The last of the newest additions from the trade deadline, Darius Garland, made his debut against the Golden State Warriors. Unsurprisingly, he came off the bench, had a couple of nice three-pointers, and showed willingness to defend, but overall, the impression that he gave off was rustiness, and in all honesty, the LA Clippers should have expected this the moment they found out his toes were still recovering.
Garland played 23 minutes and posted 12 points, two rebounds, and two assists on 4-9 shooting. This seems decent, right? Well, the concerns grew life from his five turnovers and five missed threes on seven attempts.
LA ultimately won from a 17-point comeback, which is a plus, yet moving forward, Clippers fans should not expect any sort of crazy performance from Garland, at least until he is fully acclimated and his minutes restriction is removed by Tyronn Lue.
Darius Garland will improve over the course of the remainder of the season
Repetition and film study will be Darius Garland’s best friends in finding the rhythm he once had with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He just needs to maximize the right resources and correct where he went wrong. Doing so will lead to the inevitable progression he is desperately looking for.
Missing good looks is not a problem at all, especially for someone who has not played since the middle of January. In addition, the key sign that fans could not help but notice was that he immediately knew what he did wrong through several possessions that ended poorly.
He would dribble into traffic, mishandle the basketball, or get trapped by a double-team, and seconds later, you would see the 26-year-old making the kind of reaction that signaled how badly he wished he could take his mistake back for a do-over.
That is the greenest of flags, and this mentality will drive him towards greatness in his new threads.
Additionally, Tyronn Lue, in the postgame presser, seemed pleased with what he saw. He enjoyed just having Garland out there, and at the end of the day, this is all fans could ask for from the championship head coach after a debut that had a ton of suspense built up from the trade deadline.
That said, patience will be a virtue when it comes to success stemming from Garland. The second everything begins to click, and he understands the Clippers’ system, it will be up from there.