Last season, Darius Garland had a quasi-breakout in Year 2 for the Cleveland Cavaliers. After a somewhat underwhelming freshman campaign in 2019-20, because of a variety of factors, Garland looked like a different player in 2020-21.
He was reportedly not himself as a rookie, but last season, he turned a corner, and had a robust 17.4 points and 6.1 assists per contest.
The deep range from him popped, as did Garland’s shiftiness, and his passing vision was often on display game-to-game. Fans should be bullish on the young lead guard looking onward, and I’m confident that he could take another step forward in Year 3.
Even so, while we did see it at times, and more so post-All-Star before an ankle injury sidelined him for most of the closing batch of games in May, I do believe Garland at times could’ve been more aggressive. That’s in the scoring/shooting sense.
That might be a little critical, but next season, I’d hope Darius turns it loose a bit more in games for stretches as a scorer, provided that’s sensible, based on gameflow. I trust in Year 3 he’ll be able to gauge that, though.
Cavs: Controlled aggression is crucial for Garland in Year 3.
Last season, as we alluded to, Garland was impressive for the Wine and Gold, both as a playmaker and scorer, and from here, he could very well be Cleveland’s long term answer at the 1. The 21-year-old could potentially be a star in the near future for the Cavaliers, and last season, he knocked down 39.5 percent of his three-point shot attempts.
Granted, I would hope that Garland does look to take more three-point looks game-to-game for Cleveland; last year and in Year 1, that was a volume of 5.0 and 4.9, respectively. That is reportedly a point of emphasis for both Garland and Cleveland’s primary bucket-getter, Collin Sexton, as a positive side note, though.
So I’d imagine we could see that play out, and having a passing big such as Evan Mobley should help Garland as a relocation threat in that way, and in some spurts/stretches in games, offseason trade acquisition Ricky Rubio could aid DG in that realm.
Now, I would like to see Garland look to shoot more triples off-the-bounce from here, given his deep range and ability to generate space in pick-and-roll situations with his handle.
And in some stretches with him being able to function as a movement shooter, perhaps with Rubio, Garland could definitely be a knockdown shooting threat for Cleveland to some degree there. That’s as evidenced by how he hit 43.2 percent of his catch-and-shoot three-point attempts in Year 2, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data.
Regardless of the volume of triples off-the-bounce, with the on-ball/shot creation abilities of Garland, even with the playmaking element involved, I do believe that controlled aggression for Darius is crucial for him to take that next step in Year 3.
Garland had of course 6.3 assists per contest in the month of April, and he could feasibly average more than that clip next season, but in that stretch, he did have 20.5 points per contest. That included him hitting 38.4 percent from three on 6.4 attempts per game in that span too, and he was opening up others with the shot creation he was displaying, and it was clear that DG was showing the ability to take over games.
Moreover, to me, next season, while I fully acknowledge there’s others in the fold, and Collin Sexton, Lauri Markkanen, Mobley and others will get their share of looks, when Garland has things rolling, I’d like to see him keep pushing the gas.
He is one of Cleveland’s best shooters, and with Garland’s handle, and with the growth he showed in transition, combined with his pick-and-roll prowess, looking to create his own offense some more could pay off for the Cavs. And that could ease some burden on Sexton, to that point.
So to drive it home, controlled aggression, in my opinion, is crucial for DG as he hopefully demonstrates further progression in Year 3 for the Wine and Gold.