Cavs’ Darius Garland has been especially sharp in his preseason action

Preseason play for the Cleveland Cavaliers is set to conclude on Friday night, when the team takes on the Orlando Magic on the road at 7 PM Eastern. This will be their fourth and final outing of the Cavaliers preseason, with the 2022-23 regular season getting underway next week, starting at the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday, at 7 PM Eastern.

For Cleveland, they’ve been 1-2 so far in exhibition play, with the team losing two games to the Philadelphia 76ers, with the first at Philadelphia last Wednesday, and the second in Cleveland on Monday. The Cavaliers then won against the Atlanta Hawks at home on Wednesday.

In those outings, the Cavs had two nice performances, with the first Philly game many of the group playing pretty well and getting in the act, and the Atlanta game was sparked by a few notable runs for the Wine and Gold. The second game at home versus the Sixers, by comparison, involved a slow start, and the team was up-and-down at times in general.

One of the things that has jumped out in preseason from the Cavaliers’ perspective, though, has been the play of Darius Garland. This isn’t to take away from players such as Caris LeVert, Isaac Okoro or Jarrett Allen (in the past two outings), among others, such as camp invite Mamadi Diakite, but Garland, to me, has been really sharp.

Garland has been especially sharp for the Cavs in his preseason action.

The second game for Garland was a bit of a mixed bag, but in at least two of the contests, he’s been particularly on-point.

In that first preseason game at Philadelphia, he got the Cavs going from the jump with his shot creation, and him helping other guys, such as Kevin Love, great looks. Garland and Donovan Mitchell have played well off one another a bunch as well, even if shots haven’t fallen as much in the past two outings, as an aside.

In that Sixers game, to the prior point, Garland was in a great rhythm, en route to having having 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting, to go with four assists, and was a team-high plus-seven in 15 minutes.

And in this last win over the Hawks on Wednesday, despite an off night in the finishing sense in the paint, to some degree, he was invaluable for Cleveland with his playmaking, vision and timely off-ball shooting from the perimeter. In that one, he was 8-of-21 from the field, but was 4-of-10 from three, leading to 23 points, and most notably, he tallied 12 assists in the contest.

For elongated stretches of the first Sixers game and against the Hawks, it was clear that Garland was operating at a very high level, and despite somewhat of a bumpy start versus Atlanta on the interior, his passing helped get guys such as Isaac Okoro and Cedi Osman going. Both of those players were on shooting-wise Wednesday, but Garland’s timing, urgency in getting Cleveland quickly into offensive flow, and his movement shooting off that all were crucial elements for the Cavs offensively.

Whether it’s been working with or without the ball in his hands, to me, heading into the new season, his fourth with the team, it’s been good to see Garland have full command of the Wine and Gold’s offense. Even with Mitchell in the fold, and some lineup alterations, Garland has looked especially sharp in balancing initiating for himself, and getting others going, in my opinion. His leadership on the floor has seemingly taken another step forward, too.

Last season, he followed up a bounce-back Year 2 with an All-Star campaign in Year 3 with 21.7 points and 8.6 assists per outing, and moving forward, Garland is undoubtedly the primary catalyst for an ascending Cleveland squad.

Moreover, in his preseason action, it was all the more reassuring to see DG look to be in a nice groove heading into the 2022-23 campaign. He, along with Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen, won’t be making the trip to play the Magic on Friday, per J.B. Bickerstaff and via Evan Dammarell of Fear The Sword and Right Down Euclid, but they had ample preseason PT. Caris LeVert will play, as of the same report.

Anyhow, Garland, who will turn 23 this season, will continue to get better, and further cement himself as one of the elite young guards in the NBA. I’m pumped to watch him and this rising Cavs team again in regular season action soon enough.