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The solution to the alpha deficit problem is to trade for Ben Simmons. He’ll make our betas look like alphas in comparison.
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Darius Kinnard Garland
- Thread starter J_J
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that's the problem when your best scorer is the alpha, lead creator and one of the most tenured players in the team. rubio should settle in real quick and take the alpha and creator role from sexton. DG should take notice and learn from rubio. if both don't happen, expect the team confusion to continue.
BigZ94
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This was my biggest gripe with the Nance trade, we don’t have that vocal leader anymore. Hopefully somebody (Rubio?) can fill that role, but for a young team like these cavs we need a vocal vet like Vince Carter, Haslem, PJ Tucker, Draymond
from the luxury of his hacienda ? He aint suiting up for the Cavs and they better know better than to trade for him.
He was a good player. Nice guy. Little more. Nowhere close to his dad. I rather have Laurie
BigZ94
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He did provide some leadership which I feel we are sorely lacking now, hopefully Rubio can fill that role but I feel we are really missing a vet who can be the vocal guy on defence
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Sam Vecenie of The Athletic picked Garland as one of his seven "breakout" players for this season. Here's what he wrote:
Darius Garland, Cavaliers
Garland kind of broke out already last season, but nobody noticed because he played for a Cleveland team that everyone tuned out by the time February rolled around. During a 22-game stretch from March 17 until April 28 (he got hurt in the following game and missed most of the rest of the season), Garland averaged 20.6 points and 6.8 assists per game and shot 46.8 percent from the field, 41.6 percent from 3 and 85.1 percent from the line with over a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. There were few players in the league more fun to watch during that stretch of games, and I think he has another leap in him this year. I don’t know if the Cavs will be quite good enough as a team for him to push for an All-Star berth — I’m pretty worried about what this team looks like defensively due to a real shortage of mobile, switchable defenders — but I don’t think Garland’s stats will be terribly dissimilar to the guards who end up on that team.
The conversation between Garland and Collin Sexton about who the team’s point guard of the future should be is not even close. Sexton is a terrific scorer who would look great in a number of places, but I don’t think this pairing works remotely well enough on the perimeter defensively to be a legitimate long-term consideration for a team that will eventually shift into an attempt to contend. And Garland is ahead of Sexton already as an all-around offensive player who can make plays both as a passer and scorer. His scoring also seems to come more in the flow of the offense, as he is a bit more capable of playing away from the ball due to his lights-out shooting. Whereas Sexton needs the ball a bit more, Garland is going to have a bit more success, in my view, playing off the ball next to another dynamic wing ballhandler — or a dynamic big ballhandler like Evan Mobley. Sure, Garland can play on the ball due to his elite change of pace mixed with quickness and tight handle. But his ability to play off the ball too scales him to being a high-level offensive player on a winning team.
The Cavs ran a lot of pindown actions with the five at the top of the key with the ball, the four as the screener and Garland flying out of the corner, allowing him to sprint off screens to catch and shoot from above the break. Those were pretty effective. More than that, though, they ran a lot of fun actions where they’d empty out one side of the floor for Garland and a big (typically Larry Nance Jr. when he was healthy) and have them play a two-man game in dribble handoff sets in space where Garland flies off the big originally and either drives to the rim or comes back up to get the ball flipped to him, using the threat of his jumper to devastating effect.
Get Garland in space, and he’s absolutely dynamic with the ball due to his speed and shooting ability from all levels. Now, imagine those sets with Mobley being the one who can make the decision, a more threatening and dynamic passer, ballhandler and playmaker than Nance or Dean Wade? It might take a couple of years to reach full power, but Garland and Mobley are the two clear building blocks on the Cavaliers, in my view. I’d expect that we see flashes of their pairing often this year.
I think Garland averages over 20 points and seven assists per game this season on strong efficiency. Again, he did this basically for a stretch last year, but my bet is that more people notice that he’s a lot closer to Ja Morant in terms of overall value than what most would think. I’d definitely still take Morant because he can be the driving force of bringing an offense to a playoff level. But Garland might be better than Morant as the No. 2 guy on a roster because of his ability to play off-ball due to his elite multi-level shooting — and sometimes those guys who can scale to being an elite No. 2 end up being more valuable than middling No. 1 guys because they can push a good team into being even greater. Morant has a great enough upside to be a high-level No. 1 driver on offense to where he’s the better player. But Garland’s long-term potential is that of an elite second offensive option next to a primary wing/big creator. His overall long-term value will be determined by him reaching any sort of average level on defense, but I’m not sure enough people around the NBA have recognized how complete Garland’s offensive game has become.
Darius Garland, Cavaliers
Garland kind of broke out already last season, but nobody noticed because he played for a Cleveland team that everyone tuned out by the time February rolled around. During a 22-game stretch from March 17 until April 28 (he got hurt in the following game and missed most of the rest of the season), Garland averaged 20.6 points and 6.8 assists per game and shot 46.8 percent from the field, 41.6 percent from 3 and 85.1 percent from the line with over a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. There were few players in the league more fun to watch during that stretch of games, and I think he has another leap in him this year. I don’t know if the Cavs will be quite good enough as a team for him to push for an All-Star berth — I’m pretty worried about what this team looks like defensively due to a real shortage of mobile, switchable defenders — but I don’t think Garland’s stats will be terribly dissimilar to the guards who end up on that team.
The conversation between Garland and Collin Sexton about who the team’s point guard of the future should be is not even close. Sexton is a terrific scorer who would look great in a number of places, but I don’t think this pairing works remotely well enough on the perimeter defensively to be a legitimate long-term consideration for a team that will eventually shift into an attempt to contend. And Garland is ahead of Sexton already as an all-around offensive player who can make plays both as a passer and scorer. His scoring also seems to come more in the flow of the offense, as he is a bit more capable of playing away from the ball due to his lights-out shooting. Whereas Sexton needs the ball a bit more, Garland is going to have a bit more success, in my view, playing off the ball next to another dynamic wing ballhandler — or a dynamic big ballhandler like Evan Mobley. Sure, Garland can play on the ball due to his elite change of pace mixed with quickness and tight handle. But his ability to play off the ball too scales him to being a high-level offensive player on a winning team.
The Cavs ran a lot of pindown actions with the five at the top of the key with the ball, the four as the screener and Garland flying out of the corner, allowing him to sprint off screens to catch and shoot from above the break. Those were pretty effective. More than that, though, they ran a lot of fun actions where they’d empty out one side of the floor for Garland and a big (typically Larry Nance Jr. when he was healthy) and have them play a two-man game in dribble handoff sets in space where Garland flies off the big originally and either drives to the rim or comes back up to get the ball flipped to him, using the threat of his jumper to devastating effect.
Get Garland in space, and he’s absolutely dynamic with the ball due to his speed and shooting ability from all levels. Now, imagine those sets with Mobley being the one who can make the decision, a more threatening and dynamic passer, ballhandler and playmaker than Nance or Dean Wade? It might take a couple of years to reach full power, but Garland and Mobley are the two clear building blocks on the Cavaliers, in my view. I’d expect that we see flashes of their pairing often this year.
I think Garland averages over 20 points and seven assists per game this season on strong efficiency. Again, he did this basically for a stretch last year, but my bet is that more people notice that he’s a lot closer to Ja Morant in terms of overall value than what most would think. I’d definitely still take Morant because he can be the driving force of bringing an offense to a playoff level. But Garland might be better than Morant as the No. 2 guy on a roster because of his ability to play off-ball due to his elite multi-level shooting — and sometimes those guys who can scale to being an elite No. 2 end up being more valuable than middling No. 1 guys because they can push a good team into being even greater. Morant has a great enough upside to be a high-level No. 1 driver on offense to where he’s the better player. But Garland’s long-term potential is that of an elite second offensive option next to a primary wing/big creator. His overall long-term value will be determined by him reaching any sort of average level on defense, but I’m not sure enough people around the NBA have recognized how complete Garland’s offensive game has become.
Passive. Soft. Bad combo
Hopefully having Rubio on the team helps Garland significantly improve those aspects of his game. Darius is just 21 years old, after all.
Futuredome
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lol. Really?? I don't see it. This is like confirmation bias trying to guide your decision making.
And yet the only people claiming Garland is great are the same one's that expected him to be great early on and yet has not been smh
He aint that great yet, maybe he gets there maybe not, but acting as if he is when he is not is what kills your takes