Good morning. It’s Friday, December 5th. The Cleveland Cavaliers are 13-10. Let’s talk about Darius Garland.
The First Sip
The Cavs aren’t playing their best basketball right now. From poor effort and a vulnerable defense
to their wildly inefficient three-point shooting, it isn’t very pretty. But even if all of those things were magically fixed — one issue would remain:
Darius Garland isn’t himself.
There’s no way around this. Anyone watching can tell you that Garland isn’t moving well right now. He’s visibly limited, hobbling around the court and wincing in pain on every other step. The stats reflect this, as Garland is averaging just 13.6 points on 34.7% shooting from the floor. You can chalk some of this up to Garland needing to find his rhythm early in the season. But there’s no denying that his toe injury is a major reason for his struggles.
Garland has missed 15 games so far. That’s already more than he missed all of last season. Even when he is on the court, he doesn’t look or play like you’d expect Darius Garland to play. He’s a shell of himself right now. I don’t know when or how that will change.
One thing I do know is that the Cavs won’t reach their ceiling until Garland gets healthy.
Injuries are only one part of what’s been plaguing Cleveland through the first 23 games. They’ll have to do some serious soul-searching to figure out why other teams are consistently playing harder than they are. Yet, playing harder will only help the Cavs win regular-season games. It won’t be enough to get them deeper into the playoffs. That’s where talent and effort are non-negotiables.
Garland is the key to all of this. The Cavs have zero chance of competing for a title if this is the version of Garland we are going to get. It’s unclear how long Garland will be dealing with this injury — but it is clear what the outcome will be if things don’t change by April.
