Darius Kinnard Garland

[kidduck]

He has now scored less than 15 points in 5 of the 8 playoff games. One of the others was
a 15 point effort.

Not much BANG! for the $$$$.

 

[Dr No]

He has now scored less than 15 points in 5 of the 8 playoff games. One of the others was
a 15 point effort.

Not much BANG! for the $$$$.

That last line is the problem. He’s not a bad player, but he’s being paid to be a great player. And because so much salary is tied up in him, it’s limits who else we can get. He will be getting around 40 million per year for the next 4 years - he has to be much better for us at that price.

 

[kidduck]

Next year, with his $2M+ increase, his salary will be 26% of the Cavs cap.

 

[Thelastcavsfan]

I still believe in garland.

 

[buzzdog]

My biggest issue is that any solid veteran offensive player salivates when they get matched up with Garland. They know they can back him down or shoot over him with ease. White is good, but especially with Garland trying to check him, he is all world and he knows it. Garland needs to figure out a way to at least bother him even a little bit.

To some degree this happens with Merrill too.

 

[rastamon87]

My biggest issue is that any solid veteran offensive player salivates when they get matched up with Garland. They know they can back him down or shoot over him with ease. White is good, but especially with Garland trying to check him, he is all world and he knows it. Garland needs to figure out a way to at least bother him even a little bit.

To some degree this happens with Merrill too.

Even Pritchard was licking his chops when matched up with DG....

 

[Futuredome]

My biggest issue is that any solid veteran offensive player salivates when they get matched up with Garland. They know they can back him down or shoot over him with ease. White is good, but especially with Garland trying to check him, he is all world and he knows it. Garland needs to figure out a way to at least bother him even a little bit.

To some degree this happens with Merrill too.

White and Garland is a bad comparison since he didn't guard him that much.

 

[jmilo]

We need Garland to grow into the role of an all-star PG. Nash, CP3, Steph, even just a scorer who can take over a game like Steve Francis.

He's instead turning into someone with poop dribbling out of his shorts. He looks like a role player who's too weak for the moment.

 

[rastamon87]

We need Garland to grow into the role of an all-star PG. Nash, CP3, Steph, even just a scorer who can take over a game like Steve Francis.

He's instead turning into someone with poop dribbling out of his shorts. He looks like a role player who's too weak for the moment.

At best he is the 3rd best player on a contending team... he is just not a max type player.... he has skills but too inconsistent which can't offset his disadvantage on defense...

In the past when the Cavs had both DG and Sexton, I was more inclined to keep Sexton than Garland, not becauae of skills and potential but jist because of mentality and attitude. Sexton is a bit crazy competitive (not proportional to his abilities), but you need one of those characters on a contending team...

 

[shoes22]

I think there's a lot of negative recency bias in regards to Garland. The fact is for a myriad of reasons, it's been a down year for him. But he actually hasn't been an inconsistent player throughout his career.

That 2022 season he was consistently great, his offense carried us that season and he routinely had 10 assists per game.

This year he's been consistently below average. His scoring and assists are down and turnovers are up. He had 1.75 great games in these playoffs, the rest of the time has been in line with what he's done the rest of the season.

He absolutely needs to fix whatever is going on with him in the offseason, but I wouldn't say he's inconsistent.

 

[Pierre Pan]

Opportunity is there for Garland vs. Boston — Fear The Sword

Unlike the first round, Garland’s issues weren’t from not being able to create lean looks.

apple.news

Darius Garland struggled offensively against the Orlando Magic outside of a few bright moments. He had a difficult time playing through their length and physicality which resulted in him disappearing for extended periods when the Cleveland Cavaliers needed him most.

The stat sheet from Game 1 against the Boston Celtics tells a similar story. Fourteen points on 6-15 shooting isn’t going to cut it against a team that has the firepower Boston does. Unlike the series against the Magic, there is a pathway for him to turn it around.

Boston’s switching defense allows stars to play in space but limits how you can get others involved. We saw that in Game 1 as the Cavs finished with just 19 assists. A number that they bettered in 79 regular season games. This speaks to how Boston did a good job of sticking with their opponent on and off-ball.

This style does open up the floor for your stars to do what they do best. Donovan Mitchell did that as he scored a game-high 33 points. Garland didn’t take advantage of it, but he generated clean looks. Much cleaner than the ones he wasn’t able to convert against Orlando.

The Magic made sure Garland couldn’t get to the rim. And when he did get there, they threw a ton of bodies his way making it incredibly difficult to finish when he was there. As a result, he finished just 50% of his shots at the rim with just 26% of his looks coming there.

The extra bodies in the lane allowed his defender to play tight on the perimeter. Even when Garland got mismatches, his opponent was able to be aggressive knowing that there was help on the backside.

These clips stand in stark contrast with his misses in Game 1 in Boston. Garland was able to create daylight that simply didn’t exist in the previous series.

Garland needing to shoot more has been a constant theme. Mitchell has been mentioning it to varying degrees throughout the season. It’s unreasonable to think that this is magically going to change now which is a damning thing to say about Cleveland’s entire player development. The Cavs’ homegrown players have been unwillingness to step out of their comfort zone even when their opponent forces them into it.

Garland, though, proved he can generate great looks within his comfort zone in Game 1. Boston doesn’t have nearly the length inside that Orlando does even if they have better wings. There’s far more room on the drops and less help on the backside. This allows Garland to find daylight for jump shots and getting to the rim even though he didn’t do that much on Tuesday.

The Cavs need their three perimeter ball handlers to consistently step up if they want to make this a series. At the very least, both members of the backcourt need to outplay Derrick White. Mitchell did his part while Garland didn’t.

Even though this is the same issue as the first round, there’s a clear path to doing so. Garland just needs to break out of the slump he’s in.

 

[daytripper]

So now the narrative is that DG doesn't match up well against tall teams. Unfortunately the league is skewing more towards bigger backcourts so he really needs to figure it out considering the Cavs are still on the hook to pay him 4/$163 mil.

 

[nolookpass]

The Celtics bigs are dropping off of pick and roll. Until they change things, Darius needs to continue to just pull up for 3 every single time

 

[Futuredome]

Hearing ugly stuff about Garland. Can't see him being back next year and he would probably be the first wanting a cab ride out. I will post more in the game thread as it expands onto the whole team Saturday.

 

[shoes22]

Hearing ugly stuff about Garland. Can't see him being back next year and he would probably be the first wanting a cab ride out. I will post more in the game thread as it expands onto the whole team Saturday.

He seems just fine.