NBA Season Preview 2019-20: Every team’s biggest question

Cleveland Cavaliers: Can Collin Sexton and Darius Garland share the court?

Entering year two of their post-LeBron rebuild, the Cleveland Cavaliers are preparing to finish near the bottom of the Eastern Conference for the second consecutive season. With little in the way of expectations, they remain in a transitory period, searching for the core pieces of the next good Cavs team. At the heart of that search sit the crown jewels of their past two drafts: Collin Sexton and Darius Garland.

Sexton is the more established of the two, having enjoyed a reasonably successful rookie campaign in Cleveland last season. The fiery young combo guard appeared in all 82 games for the Cavs, scoring 16.7 points per game on a respectable (for a rookie) true shooting percentage of 52 percent. After the All-Star break, those numbers elevated even further, to 20.8 points and 58.5 percent, respectively. Sexton even shot 40.2 percent from the 3-point arc on decent volume, quieting some concerns about his questionable shooting range.

Garland, to the contrary, enters the NBA as perhaps the most unknown quantity. A top-20 recruit coming into last season, his career at Vanderbilt would ultimately last just five games before a torn meniscus ended his season. From what little we’ve seen, he looks to be a dynamic scorer — a quick-twitch shot creator who has already drawn comparisons to stars like Damian Lillard.

While both have clear NBA-level scoring ability, their ability to coexist on the court will hinge on the other end. Is either one capable of developing into at least a league-average defender? Garland developed a reputation for inconsistent effort on the defensive end in high school, while Sexton may have been the worst defender in his rookie class last season (non-Trae Young division). Can the Cavaliers afford to let them share the court, or would doing so simply put them at too much of a disadvantage against opposing NBA backcourts?

With little to play for, the Cavs will be able to give the two youngsters plenty of slack to figure things out this season. With an eye on the long-term, though, they would no doubt like to see some signs that the two young guards can strike a balance. The franchise will have to make some tough decisions about roster construction down the road if they cannot.