Cavs: Darius Garland can shot hunt more with Ricky Rubio in fold

I’m not going to be too critical of Darius Garland with how he bounced back in a big way last season for the Cleveland Cavaliers. After a fairly underwhelming rookie year, Garland appeared to be a completely different player, and had 17.4 points and 6.1 assists per outing.

Garland’s play last season was frankly, a relief for the Cavaliers, and he looks to be a part of their foundation looking onward.

Even so, it was meaningful that Cleveland acquired Ricky Rubio via trade from the Minnesota Timberwolves a few hours before the 2021 NBA Draft. Rubio, in this sense, looks to be a quality veteran that should be a stabilizer as a playmaker off the bench to help Garland out, and we could see them play together in spurts at times.

With Rubio in the fold next season for the Cavs though, I do think it could free up Garland to shot hunt some more in games, too, which would pay off in times he has things rolling.

Rubio’s presence should enable Garland to shot hunt more for the Cavs.

I’m not saying that Garland didn’t get his share of opportunities, but at times, I thought Garland should’ve been more aggressive for creation his own offense.

Garland knocked down 39.5 percent of his 4.9 three-point attempts per contest in Year 2, which was encouraging for his growth. The Cavs do feasibly need him, and Collin Sexton for what it’s worth to be shooting more triples from here, however.

Rubio, whose an outstanding passer, at times with Garland could allow him to get some more off-movement/off-catch shooting looks, to that point. Garland knocked down 43.2 percent of his catch-and-shoot three-point attempts last season, too, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data.

In a more general sense though, with Rubio providing the Cavs with a quality vet backup point guard option that’s a pass-first player and should help get others involved, I could foresee that leading to Garland being able to shot hunt more.

In non-Rubio minutes even, I’d like to see Garland be more assertive at times when he has things going as a shooter, from three-point range in particular, with the big-time ball handler and shooter he is.

Before he ended up missing most of the closing batch of games in May, we were seeing Garland seemingly take it up a notch, as he had his best month as a pro in April with 20.5 points per game. Then, he knocked in 38.5 percent from deep on 6.4 attempts, which was good to see, and that number of deep attempts are around what seems realistic for him from here, and hopefully we see that play out next season.

So, with Rubio in the fold for the Cavaliers, while I’m not discounting the playmaking from Garland in his own right, where we’ll see continued growth, with a well-established vet backup 1 easing his playmaking burden, DG can shot hunt more.

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That’d pay off for the Cavs with Garland being one of their clear best shooters, and with a bit more urging of that from the Cavaliers coaching staff, it could lead to more threes for Garland in pick-and-roll situations and/or free throws.

The Cavaliers are reportedly looking for Garland and Sexton to be shooting eight three-pointers per outing from here, for context. Albeit whether that actually plays out is a different question, but the Cavs having Garland asserting himself more from three, along with Sexton, is paramount.

Of course, it’d be meaningful for Cleveland to add a shooter such as Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, Garrison Mathews or perhaps for some spurts Langston Galloway to aid their three-point shooting efforts.

But to drive it home, while it’s uncertain if the expiring Rubio could potentially be a factor for Cleveland past next season, his playmaking abilities (9.1 assists per-36 minutes lifetime) could allow Garland to look to score more.

At times last season I thought Darius could’ve been more aggressive as a scorer, and perhaps with Rubio behind him providing a steady playmaker for stretches, that could give the youngster a bit of a green light, which could make a difference for him.

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And in turn from there, there could be more playmaking opportunities off that for Garland with his scoring capabilities.