Cavs: Darius Garland’s PnR play has been great, and that must continue

Cavs: Garland looks to be taking the next step as a PnR passer

We’ve seen Garland create his share of awesome looks inside for Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, and I’d expect that to continue in the pick-and-roll realm. Both are tremendous targets for Garland, who has improved at keeping his dribble alive to throw those more timely, and to keep drop bigs occupied enough to throw them open.

Last season, he was better in that regard compared to Year 1, particularly with Allen, and Garland has taken a step further there. Rubio has likely helped him there, one would assume, too, and you could see that on the floor for stretches in games.

From there, Garland seems to have gotten better at finding shooters on the perimeter when defenses off-ball start to anticipate and cheat toward those lobs.

It hasn’t necessarily always led to those looks going down, clearly, but the vision from Garland and looking for those targets as a counter to the interior feeds has led to him showing further growth in his PnR play, in my opinion.

In this upcoming stretch here, it’s crucial that he keeps demonstrating that, and particularly with Sexton out for an extended period, really; that could go a long way in helping generate more open catch-and-shoot looks. Players such as Dylan Windler, Dean Wade and Lauri Markkanen or Kevin Love (when they’re back) can be shooters that, whether or it’s off movement or via spot-ups, can be quality targets for Garland as other options via skip feeds, to drive that home, also.

However, while Garland has made further strides as a PnR playmaker, with Sexton out for a while, especially, Cleveland does still need DG to create for himself some as a PnR scorer.