2 areas where Cavs’ Darius Garland needs to improve moving forward

Improvement Area No. 2 for Garland: Continued strides with finishing at the rim

It’s probably nitpicky here, given how much Garland has grown over the past three seasons as an offensive player for the Cavaliers. He’s such a dangerous shooter, shot creator and is such a gifted playmaker that has gotten marketedly better in most facets of the game offensively.

He has improved with his finishing on the interior, too, but his finishing at the rim could still be better looking onward. Garland has also shown progression there in the past two seasons, and recently, he has generating quality looks for himself in that area, and has been converting.

Still, on the year, Garland has connected on 55.3 percent of his restricted area shot attempts, per NBA.com’s shooting data, which is down from last year, when that clip was 57.4 percent. Garland’s been very effective recently with his finishing lately, hitting 72.7 percent there in his past 15 games, but for much of the season, that’s realistically been the only shot zone where he’s underwhelmed.

In fairness, the eye injury he suffered had to have played into some inefficiencies for him near the rim, and the dude has been hit in the head/face so often throughout this season, out of unfortunate luck, or whatever reason. So one has to take that into consideration.

Even with that in mind, and him exhibiting improvement as a finisher in recent seasons, though, if Garland can gradually get stronger in coming years, and keep rounding out his overall game, it should pay off for him at the basket, too.

This isn’t a huge thing, but with how he’s demonstrated growth as a scorer at the other areas of the floor, with the shiftiness and body control Garland has, and with his playmaking presence, his finishing at the rim can be more consistent.