Cavs: Darius Garland could raise his stock if he replaces Bradley Beal on Team USA

Darius Garland could replace Bradley Beal on Team USA.

Team USA will be without Bradley Beal, who contracted COVID-19 but is asymptomatic. This means that Beal will be out of the 2020 Olympics as the team prepares to go to Tokyo, Japan for the games. Beal isn’t the only player who may be out of the games with Jerami Grant being held out due to a precautionary measure. The team is contemplating canceling their next exhibition game against Australia out of precaution. With the team taking a massive hit with Beal’s diagnosis, Darius Garland of the Cavs could be in line to replace him.

The team is going to focus more on conditioning as a criterion at the moment than anything else, and since Garland was already an alternate while guys like Devin Booker played in the NBA Finals, it’s pretty obvious he’s in the right shape to play in the games.

Darius Garland could raise his stock if he gets selected for the Olympics

Garland has been part of Team USA’s Select Team, which also has Saddiq Bey and Keldon Johnson as part of the group. Only Garland has played in every exhibition game so far and is probably the best skillset fit to replace Beal of the remaining Select Team members.

Should Garland get the spot, a spot that could have a few dozen players vying for it, it’ll not only be a nice honor for him but a huge opportunity. Being part of the Olympics, with all of that star power around him, Garland will be able to show what he’s capable of and exactly what he could be waiting for the Cavaliers in the near future.

The other side of that same coin is what happens if Garland flops? Surely if he can raise his stock by playing well in the Olympics, he can hurt it by not playing well. We don’t mean that if he gets minimal minutes that it’ll hurt his perception, but if he does get a bulk of minutes and struggles, then that could really hurt whatever value he has.

Yet, if he balls out, perhaps Garland can show the NBA that he’s the real deal.