Cleveland Cavaliers: Predicting 2021 statistical leaders in each major category

Cleveland Cavaliers predicted steals per game leader – Darius Garland

The Cleveland Cavaliers are coming off a season where they were one of the worst defensive teams in basketball. The team overall had a defensive rating of 113.5 which ranked 25th in the NBA and 14th in the Eastern Conference. The Cavs allowed 112.3 points per game, which is slightly improved from where they were at in 2019. The team forced 14.3 turnovers per game, which was close to being top 10 in the league, and that was in large part to the defensive efforts of Darius Garland.

Cavs guard Collin Sexton has historically been the one to receive all of the love as a defensive pest but his backcourt mate, Darius Garland has been the stat sheet stuffer defensively. Garland averaged 1.2 steals per game, the most among players who appeared in at least 50 percent of the team’s games. He made quite the jump defensively between the end of the 2019 season and the beginning of the 2020 season. Sexton and newly acquired backup point guard, Ricky Rubio, will both compete with Garland for the Cavs steals title but with the minutes Garland is expected to get, he ranks just ahead of them.

In his rookie year, Garland average 0.7 steals and that jumped in his sophomore season. One can’t expect another huge jump in his third year in the league but there’s definitely room for growth and improvement. With the acquisitions that the Cavs made, the team overall should be much better defensively and Garland will be a big part of that.