Cavaliers Point Guard Expecting To Do More Of This Next Season

Darius Garland reveals new Cleveland Cavaliers head coach wants him to shoot more three-pointers.

Jan 20, 2023; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland (10) reacts after a three point basket during the second half against the Golden State Warriors at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

Darius Garland is coming off a tough season with the Cleveland Cavaliers, during which he struggled with injuries and offensive inconsistency. Throughout the regular season, he just never looked like the player who was named an All-Star in 2022.

DG revealed that new head coach Kenny Atkinson has big expectations for him and is anticipating Garland to shoot a lot more threes in the Wine and Gold offense this season.

"Kenny just wants me to be me," said DG. "He wants me to be aggressive. He's been emphasizing more threes, so I'm definitely going to get more threes up this year for everybody and just shoot it with confidence."

"Running to the corners so we get open threes. Kenny's a big three-point attempt guy," said Garland. "So, we're trying to get as many threes as we can. Try to get out in transition, [and] walk up threes. He's been on me and [Donovan Mitchell] about those in transition as well ... Threes have been a big emphasis in training camp this year."

Garland averaged 6.2 threes a game last season and shot 37 percent from behind the arc, his lowest shooting percentage since his rookie season.

DG said during Thursday's media availability that Atkinson hasn't given him a concrete number of threes he's anticipating from the point guard, but it could be around eight or nine a night.

Mar 28, 2023; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland (10) shoots against the Atlanta Hawks in the second quarter at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Yes, DG needs to be better with the threes he's taking for this offense to flourish. But that's only half of the story. The other part of this is on the coaching staff to help find him more open and effcient shots so Garland isn't forcing anything.

Based on what Cleveland's point guard is saying here, Atkinson clearly has a plan to increase the number of quality shots Garland sees in a game. In theory, this should help both his three-point attempts and his percentage go up.

We'll just have to wait until preseason and into opening night to see what this looking like at an in-game level.