{"id":544968,"date":"2026-01-18T16:39:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T16:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/544968\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T16:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T16:39:13","slug":"central-notes-tyson-garland-merrill-i-jackson-giddey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/544968\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Notes: Tyson, Garland, Merrill, I. Jackson, Giddey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jaylon Tyson<\/a> could be the answer in the Cavaliers\u2018 long search for a productive small forward, writes Tony Jones of The Athletic<\/a>. Tyson turned in one of the best games of his brief NBA career on Friday, scoring 39 points and handing out a game-winning assist in a two-point victory at Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like when you get into the NBA, you have to find your niche, the one thing you are good at,\u201d Tyson said. \u201cLast year, that was my rookie season, so I needed to figure out where I fit in with this team. There are a lot of really good players on the roster, so I needed to figure out what role I had to play. Tonight, Philadelphia tried to take Donovan (Mitchell)<\/a>\u00a0out of the game, so Donovan told me to be \u2018California Jaylon.\u2019 That meant for me to go and get a bucket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tyson was a high-scoring collegiate player at California who was selected with the 20th pick in the 2024 draft, but he was used to being the focus of the offense. He had to adapt when he joined a Cleveland team where he was surrounded by scorers, and he averaged just 3.6 points per game while shooting 43% from the field during his rookie year. He has increased his scoring average to 13.4 PPG this season while connecting at 52.4% from the field and 47.5% from three-point range, and Tyson\u2019s teammates are touting him as a candidate for Most Improved Player honors.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo disrespect to people who have won it in the past, but it seems like people have won it who were already on a star trajectory,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cThe award is made for people like Jaylon. He came in, and he has worked on his game, and he\u2019s improved so much since he has been here. He should win the award.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more from the Central Division:<\/p>\n

Darius Garland<\/a> (toe soreness) and Sam Merrill<\/a> (sprained right hand) were both injured in Wednesday\u2019s game at Philadelphia and will be examined this weekend, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com<\/a> states in a subscriber-only story. Garland, who\u2019s the Cavaliers\u2018 second-leading scorer, is experiencing pain in his right big toe, which is on the opposite foot from the toe injury that required offseason surgery and has continued to bother him. Merrill missed about a month earlier this season with a right hand sprain, but team sources tell Fedor that the bruising and swelling are less severe this time. He was also able to use his hand normally before Friday\u2019s game, coach Kenny Atkinson told reporters.
\nPacers center Isaiah Jackson<\/a>, who returned to action on Saturday after missing nearly four weeks with a concussion, talked to Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star<\/a> about the severity of the condition. \u201cHeadaches,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cFogginess. My thoughts were foggy. \u2026 My symptoms were severe. Light sensitivity. Sound sensitivity. I couldn\u2019t even be around. I was bad. I was literally just in my room the blinds were shut. I had sunglasses on. It was bad.\u201d
\nBulls guard Josh Giddey<\/a>, who has been sidelined since December 29 with a strained left hamstring, has been upgraded from \u201cout\u201d to \u201cdoubtful\u201d for Sunday\u2019s game against Brooklyn, per K.C. Johnson of Chicago Sports Network (Twitter link<\/a>). Giddey isn\u2019t expected to play, according to Johnson, but it\u2019s a sign that he could return to action soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jaylon Tyson could be the answer in the Cavaliers\u2018 long search for a productive small forward, writes Tony…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,791,2542,2286,965,1166],"class_list":{"0":"post-544968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-darius-garland","10":"tag-isaiah-jackson","11":"tag-jaylon-tyson","12":"tag-josh-giddey","13":"tag-sam-merrill"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115917092627095238","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}