Garland’s three-point volume is a symptom of a larger issue
Garland’s lack of threes has been a symptom of a larger offensive issue.
Kenny Atkinson was brought in to iron out the Cleveland Cavaliers’ offense. Optimizing Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell will be a big part of that. Shooting threes and having Garland move more off-ball will go a long way in optimizing the group.
“Take more threes,” President of Basketball Operations Koby Altman said. “You can ask it. We want Darius to take more threes.”
This has been a repeating Media Day talking point. Garland has been consistently one of the best three-point shooters in the league. The majority of his threes last season were difficult pull-up jumpers that he knocked down at a 38.8% clip last season. His effective field goal percentage of 53.4% on pull-up jumpers was the third highest among players who attempted over three pull-up threes per game last season behind only CJ McCollum and James Harden.
This speaks to Garland’s immense skill. However, having over half of your three-point attempts coming in difficult looks like this isn’t ideal and speaks to a larger issue with how Garland has been used in the offense.
“He’s got to shoot more, but it’s not that simple,” Atkinson said. “That’s where the coaching comes in and that’s where strategy comes in. When Ricky [Rubio] was here, he came off of a lot of off-ball screens. Can we add that? Can we add that variety to this offense when he’s no 90% pick and roll and having to create his own look.”
The Garland and Rubio pairing was incredibly successful in 2021. Cleveland outscored opponents by 16.2 points per 100 possessions with both on the court (99th percentile) with a 116.4 offensive rating. There were a lot of factors into why these groupings worked so well, but Garland’s off-ball movement is a large part of that.
Unsurprisingly, Garland attempted 6.8 threes per game before Rubio’s injury and attempted the most threes of his career that season with 6.7.
“He told me there’s going to be a lot more down screens for me,” Garland said. “A lot more off-the-ball actions for me so I can get a couple catch and shoots.”
“Just like Donovan, can we create more easy catch-and-shoot [threes],” Atkinson said. “And when you look at the numbers he’s really good coming off-ball screens.”
Atkinson is correct to bring up getting more catch-and-shoot threes for Garland. He didn’t shoot a high percentage last season on those looks (35%), but historically has. Garland connected on 44% of catch-and-shoot threes in 2022-23, 35.4% in ‘21-20, 43.2% in ‘20-21, and 39.2% in ‘19-20. The issue is, that he’s always been under three attempts per game.
The Cavs need Garland to take more threes for the offense to work. But Garland’s lack of three-point attempts are also a symptom of a poorly constructed offense and not necessarily the cause. Cleveland is hoping that Atkinson can diagnose and cure this issue. In the meantime, Garland seems bought into how the offense will be different.
“A lot more spacing, a lot more room for everyone to attack, a lot more driving,” Garland said about how the offense is going to be different. “When we’re getting into the paint there’s going to be a lot more catch-and-shoot opportunities for great shooters. A lot more moving around in the offense. A lot more ball movement a lot more player movement. Just more cutting. I’m pretty excited for it.”