Cavs guard Garland earning respect from league’s elite
Become a threat and you’re bound to garner more and more attention. That’s the world in which Darius Garland is living.
Garland, now in his third NBA season, has been one of the most important players in the Cavs’ turnaround. As Garland has taken a significant step forward in not only his production, but also his leadership on a young team, so too have the Cavaliers.
Garland is averaging 19.8 points, 3.4 rebounds and 8.0 assists on 46.9% shooting per game for an 18.48 Player Efficiency Rating, all of which are career highs. Particularly with Collin Sexton lost for the season, Garland has evolved into a go-to scorer and facilitator. And those around the league have noticed, including stars LeBron James, Steph Curry and others.
“Steph reached out. Steph reached out a lot,” Garland said on a Zoom call on Friday. “Donovan Mitchell, his compliments are really cool. And then just like some of my close friends in the league, like some of my big brothers like Tristan [Thompson], Bron, Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard. Like they are just telling me to keep going and keep pushing. I mean, that’s pretty cool to hear that from some of the best basketball players to touch a ball.”
But with great power comes great responsibility — to deal with the added attention in a productive way, at least. With Garland becoming a focal point of not just finishing but starting many offensive sets with the game on the line, he’s also had to deal with increased defensive attention. It means the Cavs have to make defenses regret sending extra help his way.
“You gotta make them pay,” Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “That’s where we feel confident that our big guys have skill and can make the right play. So if they’re going to trap him, he has to embrace that, get our big guys the ball and then let our big guys make the next play. I think we’ve seen that time and time again where they catch the ball in the pocket, we end up with a dunk or a wide open 3.”
It’s another reason the Cavs big men being able to handle the ball within the offensive sets — namely Lauri Markkanen and Evan Mobley — is so crucial and why the Cavs have clicked at that end of the floor.
“At the top of the floor, we’ve seen Lauri get that slot shot ... when they want to commit two to the ball,” Bickerstaff said. “So I think you make them pay, and then they’ll have to get out of that. They’ll make a decision, either to keep on it, we keep making them pay or they’ll make the adjustment and now he can shake free.”
It also lends itself to a high level of trust in Mobley, as a 7-foot rookie, to make the proper decisions. The Cavs haven’t shied away from putting Mobley in those spots.
“It talks about the trust that we have in him and that his teammates have in him,” Bickerstaff said. “Very rarely would you want to put the ball in a rookie’s hands in the fourth quarter. But he’s so dependable and he’s so confident in what he’s able to do, and his teammates are, that they put the ball in his hands in fourth quarters and trust him to make the right reads.”
Garland feels the success this season is garnering some attention from around the league as well.
“We’re getting some wins so we’re putting the league on notice,” he said. “We have a target on our back now, so a lot of teams are trying to come at us and get wins off us. We definitely have a target on our back. On the radar. One of the top teams in the league and one of the top teams in the East. We’re definitely getting more attention.”
Garland is one of the Cavs vying for an All-Star spot. The 2022 NBA All-Star Game is Feb. 20 at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. When asked if he feels he’s played like an All-Star, Garland had a direct answer.
“Hell yeah. I think I’m an All-Star,” he said.