Darius Kinnard Garland

[Cement]

 

[Lee]

Great, now i have to agree with Stephen A.

 

[weepinwillow]

Great, now i have to agree with Stephen A.

only if you yell it or snarkly dismiss it.

 

[PIP]

Futuredome didn’t retweet this…

 

[2 For The Brew]

Great, now i have to agree with Stephen A.

Just wait until Monday and he’ll change his mind.

 

[red.]

@nba_paint

 

[Jscc]

Nah I don’t think so, especially because if you see the clip in context, Garland didn’t mean it like a diss in any way. There’s nothing for LeBron to respond to.

I see these media clowns trying to turn it into that. It's pathetic. What he said was that it would be nice to add another notable chapter to the Cavs history book like LeBron did.

 

[Jscc]

Even the turnovers, the assist to turnover ratio is nearly identical. 2.24 for Darius and 2.25 for Kyrie.

It's a little eerie

You want eerie, go look at rookie KG's stats and Mobley's for the season. They are almost *identical*. Team is in good hands.

 

[PeonHaiters]

Pluto has a column today comparing DG to Kyrie in their third years, both at the same age. I looked up the numbers.

Mins/game: KI 35.2 DG 34.7
Pts/game: KI 20.8 DG 21.8
Shooting percentage: KI 43.0 DG 46.8
3-point percentage: KI 35.8 DG 37.1
Assists: KI 6.1 DG 7.4
Rebounds: KI 3.6 DG 3.3
Turnovers: KI 2.7 DG 3.3

So there it is, Garland is ahead of Kyrie at the same point in their careers at everything except rebounds and turnovers. Rebounds are the least important thing for a point guard and the difference is negligible; only one rebound every three games. Garland could stand to reduce his turnovers a bit but he's not much worse than Kyrie. The main thing is he's dishing out more assists while also hitting a higher percentage of his shots from both behind and in front of the arc.

I don't know how they compare defensively but I can't recall KI being nominated for any All-Defensive teams.

To top it off, Darius been vaccinated and AFAIK he's not disputing the scientific consensus on the shape of the planet. And I doubt he'll ever demand to be traded from an NBA Finals contender because he wants to be the "face of the franchise".

Where are you getting your stats from? You gave Garland an extra 2 points a game and shorted him .6 assists per game.

Also you said DG is ahead of KI at this point in their careers which is misleading considering KI had a better year 2 then he did year 3. So if you’re comparing potential you should compare KI’s year 2 with DG’s year 3.

All that being said, I’d probably lean towards DG since he actually likes basketball ball which is a pretty big plus in the game of…basketball. Though I don’t know that we could 100 percent know that with KI in year 2/3, so we’re using hindsight to detract points from KI.

 

[buzzdog]

Kyrie was fun while he lasted and he was a part of getting us a ring so he'll always have that as part of his legacy. But if Darius can produce at anything close to Kyrie's numbers while maybe being a little less flashy, but while maintaining a true "good guy/not crazy" persona, in my book that makes him about 10 times better than Kyrie no matter what.

 

[I'mWithDan]

Pluto has a column today comparing DG to Kyrie in their third years, both at the same age. I looked up the numbers.

Mins/game: KI 35.2 DG 34.7
Pts/game: KI 20.8 DG 21.8
Shooting percentage: KI 43.0 DG 46.8
3-point percentage: KI 35.8 DG 37.1
Assists: KI 6.1 DG 7.4
Rebounds: KI 3.6 DG 3.3
Turnovers: KI 2.7 DG 3.3

So there it is, Garland is ahead of Kyrie at the same point in their careers at everything except rebounds and turnovers. Rebounds are the least important thing for a point guard and the difference is negligible; only one rebound every three games. Garland could stand to reduce his turnovers a bit but he's not much worse than Kyrie. The main thing is he's dishing out more assists while also hitting a higher percentage of his shots from both behind and in front of the arc.

I don't know how they compare defensively but I can't recall KI being nominated for any All-Defensive teams.

To top it off, Darius been vaccinated and AFAIK he's not disputing the scientific consensus on the shape of the planet. And I doubt he'll ever demand to be traded from an NBA Finals contender because he wants to be the "face of the franchise".

True......but I feel like there is some context here.

Leaders in minutes played per game Kyrie's 3rd year:

Luol Deng, TT, Spencer Hawes, Aye and 1, Jarrett Jack

Leaders in minutes played per game Darius's 3rd year:

Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen, Lauri, Collin, Rubio, Okoro

Let's at least give Kyrie some credit for doing it with cinder blocks attached to his ankles.

Advanced metrics like Kyrie a lot more..........BUT with that said, Darius is an absolute joy to watch.

More so than his stats.......he just is very likable.

He plays with a joy and charisma that is rare and the improvement has been significant year over year.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Garland is a terrific scorer and shot creator for a point guard, ranking in the 86th percentile in points per shot attempt and the 80th percentile in assists per usage rate. As a result the Cavs score 6.6 points more per 100 possessions when Garland is on the floor.

His weakness is turnovers, where he ranks in the 26th percentile among point guards. He makes a lot of brilliant passes but throws too many away, especially when he takes it into the paint and tries to kick it out to a corner. If he could get the turnover rate down about 35% or so he would be even better offensively. That's his next challenge, IMO, and the last big hurdle to overcome before he becomes an elite point guard.

Ricky Rubio's turnover rate was almost as high as Garland (14.6% against 15.9%). So far Brandon Goodwin is at 8.4%, putting him in the 90th percentile among point guards. That's because he's not as willing to throw risky passes as the two more experienced and confident point guards. Speaking of experienced and confident, Rajon Rondo is at 18.4%, which is the highest turnover rate on the team in limited action. But his assist per usage rate is the highest, indicating he's more inclined to throw high risk/high reward passes than anybody.

As a team the Cavs rank 28th in the NBA in turnovers per possession. But Golden State is 29th so it's a mixed bag. A high turnover rate probably indicates you're throwing aggressive, high risk passes that either result in high percentage shots or turnovers. The Warriors are only 14th, barely above average, in offensive efficiency, so I think they could stand to be a little less aggressive in their passing.

The other two Cavs' players who rank very low in terms of turnovers are Allen and Okoro. Allen tends to fumble a lot of passes and he gets stripped in the low post when he doesn't protect the ball well enough while setting up his shot. He needs to work on looking the pass into his hands and securing the ball before looking to shoot and also avoiding getting stripped on the way up. Okoro needs to learn how to dribble with his left hand without losing the ball.

 

[red.]

 

[sailfish]

Garland has shown SO much growth this year. I wonder if he would have grown this much if Sexton was healthy? Okoro just fits so much better than Sexfon does in the backcourt with DG.

 

[buzzdog]

Garland has shown SO much growth this year. I wonder if he would have grown this much if Sexton was healthy? Okoro just fits so much better than Sexfon does in the backcourt with DG.

I think you're over-stating this by a lot. I think Garland was ready to break out, Sexton or no Sexton. And, having a complete non-scoring guard next to him in the lineup is not all positive. Garland and the rest of the offense would benefit by defenses having to pay attention to the other guard as a potent scoring threat instead of completely ignoring the off guard, packing the paint, and keying completely on Garland.