Growth in the NBA is occasionally driven by outside factors, by a new head coach coming in or team chemistry finally clicking. Almost always, however, in a player-driven league like the NBA, a team taking a step forward is driven by the growth of its players. That was absolutely the case for the Cleveland Cavaliers this past season.
Expected to win fewer than 30 games, the Cavs instead won 44, twice their total from last season. After finishing 25th in Defensive Rating last year, and 28th in overall Net Rating, they rose to seventh in defense and 13th in Net Rating. Before the waves of injuries finally did them in late in the season, they were trending much higher even than that.
The Cavs had a breakout year as a team this season, driven by a number of players who took a step forward in 2021-22. Which 3 stand out?
Given the fast rise of this team, you can expect there was significant growth from a number of players. While some of their advancement was the addition of rookie phenom Evan Mobley, the Cavs leaned heavily on the improved play of three key players, all who played much better in 2021-22 than they did the season before.
Let’s look at each player in turn to evaluate where they grew as a player and how that contributed to the strong play of the Cavs. Everything about the Cavs’ offensive season revolves around their first-time All-Star point guard Darius Garland.
3 Cavs players who took a step forward: Darius Garland
Darius Garland entered the 2019 NBA Draft after playing just a handful of games in college due to injury, and he had a slow start as a rookie due to both that lost development time and playing out of position alongside Collin Sexton. The Cavs reversed their positions and roles last season and Sexton thrived, scoring the 18th-most points-per-game in the league, helped in large part by the spacing Garland provided.
This season Garland had fewer than 10 games alongside Sexton before his backcourt running-mate went down with a knee injury, and handed the keys to the offense did even more with it than Sexton had the year before. Garland also ranked 18th in the league in scoring but also came in sixth in assists per game, the quintessential modern point guard with his scoring, shooting and passing.
As a rookie, Garland assisted on 18.5 percent of his team’s baskets while on the floor; that number rose to 30.9 percent last season and again took a major leap to 39.9 percent this season, seventh in the league. The Cavs as a team were 21st in assists last year and 11th this year, and the entire offense hummed with Garland at the controls.
Garland improved as a shooter in nearly every aspect of the game. His 3-point percentage ticked down slightly this season, from 39.5 percent to 38.3, but the level of difficulty skyrocketed. Last year 70.5 percent of his 3-pointers were assisted, but this year just 48.9 percent were; he hit 58 more unassisted 3-pointers this season than last. His interior scoring game, especially his floater, took a huge step forward this season and he averaged a career-best 51.2 percent on 2-point field goals.
Overall Garland took a leap up the ladder as an offensive player, one who can run the show and find advantages for himself and others.
3 Cavs players who took a step forward: Jarrett Allen
Jarrett Allen joined the Cleveland Cavaliers a few weeks into last season, playing 51 games of a condensed schedule (and 40 as a starter). It was a good stretch as he acclimated to a new team and a new roster around him, often battling with other entrenched centers for playing time and touches.
That competition was not present this season, but it may not have mattered with the way Allen dominated on both ends of the court this year. Offensively he became the best version of what he is, a hard screener and roll man who can get up for alley-oops and attack the offensive glass. He shot 67.7 percent from the field this season, second in the NBA this year behind just Rudy Gobert. While most of his shots were assisted, he still made 98 unassisted baskets. He shot 60.9 percent from the field last year, a good but decidedly not elite number as it was this year.
Defense is where Allen truly shined as the anchor for the league’s seventh-best defense; when Allen played the Cavs had a Defensive Rating of 106, which would have ranked as the No. 1 defense in the league this year. Allen defended 15.8 field goals per game last season, holding opponents to 6.7 percent colder shooting than normal; of all players who defended at least 10 shots per game that ranked third, behind only Robert Williams III and Gobert. Last season Allen held opponents to a respectable 2.9 percent below expectation, the difference between good and elite.
Simply put, Allen was one of the best defenders in the league this season. Rudy Gobert has been a perennial All-NBA candidate by being the best in the league at protecting the paint while being hyper-efficient on offense. That looks like a lane Allen can reside in. Last summer his $20 million per season contract looked like an overpay; now it looks like a bargain.
3 Cavs players who took a step forward: Kevin Love
For both Jarrett Allen and Darius Garland, this past season represented the best in their careers, by far, and both rightfully earned their first career All-Star berths. Kevin Love, on the other hand, has made five All-Star games in his career, and comparing this past season to any of those would make this season look rather tepid.
The reality is that Kevin Love did take a step forward this year, and that was in recognizing he is now a role player, not a star, and that the best career move was to buy in and play as hard as he could within his role. He did just that! Love played in 74 games but started just four, otherwise coming off the bench behind Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobey.
Love was terrific as a bench stretch-big this season, hitting 39.2 percent of his 3-pointers. In fact, his 187 3-pointers were just three off of his career-best mark from 2013-14, a year when he averaged significantly more minutes and shots. In NBA history only five players have ever hit more 3-pointers with fewer than 5 starts.
After years of injuries and sulking, the former champion big man was completely bought into competing with this team; he and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff worked out a merit-based approach to playing time, and Love earned every minute he received. He was still a poor defensive player, but his offensive impact and specifically perimeter shooting made him one of the more helpful bench players in the entire league, and crucial to the Cavs’ success this year.
The Cavs are optimistic they will continue to improve next year and beyond, and for that to happen they will need players to continue taking steps forward. Whether Allen or Garland appear on this list next year, or instead it is Evan Mobley, Collin Sexton or Isaac Okoro, this team will go as far as its players take it.