Koby Altman reiterates how Darius Garland is all-in with Cavs from here

Heading into this recently-concluded season for the Cleveland Cavaliers, many seemingly believed Darius Garland would be in-line for a third-year leap.

Last season, Garland had a bounce-back campaign for the Cavaliers with 17.4 points and 6.1 assists per outing, and he showed plenty of positive signs.

As a young primary playmaker and key scorer for Cleveland, Garland was noticeably in a better rhythm, and him not having his prior injury from college in his mind had to free him up. That was both physically, and maybe even more so, mentally.

This season, though, Garland really took his play up a notch, as plenty of Cavaliers fans, and NBA fans, in general, can attest to. He had 21.7 points and 8.6 assists per contest, and connected on 38.3 percent of his three-point attempts.

Now, Garland making an All-Star leap is not something I could’ve seen outright before his third season. I know I’m anything but the only one with that line of thought, too.

Garland, who was a finalist (but didn’t win the Most Improved Player award, which went to Ja Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies) looks to be a budding star for years to come for Cleveland. And he couldn’t be more on-board with the team and its ascending state. In that regard, now-President of Basketball Ops Koby Altman reiterated that with recent comments about DG.

The Cavs are in great hands with Garland as their offensive engine moving forward, and Altman drove home how he’s in a great place with the team.

Garland is one of the Cavs’ key cogs moving forward, and with his passing abilities, vision and offensive scoring skill set, he looks to be the team’s offensive engine looking onward. He was sixth in the league in assists per game this season, and closed out the campaign on quite the tear.

Post-All-Star break, Garland had 24.8 points and 10.0 assists per contest, and in the month of March, while the team did have its inconsistencies, some due to injuries, Garland was outstanding. In that stretch, he broke the Cavaliers’ point-assist double-double record for a calendar month with 11 such outings, passing Mark Price’s mark of 10.

Granted, some of Garland’s increased splits had to do with the team having injuries to notable performers, and it was awful for the Cavaliers that they lost both Collin Sexton and then Ricky Rubio both by January. And for a solid chunk of post-All-Star play, Caris LeVert and Rajon Rondo missed time. LeVert’s foot sprain didn’t enable him to establish a consistent rhythm with the team, following his trade acquisition from the Indiana Pacers, either.

However, moving forward, I am optimistic the Cavaliers can keep on an upward trajectory, based on what we saw from them this season, and Garland, along with Evan Mobley, for instance, is one of the key reasons for that.

It was also great to see Altman’s comments above via the team about how Garland “loves” being with the Cavs and has fully embraced Cleveland, such as guys like Collin Sexton, who I believe could and should stick around, as well. The same goes for Jarrett Allen and others, for instance.

We’ve seen it time and time again how Garland, given his style and magnetism, is a player that often can get the other guys on the Cavaliers going, and you can just see that with how he plays, and embraces his teammates, that he’s all-in with the team moving forward it seems.

The team could very well sign Garland to a max extension this offseason, based on a report from Evan Dammarell of Fear The Sword and Right Down Euclid stating the team plans to sign him to one. That wouldn’t kick in until the following season, though, if that were to happen.

And this could definitely play out, one would think, as Altman, via Dammarell also really said that DG will be with the team for a “long, long time.”

Generally, as we alluded to, it’s evident that Garland is a budding star for the Wine and Gold that’s coming off a career year, and he’s only 22. And based on the above comments from Altman about how Garland embracing and loving it in Cleveland, DG the PG seems completely all-in with the team, too.

It’s not as if that’s big news or anything, but it was still reassuring, and wasn’t just upper management speech, to me.