Cavs Player Grades: Darius Garland earned top marks

Cavs Player Grades: Offense

For two seasons Darius Garland has developed as an offensive player in the shadow of Collin Sexton, growing into a role as a sidekick and battling injuries and a shifting role in order to do so. This season, partly because of how quick Garland developed and partly because of Sexton’s knee injury after only 11 games, Garland stepped up to become the clear and inarguable top option for the Cavalier offense.

Garland increased his shot volume and his efficiency, shooting a career-best 51.2 percent from 2-point range as he unleashed a wicked floater on hapless defenders. His chemistry with Jarrett Allen was elite, and when scrambling defenders stepped too far away trying to take away the lob pass, Garland just lightly dropped the ball through the net. He also shot 38.3 percent from 3-point range on 6.7 attempts per game; over half of those were unassisted, difficult stepbacks and pull-ups against tight coverage.

Yet what makes Garland clearly special in a way that, to this point, Sexton is not is the elite passing that he showed this season. Garland averaged 8.6 assists per game, sixth in the NBA, directing traffic for an offense with few other shot creators other than he, especially once Sexton and Ricky Rubio went down.

While Garland did bear a heavy load with the ball in his hands, he was also not afraid to give the ball up and work off-ball, running off screens to catch-and-shoot Steph Curry style. This stretched defenses and opened up room inside for Allen and Evan Mobley to work. It also allowed J.B. Bickerstaff to play him alongside Ricky Rubio early in the season, a strong combination that blitzed teams until Rubio tore his ACL.

Advanced stats support Garland’s impact on offense as well. He had a +3.9 Offensive EPM (Estimated Plus-Minus) which ranked in the 97th percentile leaguewide. His Offensive Raptor is even higher, as Garland ranked 10th; the Cavaliers were 4.8 points per 100 possessions better on offense when Garland played.

Garland can still turn the ball over too much, and given his elite free-throw shooting (89.2 percent, 7th-best in the league) there should be some room for improvement as an outside shooter, which would take him from dangerous to deadly outside. Yet his growth this season as a scorer and playmaker pushed him into the upper echelon of young guards on offense.

Grade: A