Olympic experience could have Cavs’ Darius Garland rolling into Year 3

The way things are shaping up, it seems as if, while it appeared unlikely before, that Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland could be getting some playing time in the Olympics with Team USA.

Garland was reportedly a standout for the USA Select Team in training/some scrimmaging against Team USA before their first exhibition, and he was one of three players called up to the Olympic squad for exhibition playing time.

The others were wings Keldon Johnson and Saddiq Bey, and Johnson, for one, is a player for San Antonio Spurs head coach Greg Popovich, who is the US head coach.

Now, unfortunately for the American squad, Bradley Beal was placed into COVID-19 health and safety protocols on Wednesday night, and Jerami Grant was placed into those on Thursday, per reports from Joe Vardon and Shams Charania of The Athletic (also of Stadium).

And while three members of the Select team have reportedly been in protocols in Immanuel Quickley, PJ Washington and Miles Bridges, just for context, and with Garland’s youth, the US will likely look elsewhere, Garland could be a meaningful fit.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski did report on Thursday how the US will look for potential replacements for Beal, though, whose status for the upcoming 2020 Olympics in Tokyo (branded that way with how they were originally set for then but were postponed) seemed doubtful even before.

To add to that, Beal was shortly thereafter ruled out of Olympic play, per USA Basketball. And due to health and safety protocols, the US team cancelled their exhibition game on Friday against Australia. Their exhibition game on Sunday against Spain remains, for now.

That said, in a general sense, looking onward, even with Garland’s youth and him not being a player near the caliber of Beal, or Devin Booker/Jrue Holiday, who are set to play with Team USA following the NBA Finals, he is a very good passer/primary initiator for others. As KJG’s Justin Brownlow alluded to, he could have a positive impact for Team USA too, and could enable Damian Lillard to shot hunt more in some spurts.

With that sort of possibility in mind, I would imagine that there could be a potential for Garland to be on the US squad’s roster for the 2020 Olympics, though of course I could be wrong; Duncan Robinson, for one, is reportedly an option to replace Beal. But with his passing abilities and him at least getting some PT in the US’ last exhibition in a win over Argentina, maybe Garland could get a legitimate call-up.

That’d be a heck of a way for him to go into his third season with Cleveland, too.

Olympic experience could have Garland rolling into Year 3 for the Cavs.

More from King James Gospel

• 3 possible starting lineups for Cleveland Cavaliers in 2023-24
• The Cavaliers may have snagged a hidden gem in Craig Porter Jr.
• 4 players the Cavaliers should pursue in 2024 free agency
• 6 players Cavaliers might replace Jarrett Allen with by the trade deadline
• This stat is one to keep an eye on for Cavaliers’ Max Strus in years ahead

To get it out there, if Garland were actually added to the Team USA roster for Tokyo, I wouldn’t expect him to be playing a bunch of minutes. At this juncture, with him only 21 and being just two years into his NBA career, that wouldn’t play out.

Nonetheless, as the aforementioned Brownlow highlighted, Garland again is a heady and gifted passer, and for spurts, I’d think something like 12-13 minutes per appearance if he were to get time in Olympic play, Garland could help open up opportunities for others.

Shooters such as Kevin Durant, Khris Middleton and Lillard and perhaps Bam Adebayo as a roller could benefit from Garland’s playmaking feel, which Cavs fans are very familiar with. In a bounce-back Year 2, he had 6.1 assists per outing in 2020-21.

Plus, as again Brownlow hit on, Garland, who had 17.4 points per contest last season and hit 39.5 percent of his three-point attempts, is a shooter with deep range. He could create some opportunities at times on-ball as well in a few spurts per outing as a counter to further aid the playmaking realm.

Anyway, point being, while we’ll have to see if the opportunity were to come, and we’ll keep an eye out for reports among replacements for Beal, it’s apparent that no matter how much time he’d get, Olympic experience for Garland could have him rolling into Year 3.

Being in that setting, and being able to play with and even in practices some with NBA stars/superstars would be huge for Garland, and already has been, realistically.

So from there, lastly, even with Booker and Holiday seemingly in-line to join Team USA, and I’d expect to, perhaps with how this NBA season’s been and them in a long NBA Finals series, one of them would opt out. Maybe that’d lead to Garland having more of a shot; we’ll again see in regards to the COVID-19/health and safety protocols element. Hopefully Team USA can end up going, though.

As a brief side note, it is rough to hear that Cavs big Kevin Love has reportedly withdrawn from Team USA, per Wojnarowski, as he is still trying to fully recover from a lingering calf injury that was the key reason he appeared in only 25 games last season. Love was not comfortable not being “at absolute peak performance,” which I get in this sense.

It has suggested/rumored that if Love could do seemingly a solid job for Team USA, that that would potentially help rebuild some trade value for him/make him maybe more movable. After this though, that’s not aiding that potential.

On the plus side, it doesn’t appear to be that outside the realm of possibility that Garland could get some PT in Tokyo. And that’d be invaluable for him heading into Year 3 still.