https://youtu.be/gDzKLicMP84
Darius Garland and Collin Sexton, a duo lovingly termed “Sexland” (tbh not a very creative nickname, they definitely did not consult world-renowned nickname master DownToBuck on this one), combined to shoot a chuckerific 20 of 51 from the field in this game. Sexton was 11 of 27 for 28 points, fine, whatever, and Garland was 9 of 24 for a career-high 25 points. Again, not so bad. At least they both managed to score more points than they had shot attempts, an occurrence which happens maybe a bit too often for guys who are supposed to be the future of the franchise.
And 20 of 51 combined might seem overly chucky, but their 7 other teammates combined for 21 of 46, which is better, but not so much better that the fact that Sexton and Garland chucked so much becomes an affront to humanity. And really, do you want people like Dean Wade (who is apparently starter-quality now) and Lamar Stevens and JaVale McGee to start throwing up shots all willy-nilly? No. Of course not. However, I would like to see Dylan Windler try to be a little more aggressive. If he chucked liked Sexland, he could totally score 21 on 10 shots, I just know it.
I will say that Garland has impressed me this season with his improvement, both scoring the ball and passing the ball so that his semi-useless teammates can score the ball. Garland was bad last season. I made sure everyone knew how bad he was repeatedly in my descriptions. There was stuff there, for sure, but when it came to helping his team win games, that wasn’t something he was doing all too often. This year, the Cavaliers are still awful (don’t be fooled by their deceptive 13-18 record, or their legitimate wins against the 76ers/Nets, if they’re not beating Eastern Conference contenders they’re getting blown to smithereens by mediocre teams), but I wouldn’t blame their awfulness on Garland specifically.
Except in the sense that if Garland was the same caliber of basketball player as Michael Jordan, the Cavaliers would be a lot better. So I guess we should blame him.