Darius Garland‘s rookie season for the Cleveland Cavaliers can be looked at as up-and-down. The 6-foot-1 point guard out of Vanderbilt was drafted with the fifth overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, a move that had a lot of people raising eyebrows.
This move formed a small backcourt with Garland and Collin Sexton, forming a duo that drew comparisons to another undersized backcourt in Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, in an ideal sense.
Rather than trying to ease him in, the Cavaliers and former head coach John Beilein decided to throw Garland into the starting lineup, where he struggled.