Cavs' Darius Garland dishes on pivotal moment that changed Donovan Mitchell's chemistry
01/20/2025 01:47 PM
It’s been quite the season for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and their two guards, Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell. The duo has led the Cavs to a 35-6 record so far, and are ahead of the Boston Celtics by 6.5 games. After losing to them in five games last season in the conference semifinals, something had to change.
While Garland accomplished an impressive feat in the Cavs’ victory against the Oklahoma City Thunder, leading up to this season was a bigger challenge. On the Draymond Green Show, he elaborated on what helped the Cavs get to where they are currently standing.
“To completely honest with you I would say this summer, we really got locked in, and knew what we wanted to do, and wanted to accomplish,” Garland said. “He knew I was pretty upset about last year and not having the performance I wanted, and what he wanted, as a team perspective.
“We just sat down and talked, and we just really explained to each other, that this is what we have to do to win. This is what we have to do to get to the Eastern Conference Finals, to the Finals. It was like a grown-man conversation. We just really sat down and unfolded everything. That was the first grown-man conversation I had in the league so far.”
Last summer Mitchell agreed to a three-year $150 million max extension to stay with the Cavs. However, there were reports that he was unhappy with the franchise. Fast forward to the 2024-25 season and they’ve been on a tear heading into the end of January.
Darius Garland knew himself, Donovan Mitchell could work for the Cavs
“I knew the tandem could work perfectly,” Garland said. “He's a scoring guard and I like to playmake. Coming into this year, he's used to averaging 30's and high 20's. This year his minutes are down lower and he's not averaging 25, he's averaging 23, 24, and we're the #1 team in the league.
“He just realized the talent he had around him and he just let me facilitate, and he's just playing off me a lot more as well.”
As Garland said, Mitchell’s numbers might be down a slight bit. 23.1 points, and 4.5 assists compared to last season with 26.6 points and 6.1 assists. The team's success is outdoing that. Garland's stats are up a little, 21.2 points vs 18 points last season, and 6.8 assists vs 6.5 assists last season.
At the end of the day, their expectation and winning standard have revolutionized the team. Everyone is on the same page, and it’ll look to stay that way for the remainder of the season.
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