Draft Profile: Darius Garland, The Radiohead of the Draft

As we count down to the 2019 NBA Draft, the staff here at Cavs: The Blog will be taking a look at the players who could be available to the Cleveland Cavaliers with either of their first-round picks. Today, we take a look at Vanderbilt point guard Darius Garland. 

Background Information

• Name: Darius Garland
• Height: 6′ 2”
• Weight: 175 pounds
• Wingspan: 6’5”
• Standing Reach: 8’1”
• Background: Born to former NBA player Winston Garland, Darius moved to Tennessee when he was in the sixth grade from Gary, Indiana. The move put him closer to his AAU team and allowed him to attend Brentwood Academy where he averaged 27.6 points per game during his senior year and led the team to four straight state titles.
• College: Darius stayed close to home and attended Vanderbilt University. After four full games, he experienced a meniscus tear in his left leg against Kent State after just two minutes.His team lost that game and the rest of their games that season after winning their first four with him playing.
• College Stats: 5 GP, 27.8 mpg, 47.8% from 3 (2.2-4.6), 3.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 0.4 blocks, 0.8 steals, 3.0 turnovers, 16.2 ppg
• Accolades: Three time Mr. Basketball, McDonald’s All American, Gatorade Tennessee player of the year as a senior, Member of Team USA Junior team, in USAB system since age 14

Strengths

Darius is a serious shooter. He has a quick and very repeatable stroke no matter how he’s coming into his shot. He doesn’t need two steps to gather, so he’s always one step away from letting it fly. He’s already ahead of a decent amount of NBA players as far as foot work goes. His stroke allowed him to flourish as a shooter on and off the ball. It wasn’t a fluke that he hit 47.8% from beyond the arc at Vanderbilt.

The beginning of the video in this following tweet from Mike Schmitz shows Garland’s ability to hit deep shots coming off of screens.

Combing through Darius Garland's tape for his NBA draft scouting video and quickly reminded exactly why he's No. 4 in our Top-100. Such an impressive combination of ball-handling, footwork and off-the-dribble shooting. pic.twitter.com/i0qrAKQhkU

— Mike Schmitz (@Mike_Schmitz) April 15, 2019

Darius has range too. He was hitting shots from 28 feet out without hesitation. Look at this shot chart. It’s not all of his college shots (not all college games are tracked), but it’s a fairly accurate representation of Garland’s short college career. He’s not hugging the line on his 3s at all. He lets it go like he’s a Curry (41.2%) or Trae Young (36%), both of whom he shot better than from 3-land in college (although he did play fewer games).

Partial shot chart for Darius Garland’s college career from thestepien.com

Garland hits his shots from all over the floor. He has a crafty dribble game that works well in space. If he has just one man in front of him, he uses his lateral quickness to get an advantage or space to shoot.

This clip also shows his hoppy dribble nature. He gets to where he wants to go with a decent pace. He reminds me of Collin Sexton early in his Cavs career with his dribble. He can get to where he wants to go, but he’s not quick about it and can be stopped before the rim.

One-on-one, Garland should be very successful after a year or so. It will take time to see how he deals with having to cross up two or three players at once.

Ultimately, if Garland’s development stalls out early on, he should still be a floor spacing bench player. A lot of people are comparing him to Damian Lillard,  but he’s a shorter version of Klay Thompson on the offensive end right now if all goes as planned when he takes the floor in the NBA. He lacks the feel for the game of Lillard.

Besides his ability to shoot the crap out of the ball, Garland also has it going for him that his father played in the NBA. He  was around successful ball players most of his life and understands how much work being in the Association takes. Work ethic shouldn’t be an issue with him at all.

Weaknesses

Garland is small. He’s not even two-hundred pounds; he’s not over 6’3′.’ He can cover point guards and pretty much point guards only, and he won’t even be that great at it. Size matters. Garland also lacks anticipation on the defensive end as evidenced by him garnering less than a steal per game. Stephen Curry is his max defensive upside and Curry is a player that is routinely hunted on the defensive end.

Darius also struggles around the rim and has trouble hitting open players when he is crowded because he’s so slight. He had a free throw rate of just 0.296. It doesn’t help that his handle is rather loose. In one-on-one situations, it works. He’s hard to stop because his timing is so goofy, but when multiple players push up on him he no longer has the advantage of timing. There’s too many hands to fluster him and he dribbles too high to protect the ball. That looseness extends to his passing. He can make a pocket pass, but he’s just as likely to loft an easy steal or jack an ill-advised long 3-ball. He had a 0.86:1 assist to turnover ratio in college. That’s awful. Darius also views himself as a “pass first” guard, so…imagine if he wasn’t focused on passing.

And, for the people who say the space of the NBA game will help him, I have to disagree. If Garland’s having his passes stolen and his pocket ripped at the college level, that’s not likely to change. There’s more space in the NBA, but guys also cover more ground and help in smarter ways.

Even Garland’s positive stats can be looked down upon. Vanderbilt played a very easy schedule when Garland was playing. He still put up no games with more than four assists. He had just two games with more assists than turnovers. He had a three point game against the Alcorn State Braves! I, too, have no idea who that team is.

The New Wave Of Need-to-Be Stephen Currys

Here is my general issue with Garland and others like him: these super small guards coming out of college whose games are entirely predicated on shooting the ball have too risky of a development path. They are nearly always going to be minus defenders (they lack the base level of a 3 and D guy), and if their shots don’t work out at a high level, they lose the ability to get to the rack. Their dribble games aren’t potent enough on their own. They Need-to-Be Stepehen Currys shooting wise to become worthwhile, if taken early in a draft. Curry is an awesome player and some teams may want to take a gamble on a player who needs to develop in an extremely specific way to become a Curry. If it works, your franchise could win a Finals. If it doesn’t, your franchise is stuck with a small useless bench rider or expensive floor spacer.

Garland also isn’t really worth where he is projected go. Right now he looks like he will go in the top seven. However, this is a weak draft. Earlier today, I was reading an article at hoopsprospects.com from Brendan O’Sullivan. He summed up this draft the best I’ve heard:

It’s not often that a player’s draft stock improves following a season-ending injury, but that’s reality for Vanderbilt freshman guard Darius Garland.

Essentially, this draft is so weak that Garland’s lack of college games kept him from showing as many flaws as the guards who played more games. The top of the guard class this year would not be the top most other years.

Nonetheless, Garland’s name is going to keep popping up. He’s signed to Klutch Sports, LeBron’s Agency. The Lakers have been tied to him. He has a good highlight reel. People are going to keep forcing him on the world. For me, he has become the Radiohead of the draft.

Radiohead is the band whose fans tell you are “awesome and intelligent and say a ton.” Only those people don’t actually listen to Radiohead, they just idealize them. They’re a fine band, but they aren’t geniuses. Thom Yorke has yet to solve world hunger with his music, but his fans will act like he has. Garland’s only considered so highly at this point because people feel the need to keep talking about how great of a scorer he is without relation to what he did in college and what he needs to do to be a winner in the NBA.  He’s fine, but he’s not all that people think he is yet.