Cavs’ Garland is finding his way to FT line more as he’s gotten comfortable

After a relatively slow start to his fourth year, Darius Garland has settled back into things for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Garland was dealing with an eye laceration that he suffered in the season opener, which led to him missing six games, and that seemingly affected him even after he returned for some outings. He missed a game with a knee sprain and was reportedly impacted by non-COVID illness during the Cavaliers’ Western road trip a bit, too, so it was not an ideal start for Garland.

In his first six appearances of the season, he had 16.2 points and 8.3 assists per outing, but was hitting only 30.8 percent from three-point land. He did hit 84.0 percent of his free throws, of which were 4.2 per outing in that span, and did have some big moments, on a positive note.

Since, though, Garland looks to have found his footing again, and he’s seemed healthy. In Cleveland’s near-comeback against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Nov. 13, he had a career-high 51-point eruption, which included a 27-point fourth quarter, a Cavs franchise for a point total in a quarter, and in that one, Garland hit 10 threes.

In the eight games since that outing, he’s also had 24.5 points and 8.1 assists per contest, and the Cavaliers have gone 5-3 in those. Garland’s plus-minus has been 4.4, and he’s knocked in 40.4 percent of his deep attempts.

Obviously, the deep shooting, handle, and his playmaking abilities have all been big for the Cavaliers as Garland has gotten himself right in game action, and that goes without saying. But, something that has paid off for him this season, and more in the last eight games or so, has been Garland generating a healthier amount of free throws. That’s continued for him from an uptick last season, in which he had 3.5 free throws per game.

Garland is finding his way to the FT line more frequently for the Cavs as he’s gotten more comfortable.

In that aforementioned eight-game stretch, Garland has averaged 5.6 free throw attempts per outing, of which he’s made 5.1 (91.1 percent). On the season, he’s had 5.5 attempts per game, and has cashed in on 85.5 percent of those looks.

It’s been great to see how Garland has approached his drives of late, and utilized ball fakes to get rotators up in the air, and has eventually drawn his share of fouls.

Granted, one doesn’t want to see him taking forceful blows, and Garland’s interior finishing could be an improvement area to watch in coming games. He does need to clean up his turnovers when he’s caught underneath the rim, too, as he’s had 3.5 per outing.

However, Garland using his craftiness, change-of-pace and at times rip-through moves to lure in defenders for fouls, paired with his deep shooting and floater game, has been another sign of further development from the emerging All-Star guard.

Now, it wasn’t on display in Cleveland’s disappointing loss at the Toronto Raptors on Monday, as he had two free throw attempts, but he was a bright spot for Cleveland with 18 points, 10 assists, four rebounds and three steals.

It’s again up to Garland and Donovan Mitchell to balance their own shot creation and ensuring other guys get quality looks, and in fairness, the Cavaliers did misfire on plenty of open looks on Monday. That was an issue in Sunday’s win over the Detroit Pistons, also; a handful of crucial ones were big late, on the plus side. Hopefully, Jarrett Allen (back) can be back in there soon for Cleveland, which could draw in help defenders, leading to more productive ball-swings and lob looks, as an aside.

Regardless, it’s been a plus to see Garland carry forward how he was generating more trips to the line as last season progressed, albeit some due to injuries to other Cavs.

So far this season, though, he has found creative ways to register a solid amount of trips to the charity stripe, and he looks to be a guard that keeps adding layers to his game. Hopefully, Garland and the Cavaliers can gradually take strides to gel as we approach the season’s second quarter here.