The Cavaliers selected Darius Garland with the No. 5 overall pick in this year’s draft despite selecting a point guard the year prior in Collin Sexton. Cleveland insisted that the choice was not about a lack of faith in Sexton but rather a belief that the two point guards can play together and the team is testing its hypothesis early this season, as I wrote for NBAMath.
Sexton has spent nearly three-quarters of his 217 minutes next to Garland, while Garland has seen just 32 minutes without Sexton. The results haven’t been great, as the pair has a net rating of -10.2 and the team has pulled just two wins so far this season.
Seven games is not a large enough sample size to make long-term conclusions, but the two former top-10 picks seem like an awkward fit and the Cavs selected Sexton not knowing exactly what their long-term future would look like as they held out hope for LeBron James re-signing with the franchise.
For Cleveland, this season is about figuring out the fit between the two young guards, and the team will continue to roll out the pair with the hopes that they can click.
Do you believe the Cavaliers’ guards can coexist, or will they eventually need to trade one of the two? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below. We look forward to what you have to say!
I always thought they should have just got behind Sexton.
It’s not ideal from a development standpoint for either guy. Even if the skill sets are somewhat complementary. Defined roles and expectations are important to young developing players. Adjusting to the NBA is hard enough, to also ask a young player to (at the same time) adjust to playing a new or modified position (both guys really are being asked to do this) is a lot.
Good guards can coexist if they’re, you know, good. Not saying they won’t be, but right now, neither of them are
^^^This is it.
I saw a stat earlier that showed that Sexton and Garland are both passing the ball 36 times a game, while Garland receives 46 passes a game and Sexton receives 47 a game. So while neither of them can be considered a floor general, neither of them are exactly dominating the ball either.
They can both shoot, and I think that at least gives them potential as a pairing. Last year Sexton was able to play through all of his mistakes and basically threw anything at the wall to see what stuck, and since he was one of the few reliable shot-makers they had, he was taking a lot of them himself and never really worked on his passing much.
They’ll probably never defend well so you’re taking a big risk, but the Cavs are still in the early-ish stages of their rebuild and just need to accumulate as many good players as possible. I’d worry about how they fit later.
That’s bull, the Cavaliers drafted Sexton knowing James wasn’t coming back. And they drafted Garland because they know Sexton ain’t a point guard. He ain’t a starting shooting guard, either.
Why force the issue of coexistence, the results, small in size, are paltry. Are egos really that fragile? They have to share the floor to some extent but if mixing lineups yields better results even if its just dev why not give it a go. Maximizing a players value is the goal even if hes not a keeper. wasnt opposed fo them drafting a point guard after your starter only dishes out 3 a night, but garland cant be much or fetch much at the rate hes going