1 realistic and 1 lofty expectation for Cavs’ Darius Garland in 2022-23

One realistic expectation: Have 10+ assists in at least 45 games

For most of you who watched Garland last season, this might be a weird expectation. Garland was a scoring guard first and foremost last year, and we saw his entire offensive arsenal. When it comes to scoring, there’s not much the defense can do to stop Garland.

He has a quick first step, creates separation and rises for a shot incredibly fast, and can finish at any angle off the backboard. Having said that, while his scoring might go up this next year, the assist numbers are something I’m going to be looking closely at.

As the season continued, and Garland became more familiar with Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley, and any other number of teammates. That led to his assist numbers going up as well. Before this past season, Garland had only eclipsed the double-digit assist mark four times in his career. However, this past season, the former Vanderbilt guard had 32 games with 10 or more assists, and in March, he broke the team record for assists in a calendar month with 170. Cleveland was 18-14 when Garland had over 10 assists.

If he can continue to find ways to facilitate the offense by creating shots for himself, and for others, the Cavaliers should be very successful this next season.

Like I said earlier, the first thing people were looking at from Garland’s stats this past year will probably be his scoring and shooting splits. But, the hardest thing he must do, night in and night out, is find ways to make the others around him better, which will hopefully come with time.

Until then, I just hope we see a lot more of Garland’s lobs headed in the direction of Allen, or Mobley.