Kenny Atkinson Plans To Incorporate More Of This For Cavaliers Star

Kenny Atkinson plans to put Darius Garland in more catch-and-shoot situations in the Cleveland Cavaliers' offense.

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

The Cleveland Cavaliers are bringing back essentially the same roster as last season. However, their offense and game plan could look much different now that Kenny Atkinson is head coach.

Atkinson and President of Basketball Operations Koby Altman said during Friday's media availability that they want and expect Darius Garland to shoot more threes next season. But Atkinson elaborated on this and made it clear they don't want him just taking any threes.

They want it to come out of the offense naturally

"He's gotta shoot more, but it's not that simple. That's where coaching comes in, and that's where strategy comes in," said Atkinson.

"I know when Ricky (Rubio) was here, [Garland] came off a lot of off-ball screens. If we add that variety to this offense, he's not just 90 percent pick and roll and having to create a lot of on his own. Much like Donovan, create more easy catch and shoot ... When you look at the numbers, he's really good at coming off off-ball screens."

Atkinson is onto something here. During the 2022-23 season, Garland attempted 4.2 catch-and-shoot threes a game and connected on 38.1 percent of them. However, that dropped to just 1.6 attempts last season while shooting 31.6 percent on those attempts, per NBA Stats.

This is clearly a strength of DG, but it was ignored in the offense last season.

Apr 25, 2024; Orlando, Florida, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland (10) shoots the ball during the first quarter of game three of the first round for the 2024 NBA playoffs at Kia Center. Mandatory Credit: Mike Watters-Imagn Images / Mike Watters-Imagn Images

Incorporating more catch-and-shoot in the offense for Garland is the perfect way to get him more involved while not putting too much pressure on him to do everything himself.

We saw Donovan Mitchell's ability to initiate an offense and the emergence of Craig Porter Jr. when DG was out last season. Each of them is more than capable of helping create more looks for Garland, and that could elevate everyone's game.