Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland had a subpar rookie season.
In an interview with Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, the youngster admitted that he didn’t feel like himself this season due to ramifications from a prior injury.
“To be honest with you, no,” Garland said when asked if he felt like himself this season. “The knee injury, I always had it in the back of my head. It was really tough because I know what I’m capable of doing. I had to play more games and get in the weight room and get back to myself. I just wanted to get back to being myself.”
Garland, 20, was selected by the Cavs with the No. 5 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.
However, the Vanderbilt University product played in just four full games in college. He missed Summer League and suffered a setback early in training camp because he had to rehab a surgically repaired knee.
The complications definitely slowed down the prized rookie’s start in the NBA.
The 6-foot-1 guard put up just 12.3 points, 3.9 assists and 1.9 rebounds per game this season. Fedor recently broke down stats that pitted Garland as the worst player in the NBA this year.
Nonetheless, Garland will look to have a tremendous sophomore campaign. He will be completely healthy and on a much improved squad. After all, the Cavs experienced decent success once Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff took over following the All-Star break.
The Cavs concluded the 2019-20 season with a 19-46 record.
