Cavs’ Darius Garland should carry forward higher FT rate in 2022-23

This season was the quintessential breakout campaign for Cleveland Cavaliers lead guard Darius Garland. After showing marketed growth in his second season with 17.4 points and 6.1 assists per contest, and connecting on 39.5 percent of his three-point attempts, Garland took that a step further.

This year, he had 21.7 points and 8.6 assists per contest, and knocked in a still-robust 38.3 percent of his three-point attempts. The season didn’t end out how the Cavaliers and Garland would’ve wanted, nor us fans, to a large degree because of injuries, but it was a season where the team turned a corner.

Garland was one of the primary reasons why, too, as he repped the Cavaliers in the All-Star Game, along with Jarrett Allen, and it was a pleasure to see Garland’s emergence as one of the NBA’s best guards this season. His playmaking feel, vision and precise passing was impressive, and couple with that, his on-ball scoring, deep range, mid-range and floater touch, and his driving prowess all led to him filling it up.

Looking onward, Garland, who was a finalist for the league’s Most Improved Player award, should only get better, and he looks to be Cleveland’s offensive engine for the foreseeable future. Hopefully he and the team can be healthier next season, where I do believe the Cavs could take another leap, and should realistically get back into the postseason, where with more experience next year, they could make things happen.

Anyway, back to Garland’s play, though, while I acknowledge that some of his splits to end the year out were somewhat elevated due to injuries to the team, he still was great throughout the season. And regarding his scoring growth, it was nice to see him generate more free throws as the year wore on, and with how he demonstrated continued development from the season prior in that realm.

Garland should carry forward a higher FT rate in 2022-23, and keep that positive trend going from his third season.

As the season progressed, Garland was finding his way to the line more regularly, and on the year, finished out with 3.5 free throws per outing. Post-All-Star, that clip was 6.1 attempts per game.

As his third season wore on, Garland’s feel seemingly improved as an on-ball player, which was a continued sign of growth I thought from his second year as well, when he demonstrated progression in that area from Year 1. Whether it was in pick-and-roll operation as a counter to pull-ups, step backs or his playmaking, Garland’s subtle use of change-of-pace and deceleration helped him draw more whistles from defenders being off balance.

Additionally, it was good to see Garland as a driver begin to pump fakes to get guys leaning, and from there, was able to generate some and-1s, and his floaters became all the more useful as a result of his hesitations and driving feel.

Plus, while it wasn’t nearly as frequently, it was nice to see Garland get defenders in compromising positions more as a shooter, whether it was from pull-ups at times leading to undisciplined closeouts, and free throws, or using pump fakes off-ball as a catch-and-shoot player.

Now, objectively, Garland’s not always going to be getting upwards of six-plus free throws per contest next season, at its outset, and the increased splits there had to do with Cleveland’s injuries. This is post-All-Star break, in particular, in that regard.

However, generally, it was still meaningful that as he got more experience as a shot creator and driver, that Garland used his craftiness, handle and shake to get more calls as the year wore on. And in this next season for him, I’d imagine he can carry that sort of thing forward.

Garland’s free throw rate was not at league average (24.8 percent), but that being 20.5 percent was encouraging, and in Year 4, I could foresee that being again a solid rate, and feasibly increasing again for the 22-year-old.