Even though he is a two-time All-Star, it has felt like Darius Garland has flown under the radar for most of his career. With the Cleveland Cavaliers, he was able to establish himself as one of the shiftiest playmakers in the sport.
It felt like Garland would be a Cav for life, but they traded him for James Harden at last season’s trade deadline, due to the fact that Cleveland needed a floor general that could stay healthy and be productive. It gave Garland the chance to land with the Clippers and lead his own team again.
The All-Star point guard had a strong finish to the year with LA last year and was absurdly efficient. He was expected to build on that this season, but so far, the results have not been there.
Darius Garland has gotten off to a very rough start with the Clippers
Garland’s efficiency and scoring have been there. He is still averaging 22 points per game, six assists, and shooting 46 percent from the field and 38 percent from three-point range. Those are all on par with the best seasons he has had in his career.
The problem is the turnovers. Garland is averaging six turnovers per game right now and is second in total turnovers with 28. Obviously giveaways are bound to happen when you are the primary ball handler on a team, but it is the nature of the turnover that matters.
So many of Garland’s are just super careless and just flat out embarrassing. For someone that has aspirations of being amongst the best point guards in the sport, it is unacceptable to be that careless with the ball.
And throughout his career, Garland has done a solid job of taking care of the ball. He is usually around three turnovers per game in his career, with his career high in that category coming in 2022 with 3.6 per game, but he averaged nine assists on top of that.
The Clippers obviously are not expected to be very good this year or any time in the future. However, Garland needs to be better, especially if he wants to earn another big contract, or end up on a contending team at some point. It is still early in the season and LA does have a bunch of new pieces. Garland has also shown that he can be better than this. He just has to get back to that.
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