{"id":45620,"date":"2025-08-05T15:33:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T15:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/45620\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T15:33:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T15:33:11","slug":"cavs-atkinson-talks-garlands-recovery-point-guard-plan-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/45620\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavs’ Atkinson Talks Garland’s Recovery, Point Guard Plan, More"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland<\/a> said on Saturday<\/a> that he feels \u201cgreat\u201d in the wake of June toe surgery<\/a>, but that doesn\u2019t mean the team is counting on having him available when training camp begins this fall. Reporting at the time of Garland\u2019s surgery indicated he would likely miss the start of the season, and head coach Kenny Atkinson confirmed to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com<\/a> (subscription required) that he doesn\u2019t expect Garland to be fully healthy when the club reconvenes this fall.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Apr 11, 2025; New York, New York, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson coaches against the New York Knicks during the first quarter at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not a medical opinion. That\u2019s just my sense of this,\u201d Atkinson said during an appearance at Garland\u2019s celebrity softball game in Eastlake. \u201cUnder-promise and over-deliver. We\u2019re not going to rush or push this. If he is ready, then great. I will rely on (trainer) Steve (Spiro) and Darius to tell me. But I don\u2019t expect that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atkinson told Fedor that Garland has approached his rehab process \u201creally well\u201d and is focused on strength training until he\u2019s able to run again. The Cavs\u2019 head coach also expressed confidence in the point guard alternatives he\u2019ll have on hand while his starter is on the shelf, even after Ty Jerome<\/a> departed Cleveland for Memphis in free agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have Don (Donovan Mitchell<\/a>). We have Lonzo (Ball)<\/a>. We have CP (Craig Porter Jr.<\/a>),\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cWe are kind of covered. We also have Evan (Mobley)<\/a>, where we can throw it to him in a trail position and have him be a play-maker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pointing out that tinkering with his lineups will likely result in the Cavs learning some things about their players that they otherwise wouldn\u2019t figure out, Atkinson suggested he\u2019ll welcome the opportunity to problem-solve and find the silver lining in Garland\u2019s early-season absence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate that this injury happened to Darius, but it allows you to start figuring out things for the times he is not available,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cLast year in the playoffs it just hit us and maybe we weren\u2019t as prepared as we could have been. If we have to play games without him, this will allow us to kind of experiment a little and see if we can find play-making in other places.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers\u2019 coach also acknowledged that managing playing time for Garland and other key players over the course of the season will be something the team seriously consider after the roster was hit hard by injuries in the 2025 postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that is the plan for the whole roster,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cHow do we become a more durable team? We are going into round two (of the playoffs) and we have 14 guys healthy, that\u2019s the goal. We had a plan in place, but I think we have to do better when it comes to figuring that out. It\u2019s a hard part of my job too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland said on Saturday that he feels \u201cgreat\u201d in the wake of June toe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,39601,39602,23659,39603,8644,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-45620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-craig-porter","12":"tag-darius-garland","13":"tag-donovan-mitchell","14":"tag-evan-mobley","15":"tag-lonzo-ball","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}