Cavs: Best and worst-case scenarios for Darius Garland in 2021-22

Cavs: Garland regresses as scorer, his confidence takes a hit and he looks unsure of himself as a passer in a worst-case scenario

For a worst-case scenario, to me, that’d mostly relate to him looking to be increasingly passive game-to-game, leading to seemingly confidence issues and him being unsure of himself as a playmaker.

Although I do believe that he needs to be more aggressive as a scorer at times in stretches of games, and fire away some more in those situations, Garland did appear to be way more comfortable as a scorer.

In his first season, as we did point out, though, while the prior meniscus injury did factor into it, he took a while to seem confident and sure himself, both as a scorer/shooter and passer. That led to a rocky start, and there was turbulence at other points, even with him seeming to gain more confidence as the year wore on.

So, and I’ll preface this similarly by saying it’s not likely, in a worst-case scenario for Garland in 2021-22, we could see him regress game-to-game, and the confidence for him seemingly waning.

In that sense, I’d foresee his production sliding to 14.0 or so points per outing, him not progressing as a passer, and the efficiency from three-point range declining. Furthermore, I could maybe foresee that meaning Ricky Rubio could at times get starts via Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff’s decision, and not due to injury.

To reiterate, though, I personally find it very difficult to imagine Garland, based on what we saw last season, taking a slide back in his third season for the Wine and Gold. He made considerable strides in Year 2, appears ready to roll heading into Year 3, and I firmly believe he’ll continue to make meaningful progress as both a scorer/shooter in 2021-22.

And that should help the Cavaliers as a team more and more this upcoming season as they look to get themselves in the thick of things/well in the play-in/ideally postseason mix.