Should The Cavs Star Bringing Darius Garland Off The Bench?

Bringing Darius Garland off the bench isn't a simple solution for the Cavaliers.

Apr 2, 2024; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland (10) reacts from the bench / Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports

It's been a rough season for Cavaliers star point guard Darius Garland.

Since the All-Star break Garland has posted an overall efficiency rating of -0.4, a figure that ranks 253 among all qualifying players in the NBA. He's also sixth in terms of turnovers over that span with a whopping 69 of them in 24 games. Beyond the stat sheet and box scores though Garland has lacked consistency and, more problematic, confidence.

That's left pundits and fans alike wondering if it's time for Cleveland's max player to embrace a role change and be deployed off the bench rather than a member of the starting five. It's a suggestion that may seem simple given Garland's struggles. It's not though.

If confidence is already and issue, a demotion to the bench could ultimately do more harm than good for the 24-year-old. With only five games left in the regular season, Cleveland needs to continue enabling Garland in the hopes that he snaps out of his rut in time for the playoffs. That may be unlikely this late in the season anyway, but if the Cavs have any hope of making a postseason run they're going to need Garland at his best, particularly with Donovan Mitchell's knee injury continuing to be a problem.

Mar 18, 2024; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland (10) shoots the / Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

Speaking of Mitchell, there's a larger view to all this as well. The star guard's future is very much in question heading into the playoffs and the upcoming offseason and ultimately the former may end up impacting the latter. Due for a max extension this summer, if Mitchell decides to stick around it will likely come with plenty of changes for Cleveland.

Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff may be first up on the chopping block. Garland could be next in line if the front office staff, led by Koby Altman, decide a tandem of undersized guards can't co-exist together. It wouldn't exactly help Garland's trade value if Cleveland is offering a player to teams that they just demoted to the bench during the most important stretch of the season.

Changing his role drastically at this point may end up making things worse than they already are. Now, that doesn't mean that head coach J.B. Bickerstaff can't have a quick trigger with Garland if his struggles become a detriment to the team in the playoffs. In fact if there's a solution to the Darius Garland dilemma right now, that's it.

The most frustrating part of all this might just be that Garland has proven to be an really good player throughout the early stages of his career before. The fact that Garland had to spend a month with his mouth wired shut, losing 12 pounds and missing nearly 20 games in the process probably hasn't helped matters. This is one of those situations where the only way out is through for Garland and the Cavs.