Atlanta Hawks star guard Trae Young had some major praise for Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland for his performance during the 2021-22 season.
Young explained what impressed him about Garland’s play on the latest episode of “The Old Man and the Three” podcast with J.J. Redick.
“It’s really cool seeing a lot of young guards really do some cool things and big things early in their career is big,” Young said. “I think Darius Garland, what he did for Cleveland this year with Collin [Sexton] being out, obviously those three bigs really helped him. But he did a good job getting everybody involved, scoring when he needed to. I’m a big fan of Darius.
“We played against each other growing up in AAU too, so seeing him really take his team to the next level this year was big time.”
Garland nearly led the Cavs to the playoffs, as the team made the league’s play-in tournament. However, the Cavs lost back-to-back games to the Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks and missed the playoffs.
Still, Garland took a major step in the 2021-22 season and looks to be the leader of the franchise going forward.
The All-Star guard averaged career-highs in points, rebounds and assists per game and shot a career-best 46.2 percent from the field.
The No. 5 overall pick by the Cavs back in the 2019 NBA Draft, Garland has improved steadily in each of his seasons in the NBA.
He proved that the Cavs can lean on him as the team’s primary scorer and playmaker in the 2021-22 season, and he averaged an impressive 21.7 points and 8.6 assists per game while shooting 38.3 percent from beyond the arc.
Young clearly recognizes that Garland is one of the game’s up-and-coming stars, and the Cavs hope he can build on the success of the 2021-22 campaign next season and lead them to the playoffs.
