The Cavs need something from Darius Garland

Garland disappeared once again in Game 3 as he totaled just 5 points in Cleveland’s most lopsided playoff loss.

Donovan Mitchell has said some version of the same thing every time he’s been asked about Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland’s struggles throughout the season.

“We made this thing [Mitchell coming to Cleveland] for us to be together,” Mitchell said in December. “That’s my brother. That’s my dog.”

The question continuously needs to be asked considering how they haven’t complimented each other the way they should. Game 3s humiliating loss was further proof of that as the Orlando Magic dared anyone besides Mitchell to beat them, and they couldn’t. This included Garland who finished with just 5 points on 2-10 shooting in 31 minutes.

Magic head coach Jahmal Mosley entered this series with too much respect for Garland. He put his best perimeter defender, Jalen Suggs, on him for the first two games and was hesitant to double Mitchell even though Gary Harris was having a tough time containing Mitchell. The most recent time Mosley was asked why Suggs wasn’t starting on Mitchell, his answer came back to why it was so important to stop Garland.

He was partially right. It’s important to stop Garland, but he didn’t have to go through all that effort to do so.

The idea of playing with Garland has intrigued Mitchell because he knows how having a second dynamic guard can alleviate pressure for him. Teams shouldn’t be able to easily double or put their best perimeter defender on him without risking what could happen to the other guard. However, this has proven true only in theory and not on the court.

Garland should’ve been the guy who broke Orlando’s defense every time they blitzed Mitchell, except he was always found standing 35 feet from the hoop in the least threatening position on the court.

Taken from NBA.com

While five sets of eyes watched Mitchell, none were on Garland. That can’t happen. Even if Mitchell could throw it out to Garland, he isn’t in a position to do anything if the ball did come to him.

Aside from getting help from Garland, Mitchell needs to do a better job at handling these traps. He’s still often too late in getting rid of the ball or tries to take it on when he doesn’t have to. The same issues that popped up against the New York Knicks are doing so again now.

Garland has helped in these situations in the past, at least more than he did in Game 3. He showed he could do so at the end of Game 2 even though the team as a whole struggled when Mitchell was trapped. Here, he goes down to the corner so that he’s in a position to get the second pass from the trap and draws a foul. That’s not something he can do from the Kia Center logo.

They’ve even shown they can do creative things like they did in one of their final regular season games two weeks ago. Garland slips an on-ball screen and gets a flare screen from Jarrett Allen that generates a clean look.

Garland has had a tough campaign. It’s clear that he isn’t the guy from the last two seasons and there’s little reason to believe he will be at any point this season. But the Cavs don’t need him to be that. They just need someone who can keep the defense honest and not allow the game to get out of hand when Mitchell sits like it did at end of the first quarter and the beginning of the second on Thursday night.