn’t do the things that he wanted to do on the basketball court.
Garland’s offseason heading into his sophomore season was filled with promising clips from offseason workouts and pickup games and finally being healthy, it was up to him to show why he was worth a top five pick. Garland did not disappoint as he averaged 18.2 points and 6.3 assists per game as a starter, shooting 45.8 percent from the field and 40.6 percent from three-point range.
Showcasing his starter statistics shows just how much improvement he made in his game as there were a couple of instances of him coming off the bench following injury which brings down said stats.
Most importantly, Garland looked comfortable on the floor, showing the ability to both score and facilitate. With Garland’s second-year jump came the argument of whether or not it’s better to build around him or Collin Sexton but that is a discussion for another day.
With his continued improvements for the Cavs, it’s likely that Garland will take another jump next season and here, we will look at two goals for this third season.
We’ll get that started with the first goal being predicated on his deep shooting outlook.