Love highlights how Garland has ‘stepped up’ as Cavs leader in offseason

After what’s been a full offseason again, we’re getting close to seeing the Cleveland Cavaliers play in game action again.

The 2022-23 season is on the horizon with the regular season set to begin on Oct. 19 at the Toronto Raptors, and training camp gets underway on Tuesday. Prior to things getting going in that realm, Cavs Media Day was on Monday, and that only added to the excitement for the upcoming season.

J.B. Bickerstaff and Koby Altman took questions to begin the podium pressers, and the likes of Kevin Love, Ricky Rubio, Evan Mobley, Caris LeVert, Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen did from there, regarding that period.

All had noteworthy soundbites from that, and it’s apparent that with their resurgence last season, and with Donovan Mitchell now in the fold, expectations are high.

The Cavs have to prove themselves, though, as Love expressed in his portion at the podium, and I don’t dispute that. The Cavaliers are a club that seems primed to take another step forward, as we noted; it’s on them to do so on the floor, even still, and they’ll need to keep progressing.

Somewhat along those lines, on the plus side, was the team reportedly meeting at times to build camaraderie, and they recently got in some pickup runs in Nashville, seemingly organized by Darius Garland. And with that sort of thing in mind with Garland, it was encouraging that Garland has “stepped up” as a leader this offseason, per Love and via Evan Dammarell of Fear The Sword and Right Down Euclid.

It’s meaningful how Love highlighted Garland’s progression as a Cavs leader, given what Darius means to the team and with how he’s still young, even.

Going forward, Garland is the engine for the Cavaliers offense, and he’s coming off a season where he made an All-Star leap with 21.7 points and 8.6 assists per outing. It’s safe to say that he’s one of the emerging young star guards in the Association, and with last season in mind, and him having a very encouraging Year 2, the Cavs and Garland agreed to terms on a five-year, $193 million extension earlier in the offseason that can be up to $231 million.

Even with that having been the case, it was meaningful that Garland seemingly took significant strides as a leader last season, and Love’s statement above to me drove home how for the foreseeable future, Garland will be steering the ship, to a large extent, for Cleveland.

The Cavaliers getting the majority of the group together it appeared in Nashville, which included some pickup runs, of which Mitchell participated in, too, was great to hear. Love was not involved there, but really wanted to be, for what it’s worth. And the Cavaliers had a group workout in Las Vegas during Summer League, when Garland and others supported that squad as well, for example, and him and others reportedly spent times working out back in Cleveland on multiple occasions.

Anyway, just generally, as Love above highlighted, it’s good to know that Garland has “stepped up” and is establishing himself as one of the key leaders on the team, and the primary leader, feasibly.

As Kelsey Russo of The Athletic (subscription required) detailed, Garland took significant strides in that area last season, as prompted by Bickerstaff, and has seemingly grown leaps and bounds in that regard, both on and off the floor. Furthermore, as Love stated in his media presser about Garland, via Russo, it’s “his team to run.”

With all he means to the Wine and Gold on the floor, it’s reassuring that over the course of this offseason it appears that Garland was keeping the group engaged, which is great, given how this team is still largely young, and it’s still important for them to stay in touch to help the team keep ascending. I’m not discounting the vets in this aspect, either, in that aspect.

It is great that Ricky Rubio is back in the fold, too, as a side note, with how he aided Garland last season in his leadership growth, and for Mitchell back when they were teammates on the Utah Jazz. That should only help Garland and others, and looking onward, I do think that with Mitchell’s postseason experiences and his track record, he can have a prominent role in setting the standard for young Cavs in coming years, though.

However, with how Garland has been one of the core guys with the Cavaliers in this rebuild, and after last season’s resurgence and his own career year, Love demonstrating how Garland has taken that next step as a leader is no small thing.

Garland is set to enter his fourth season, and age-23 one, so he’s still really young, but from here, he’ll again be the engine for this group. And it’s a plus to know that he’s also seemingly done a hell of a job in helping further unite the team in the offseason heading into a big year where the Cavs hope to take another step forward.