Leading Man
Third-Year Man Darius Garland Grows Into a Leadership Role with Cleveland
by Joe Gabriele (@CavsJoeG)
9/30/21 | Cavs.com
It seems like from the moment he wowed the Cavaliers brass with a mind-blowing shooting display at a pre-Draft workout in Los Angeles, Darius Garland has been the point guard of the team.
As a 19-year-old after being taken with the 5th overall pick, he was Cleveland’s starer on opening night in Orlando after just five college games at Vanderbilt. This year, he comes into Camp as the team’s seasoned starting quarterback – coming off a strong close to the 2020-21 campaign and a summer with the nation’s best in Las Vegas.
But this season, the depth chart behind Numeral 10 is different. Damyean Dotson and Matthew Dellavedova are gone, replaced by a pair of guards each with unique international experiences.
Ricky Rubio, a 10-year vet who arrived in deal for Taurean Prince over the summer, is coming off an Olympic performance with the Spanish national team in which he led all scorers in Tokyo, paced by a 36-point outburst against Team USA.
After a stellar four-year career with Gonzaga, Kevin Pangos spent the last six years playing overseas – most recently with Zenit Saint Petersburg of the VTB United League and the EuroLeague. He led EuroLeague play with 89 triples on 39 percent shooting and ranked third overall in assists at 6.7apg. The native Canadian has also played in Spain and Lithuania.
Pangos already impressed his other point men in a shooting contest – taking the title in the Cavs official first practice before relinquishing it to Garland in the second workout later Tuesday night.
Last April, Garland became the quickest in Cavs franchise history to connect on 200 triples – and sits at 210 when the 2021-22 season tips off.
Jason Miller via Getty Images
The 28-year-old spoke highly of his new backcourt mates, which also includes fourth-year man Collin Sexton – who’s coming off a career-high in assists (4.4apg).
”I think (Garland) is great,” said Pangos. “I think him and (Sexton) are both great players, and they have a lot of great things they bring to the team. DG can score the ball, he can set guys up. He’s very creative off the dribble. The Bull is just a warrior, a guy who can score in many different ways. He just competes at the highest level.”
Garland has grown into the role of starting point guard through his first two seasons. Although he was the immediate starter, he had to become the vocal leader. And that began taking shape by what he did on the floor.
Last year, capped by an outstanding month of April, the Indiana native finished the season with career bests in scoring (17.4), rebounding (2.4), assists (6.1), steals (1.22), minutes (33.1) along with shooting percentages from the floor (.451) and beyond the arc (.395).
”(The game) definitely slows down,” Garland said of his sophomore season. “Coming from college to the league, everybody’s stronger, everybody’s faster. You come into the league at 18, 19 years old, so that second year it slows down, and you get acclimated to the league.”
”Leadership leads from the front,” said J.B. Bickerstaff. “It’s hard to lead a group from behind. When you have veteran players around you and guys that have that experience, sometimes it’s easy to just blend in. And what I’ve seen from Darius now is, he’s in the forefront all the time. He’s the guy that’s bringing us in and breaking us down. When we huddle up, he’s one of the guys I see staring me in my face. He’s made those changes with his acceptance of the role and his confidence in himself and understanding what the team needs.
”He wants to make a difference, and in order for a difference to be made, he has to be different and he has to do more. And he’s willing to take that on.”
Garland sees the shifting dynamic of the youthful Cavaliers. And he knows if the team’s going to take the next step, young vets like Sexton and himself will have to lead the way.
”It’s a lot of young guys, so the energy is there every day, the vibe is good every day,” said the 21-year-old. “Everyone likes to come in to work and the coaching staff makes it fun to come to work. It’s been fun since we’ve been here. And even in Vegas, we had a lot of fun. Everybody’s here to compete. Everybody’s here to win and play good basketball. That’s what we’re here to do.”
Through Garland’s first two seasons, Garland has had varied veterans to lean on – from Brandon Knight to Jordan Clarkson to Matthew Dellavedova. This season, he’ll roll with Rubio – a relationship he’s already building early in Camp.
"(Garland) wants to make a difference, and in order for a difference to be made, he has to be different and he has to do more. And he’s willing to take that on"
”(Rubio)’s gonna be a great leader for us,” praised Garland. “I’m definitely going to be picking his brain a lot more. We’re locker buddies, so I’m definitely going to talk to him every day and probably watch a lot of film with him and see what he has to say about my game.”
Rubio has praised Garland’s game since his arrival. But he also intends to push the young gun – something he’s had experience with in the past.
”It takes a lot of energy to have the year (Garland) had last year,” said Rubio. “He had great, great numbers – a great year. But that can be translated to a winning team; that can be translated to helping the team to win. I’m going to have to challenge him in that area. I’m going to bring my experience the same way I did with (Devin) Booker, the same way I did with Donovan Mitchell.”
Garland served notice as a sophomore with a monster month of April.
After beginning the month with a six-point clunker in a lopsided loss to the Sixers, Garland would proceed to average 21.5 points per over his next 14 outings – topping the 20-point mark on nine occasions, including a career-best 37-point outburst in an historic blowout victory in San Antonio. Garland tallied 20-plus in six straight from April 15-25 to become just the seventh player in franchise history to do so in either of his first two seasons.
Garland handed out double-digit assists in six games this year – three times in the month of April alone – and dished out seven or more assists 23 times. He was one of only four players this past season to average at least 17.0 points and 6.0 helpers while shooting 39 percent from long-range and 84 percent from the line – joining Kyrie Irving, Kyle Lowry and the reigning MVP, Nikola Jokic.
The third-year man also knows that the next step – for himself and the team – is on the defensive end of the ball.
”It really starts with our defense,” said Garland. “If we get stops, that means we get out in transition, we can get into the paint, get a lot of spray-out threes – and that’s what we’re looking for. We want a lot of excitement this year around the city, so there’ll be a lot of threes, a lot of alley-oops and some real excitement.”
The Cavs bulked up with seven-footers this offseason, but the guards are still what drives the Wine & Gold. This year, the backcourt will also feature the team’s vocal leaders.
”You listen to our practices now and you’ll hear Darius’ voice, you hear Collin’s – and then Ricky comes in as a natural-born leader and he’s extremely hopeful and helpful to the guys,” said Coach Bickerstaff.
That’s what it’s about – we put our belief in those guys, and we believe that they’re gonna carry us to the future,” Coach continued. “So it makes our job easier when they take on that role and start to engage themselves and show that growth. On the floor, there are so many problems that can be solved through communication. So as long as they continue to talk to one another they’ll be able to solve problems more quickly and that’ll make us a better team more quickly.”