Draymond Green says award voters don’t know basketball if they didn’t see Darius Garland’s rise coming

In one quick season, Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland went from being a relative unknown among casual NBA fans to an All-Star and face of a franchise.

When discussing the Most Improved Player award race in the NBA this season, Green wanted to discuss Garland’s rise a bit.

Green stated that Garland making a major leap was only a matter of time. The four-time All-Star argued that if voters could not predict that Garland would eventually become a star in the league, then they simply do not know the game of basketball as well as they think they do.

“Darius Garland, who unless you just don’t know basketball you didn’t see him on this trajectory,” he said. “But I know basketball, and I knew when I went to see Darius Garland play USC in L.A. when he was at Vanderbilt that this was the trajectory Darius Garland was going to be on. If you didn’t, you need to question your basketball cap.”

Green has never been one to mince words, and his comment is absolutely an example of that. It’s also a clear example of a highly respected NBA veteran showing appreciation for a young player.

It’s fantastic to see that Garland has earned the respect of one of the smartest players in the league. Green is far from the only brilliant NBA mind that has taken an interest in Garland.

In fact, over All-Star Weekend, Garland received advice from players such as LeBron James and Chris Paul.

This season, Garland averaged 21.7 points, 3.3 rebounds and 8.6 assists per game while shooting 46.2 percent from the field and 38.3 percent from beyond the arc. He was named an All-Star for the first time in his young career.

Clearly, he’s doing a lot of good things on the court to earn such impressive fans across the league.