Darius Kinnard Garland

[NMCav]

If he doesn’t develop the distributing aspect of his game, Mo Williams seems like an apt comp. he’s going to score off his jumper. It’s everything else. Needs a Mo float

Mo never had the handles Garland has.

 

[inliner311]

Are they?

We're calling Sexton a poor defender because of what he did as a 19/20 year old? Ultimately the jury is still out on defense. Let's also remember that the Cavs didn't really coach or focus on D - hadn't since Lue was HC. D'Aaron Fox was pretty terrible in year one and became better than average in year two. I don't expect that with Sexton, but let's see if he grows. Sexton probably has a 6'7"+ wingspan right now. Sexton's height has always been smaller, but his length measurements are very good. Those measurements indicate that he may be able to guard the 2 - and he measured 6'7.25 last year. I'd be interested if his wingspan has increased - I'm guessing it has.

Garland is smaller than Sexton on the length comparison. Garland is a year younger, so still could grow.

Let's see where it all goes. I have a feeling they think Sexton could roll into the 2 - and they may experiment with that. Let's also see what the new coaching staff does. Does Colin grow on defense? We know he works hard and I guarantee you that he hates being ranked near the bottom at anything, including D.

As for Sexton, his length is not all that far off those that play the 2 despite his height. His wingspan is greater than CJ McCollum's and while McCollum is not a good defender he is okay (better than Klay Thompson for Defensive RPM).

It's not reasonable to hope for Sexton to be a star on defense, but I think he can be average on D even at the 2 with work. Many of his problems last year had to do with bad reads - but he's a smart guy. I think as he gains experience, his reads will get better.

Garland is another hard worker with a lot of upside - his upside goes all the way up to a Lillard type.

We'll have to see how the coaches develop everyone on both sides of the ball. The Cavs took some intriguing players.

If I was the front office and coaching staff, I wouldn't call either Garland or Sexton a PG or SG. They should just refer to them as combo guards and stress that they keep growing both on and off the ball.

Just have them play at the beginning and end of the game together to start with. Let them be themselves for most of their minutes and slowly bring them along playing together.

I don't see any reason to have a backup PG at this point. With Sexton and Garland those 48 minutes should be fully taken up. I also wouldn't chalk up trading one of them in the future. They could work together until we get a star playmaker at another position in the future which forces one of them out of the starting unit. I wouldn't prematurely give up on the pair until another player gives us a reason to. No guarantee we have that player anytime soon. The coaching staff should be able to spread their minutes to deal with it in the short and long term.

 

[RDriesen]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV5Qkd5Qy1c


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuszsYe0Clc

 

[Mott the Hoople]

If you were a basketball scout, what wouldn't you like about this kid?
Rarely have I seen a backcourt player with this much potential.
If he went to Duke or North Carolina he would have gotten more pub than Kyrie when he was a freshman.
Just sit back and watch him develop with Beilein.

 

[pinoycavsfan]

Watching garland highlights on youtube. Man, he has a natural talent. Effortless jumpshot and handles. I just hope he has the drive and work ethic of sexton. Would love to see their practices. Im sure sexton wont give an inch to this guy. Is this kyrie-waiters part 2?

 

[Douglar]

Those highlight clips show that the kid has talent. Hope it works out. Positional log jams on a developing team always make me anxious, but on a developing team, you can't afford to skip out on the best player available just because we hope that Sexton can take the next step. If long term, we have to move one of these guys because we can't find playing time for both, well that's a good problem to have. It's definitely better than having a draft bust, and a whole lot that having two failed top 10 picks. Maybe the competition will help both of their development. Playing them both at the same time might also help the Cavs keep their #1 pick next year.

That said, anyone think that Jaxson Hayes might have had as much upside as Garland but was better fit with the team?

 

[I'mWithDan]

Better prospect, Trae or Garland?

Not even close, it is Trae IMO. Trae was a top 5 PG prospect all time in all the stuff I look at, behind only Lillard, Irving, Ball and Curry.

Elite facilitating cannot be learned. Trae was also just an awesome FT generator as a smaller player (0.442 FTA per FGA.......and 12.6 FTA per 100).....the per 100 rate was on par with guys like Kyrie, Kemba, Steph, Lillard. Trae also scored more efficiently than Garland.

Garland played so few games, it's such a crapshoot.....I'm just underwhelmed by his physical gifts and style of play. Any player type can succeed but scoring guards with his size, build, lack of vertical athleticism....coupled with non facilitating skills just are lower success outcomes. Any player can buck any trend but I still have trouble with it given his skillset and how poorly all our guards fit together.

 

[inliner311]

Watching garland highlights on youtube. Man, he has a natural talent. Effortless jumpshot and handles. I just hope he has the drive and work ethic of sexton. Would love to see their practices. Im sure sexton wont give an inch to this guy. Is this kyrie-waiters part 2?

One thing the organization did last year was not to put the ball in Sexton's hands constantly like they did with Kyrie his rookie season. Sexton learned to play off the ball.

I don't think the organization is just going to hand the keys over to Garland and let him go. He will most likely see the same on and off the ball development that they did with Sexton. Garland will most likely have to share the ball with Sexton, Delly, Knight, and Clarkson to start the season. Not to mention Cedi will be the 3rd ball handler in alot of situations.

It won't be a Kyrie/Dion 2.0 because both Garland and Sexton will have to play off the ball and learn to be effective that way before they get their run at being a pure duo handling the ball. There will be alot of other guys handling the ball so there won't that friction of thinking Sexton or Garland is being a ball hog.

 

[NMCav]

Not even close, it is Trae IMO. Trae was a top 5 PG prospect all time in all the stuff I look at, behind only Lillard, Irving, Ball and Curry.

Elite facilitating cannot be learned. Trae was also just an awesome FT generator as a smaller player (0.442 FTA per FGA.......and 12.6 FTA per 100).....the per 100 rate was on par with guys like Kyrie, Kemba, Steph, Lillard. Trae also scored more efficiently than Garland.

Garland played so few games, it's such a crapshoot.....I'm just underwhelmed by his physical gifts and style of play. Any player type can succeed but scoring guards with his size, build, lack of vertical athleticism....coupled with non facilitating skills just are lower success outcomes. Any player can buck any trend but I still have trouble with it given his skillset and how poorly all our guards fit together.

Strange that you say Trae was your fifth best PG prospect all time based on the stuff you look at. Placing him behind Lillard, Irving, and Curry. Then mention that Elite Facilitating cannot be learned and 3 of the guys better then Trae are 2nd rate facilitators at best. Not saying your wrong or right here. Just think its odd you mention Facilitating after saying 3 of your top 5 PG prospects ever are guys that have never been known for being elite passers or facilitators.

 

[iWx]

View: https://twitter.com/cavs/status/1142090667256143872

 

[I'mWithDan]

Strange that you say Trae was your fifth best PG prospect all time based on the stuff you look at. Placing him behind Lillard, Irving, and Curry. Then mention that Elite Facilitating cannot be learned and 3 of the guys better then Trae are 2nd rate facilitators at best. Not saying your wrong or right here. Just think its odd you mention Facilitating after saying 3 of your top 5 PG prospects ever are guys that have never been known for being elite passers or facilitators.

Sure but they were miles better than Garland.

Per 100 AST:

Young - 12.9
Ball - 11.7
Curry - 9.1
Irving - 8.8
Lillard - 6.9
Garland - 5.4

AST/TO ratio:

Young - 1.6
Ball - 3.1
Curry - 2.1
Irving - 1.7
Lillard - 1.7
Garland - 0.9 **

Limited data on Garland but those were the concerns from HS too. And numbers pull down as players go up levels......so think about if you are calling those other guys non facilitators......and consider how much better their AST generation and AST/TO ratios are as prospects.

The reason I mentioned it is there's not many examples of someone being of Garland's physical and playing profile, with poor passing metrics, who was a really good NBA player. That's not to say Garland can't be, it's just less likely. Young and Garland are both below the rim players.....the fact that one is an elite facilitator and one is not just really matters. Other guys in the top 5 were not necessarily elite facilitators but good ones, who have been plus passers at the NBA level. If Garland can be a plus passer, his calculus changes a lot as a player.

**Edit: I had Garland's AST/TO wrong above....it's actually lower. The 1.2 I had listed was the database column next to AST/TO.....which was BLK+STL+OREB/PF.

 

[NMCav]

Sure but they were miles better than Garland.

Per 100 AST:

Young - 12.9
Ball - 11.7
Curry - 9.1
Irving - 8.8
Lillard - 6.9
Garland - 5.4

AST/TO ratio:

Young - 1.6
Ball - 3.1
Curry - 2.1
Irving - 1.7
Lillard - 1.7
Garland - 1.2

Limited data on Garland but those were the concerns from HS too. And numbers pull down as players go up levels......so think about if you are calling those other guys non facilitators......and think about how much better their AST generation and AST/TO ratios are as prospects.

The reason I mentioned it is there's not many examples of someone being of Garland's physical and playing profile, with poor passing metrics, who was a really good NBA player. That's not to say Garland can't be, it's just less likely.

In this case I think the small sample size had something to do with it. He played 4 and a half games. No telling if he would have increased his passing as the season went along. Also don't know if some of his passes led to bricks by teammates. Irving in particular played with a rather stocked Duke team in his limited number of games. Garland was playing with 3rd tier players at Vanderbilt. I am not calling Garland a good passer. But he was also 18 in the 5 games he played where as Trae was 19 during his time at Oklahoma, Ball was also 19 at UCLA, Curry and Lillard spent 4 years in college. Would be interesting to compare their freshmen numbers. Irving again just had more talent around him. But coming out Curry and Lillard were not even thought to have high upside as facilitators. Garland has shown flashes in HS/HS All Star Games/AAU/Vanderbilt he made some nice passes. Just gotta give the kid time to develop that aspect of his game.

 

[I'mWithDan]

In this case I think the small sample size had something to do with it. He played 4 and a half games. No telling if he would have increased his passing as the season went along. Also don't know if some of his passes led to bricks by teammates. Irving in particular played with a rather stocked Duke team in his limited number of games. Garland was playing with 3rd tier players at Vanderbilt. I am not calling Garland a good passer. But he was also 18 in the 5 games he played where as Trae was 19 during his time at Oklahoma, Ball was also 19 at UCLA, Curry and Lillard spent 4 years in college. Would be interesting to compare their freshmen numbers. Irving again just had more talent around him. But coming out Curry and Lillard were not even thought to have high upside as facilitators. Garland has shown flashes in HS/HS All Star Games/AAU/Vanderbilt he made some nice passes. Just gotta give the kid time to develop that aspect of his game.

Sure but his HS and EYBL stuff is tracked too and they're similarly worrisome.

Young players can improve but that is just the big red flag with him. I believe he has the twitch to create space and score.....he looks like he has off dribble promise.....but if he can't pass at a league average level for a PG, his ceiling is just not very good relative to where he was drafted IMO.....and I honestly think his floor is pretty low too without that skill. Sexton's passing was questionable but at 8, a good starter is a huge win. In the top 5, your All-Star odds are just exponentially higher on a pick basis. There's a world where he can be a good player but I think people are really getting ahead of themselves with him. He has a few really glaring weaknesses and unknowns, more than any top 5 PG in some time (that didn't have insane athletic gifts to lean on).

Career NBA AST averages

Curry - 6.6
Lonzo - 6,4
Lillard - 6.3
Irving - 5.7

People are probably surprised to see Kyrie's number that high but that is my point. Most would consider him a ho-hum passer and he's still churning out nearly 6 AST a game as a scoring guard. That league average bar is pretty high at the PG level, even for non elite distributors. That's just where I am uneasy about Garland. He can mitigate one of two ways.....by becoming a better passer or plus defender.

 

[RDriesen]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-IXt8ltSlc


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q04wYtMtpk

 

[I'mWithDan]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-IXt8ltSlc


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q04wYtMtpk

The one thing that does stand out, as a huge positive to me, is mechanically speaking........he looks significantly better at Vandy than these videos. So that should be encouraging if you like him as a shooter. Probably a sign of him maturing physically and getting in to a more rigorous athletic training program.....but his shot is just a lot more effortless now, looking at videos 12-18 months apart.

Not even intimating it is bad in any of these HS videos, just that everything looks better in his shot analysis, in his limited film at Vandy. More lift, tighter mechanics, a bit more compact. He doesn't have to load as much from his waist, which again, is a sign he's just getting stronger.