Let me preface this by saying I love Garland and think he’s still one of the better guards in the league but I’m not crazy about his playstyle the last at the moment. There was a stretch two years ago before Mitchell was year where I it felt like we had the next Steve Nash and we had a perennial 20 and 10 point guard. But since Mitchell has came here, he’s almost changed his style from a true PG to someone who plays like Mitchell? It seems like he has a score first mentality right now which makes him and Mitchell kind of redundant. In 2021, he average almost 9 APG. Since then, it’s been decreasing. I understand that sometimes he has to play that way but it seems like it’s been going on since last year as well. Am I just crazy, or does it seem like his play style has changed a bit?
The great point guards like Kidd and Nash have a quality that’s hard to quantify, but they are just able to control the entire game somehow.
I never saw Garland as being on that type of path. He was built in a lab to have the perfect skillset to be an NBA point guard in the 2020’s and he has that perfect skillset.
Garland would have grown up playing mostly AAU ball where everyone is just showcasing, then he didn’t really play in college.
So I don’t know how or where he would have actually learned how to run a team and control a game in the classic sense. He’s going to have to learn that as an NBA player.
But again, his skillset is amazing and he’s already a very good point guard. He also seems to be noticeably more athletic and stronger this year.