Darius Garland’s defensive growth for Cavs shouldn’t go unnoticed

It’s safe to say that Cleveland Cavaliers lead guard Darius Garland has had a breakout campaign in 2021-22. In his third season, he’s taken his game to new heights, as KJG’s Justin Brownlow highlighted, with averages of 21.4 points and 8.6 assists per contest, and Garland’s true shooting rate has climbed to 58.0 percent, which is nothing to sneeze at.

For his efforts and impact on the Cavaliers turning a corner this season in the Eastern Conference, Garland was rightfully chosen to rep the hometown Cavs in the All-Star Game last month.

Garland, who had a bounce-back season last year with 17.4 points and 6.1 assists per contest, has taken it up a notch in Year 3, as we expressed.

Now, some of the Cavs’ injuries this season to the likes of Collin Sexton early on, and Ricky Rubio (whose contract was traded to the Indiana Pacers in the Caris LeVert deal) later on have likely played some into Garland’s increased splits. But that doesn’t take away from Garland’s emergence as of one of the best young players in the NBA, with his combination of on and off-ball scoring abilities, handling prowess, range, playmaking feel and vision, and his creativity on the floor.

And as KJG’s Amadou Sow touched on, Garland recently has taken his production a step further. As Basketball Reference pointed out a couple of days ago, Garland is the youngest player in league history to average 25-plus points and 12-plus assists over a 10-game span in the regular season. The next three youngest were Oscar Robertson, Isiah Thomas and Chris Paul, all of whom are all legends of the game.

What Garland has done on the offensive end for the Cavaliers this season has been nothing short of extraordinary, and on and off, he’s had to deal with back soreness/a reported bruise in his back, with that seemingly flaring up at various times.

Not taking anything away from his production and offensive development, while it’s not going to usually be making nearly as many highlights, I’ve been encouraged by Garland’s growth on the less glamorous end of the floor.

Garland’s defensive growth this season for the Cavs shouldn’t go unnoticed.

To clear things up a bit before getting further into it, Garland is not a player that has the on-ball defensive capabilities of a player such as Isaac Okoro, Lamar Stevens or I would argue if given more experience with others like Evan Mobley/Jarrett Allen with him, Collin Sexton. Sexton needs to show further development off-ball, though, and he and Garland, if Sexton is brought back, will likely be staggered anyway.

Circling back to Garland’s defense, however, he has made some strides on-ball this season, and regardless of some limitations for him in that realm against bigger, more physical guards, he has gotten much better off-ball.

On-ball, while having Mobley and Allen, prior to Allen’s finger injury, did help in pick-and-roll situations and in applying point-of-attack pressure, Garland has improved when it comes to his positioning and at least against some 1s or if he’s on 2s, he’s started to have guys shoot over the top more.

There still are some instances where he’s gotten beaten too often in games, as we touched on, but Garland placing in the 61st percentile in PnR ball handler coverage this season (per Synergy Sports) has been a good sign, and he has shown better knowledge of funneling guys to help more. Or he has deterred guys out of the middle at least for some tougher looks more consistently than last season, for example.

From there, even still with some inconsistencies on-ball, as often is the case with young point guards, Garland has improved his team defense. He’s had 1.2 steals per game this season, which has helped Cleveland get easy baskets in transition at times in some crucial spots, even with the team having defensive issues post-All-Star, more so in first halves.

Garland’s regularly been in the right spots on the weak side lurking in passing lanes, timing up skip passes, leading to deflections, or swiped away dishes to the corners from anticipation, and those plays make a difference throughout games. They help generate momentum, and as we noted, valuable transition plays via live-ball turnovers for Garland himself and his teammates.

Now, objectively, as we also mentioned, Cleveland’s defense post-All-Star break has been a farcry from what it was pre-All-Star break, with the team’s defensive rating being 23rd in that span, and at 116.3 then. Pre-All-Star, that was 105.8 and fourth overall.

Regardless of Allen’s injury, and more recently, Dean Wade’s, the Cavs, especially in first halves of games, have not been the same on that end, but the club has gotten better as games progress typically, leading to crucial stops. And Garland himself’s activity, along with Lauri Markkanen and Evan Mobley’s, has made a difference there.

Anyway, when the team has been healthier and had some semblance of continuity this season, they were more consistent on defense.

Generally, though, while his offense is what he’s known for and always will be, Garland, who is still only 22, has made strides defensively this season, even more so off-ball and as a rotator. That shouldn’t go unnoticed.