[2021 NBA Draft; 23rd overall] Rockets select Usman Garuba

From The Athletic Draft Guide

11. Usman Garuba
Big | Real Madrid | DOB: March 9, 2002 (Age: 19) | 6-8 | 230 LBS | Hometown: Madrid, Spain

Background
Full name is Destiny Usman Garuba Alari. Parents are Mustapha and Betty. They are from Nigeria originally and moved to Spain in the 1990s. Garuba has two younger siblings. He grew up playing soccer, which likely helped his footwork, fluidity and balance to develop earlier. Was quickly identified by Real Madrid as an interesting prospect. Has been in the team’s system since 2013. Carried his youth team to youth league titles in 2015 and '16, winning the MVP in '16. Was just 14 years old in 2016, which is when he was identified by NBA prospects as a high-level prospect to track long term. That year, he won the U16 European Championships MVP award for Spain while playing two years underage. He averaged 16 points, 12 rebounds, three blocks and two steals per game in that tournament, establishing his defensive prowess and high energy. Was relatively quiet until 2018, when he played in the Next Generation Tournament for Real’s U18 team. Was just 16 and still made the All- Tournament team. In 2019, he won MVP of the NGT Munich Tournament, then made the Final Tournament’s All-Tournament team. Also got his first ACB experience in 2019, becoming the youngest center to ever play in the ACB. Throughout those two years, Garuba continued his youth national team dominance. He won All-Tournament honors at the 2018 U16 European Championships and won All-Tournament honors at the 2019 U18 European Championships. He is among the more decorated players we’ve seen in a while in that regard. Joined the Real Madrid senior team full time the next season. Became Real’s youngest ever starter ahead of Luka Doncic in his first game that season. Garuba made the All- Young Players team in the Spanish ACB league that season while also getting invaluable Euro league experience as a 17-year-old. Continued along that trajectory this past season. Won the ACB League’s Young Player of the Year award as well as the Euro league Rising Star award in 2021 while holding down a part-time starter spot on one of the best teams outside of the NBA as a teenager. May not have the loaded statistics but his impact for Real Madrid has been substantial, and he is one of the more decorated prospects to enter the NBA from Europe in a longtime. He entered the 2021 NBA Draft in his first year of eligibility.

Strengths
Has a 7-foot-2 wingspan as well as terrific strength. Isn’t too athletic but does have a ton of lateral quickness, body control for his size, plays exceptionally hard and never gives up. Second and third efforts constantly. Quick leaper more than a high jumper. Gets to a certain point more quickly than others even if he’s not maximizing his leap in an elite way. He battles and is physical without being overly foul-prone.

The strengths are all about the defensive side of the floor for Garuba, one of the most versatile defenders I’ve evaluated as a teenager. Has good feel for the game defensively and defends ball screens well. One of the best prospects, regardless of age, I’ve evaluated at playing the gap between the roller and the ballhandler in such actions. Constantly plays with his hands up and turns into a deflection machine because of it. Has great reaction time and uses it to make it seem like he’s playing aggressively on ballhandlers while staying home on rollers while his guard recovers. Very active feet and an impressive perimeter defender due to that lateral quickness. Good player on an island against driving ballhandlers as a big. Extremely fluid hips that he has no issue dropping and turning defensively. And because his hands are constantly high, he’s great at contesting. Good closeouts. His defensive stance is so solid and balanced, with his butt low and no forward lean. Fundamentals are just so strong. Can even fight through screens and still close out and contest despite being a big. His perimeter defense is good for his age.

Also pairs that lateral quickness with a lot of strength. He’s a legitimate rim protector and drivers just bounce off him if they try to attack him in ball screens. He’s absolutely terrific at walling up and using the principle of verticality to contest. Very active as a weakside rotational rim protector. Has excellent timing, matching the scoring player’s jump and timing the shot with his length. Patient at reading dump-off passes as a weakside rim protector. Good post defender. Because of his strength, don’t think guys outside of the Joel Embiid class of post options will be able to post him despite his lack of height. Holds his position for as long as he can until he has to make a choice. He’s also excellent in scramble situations where he has to guard multiple players in the gap or battle to recover onto open players. Flies around the court to bail out teammates.

Also does a good job on the defensive glass, which leads to his best offensive skills. Good on the grab-and-go to play out in transition. Can live dribble outlet pass, something bigs can struggle with. Overall, passing is his best offensive skill. Good short-roll passer. Can take a power dribble to draw the defender before hitting the corner kickout. Seems to really understand advantage four-on-three situations. Will be a great release valve for teams when defenses put two on the ball out of ball screens. Having said that, he’s also a good passer out of the dunker spot, which gives teams a bit more versatility in terms of who they can play him with on the court. May be able to play him at the four with a legit spacing five and put together a near-elite defense.

As a finisher, better out of the dunker spot than out of ball screens because he can really load up and finish above the rim. Again, not the bounciest player but gets to his highest point quickly. Plays through contact with ease. Has to be a technician at times with pump fakes and reverse pivots to separate on the ground as opposed to finishing above the rim. Overall numbers are good, not great for a rim runner. Made 68.3 percent of his shots at the rim in half-court settings in EuroLeague, which was 21st out of 86 players to take at least 50 such shots, per Synergy. Unsurprisingly given his length and feel for the game, he’s a good offensive rebounder.

 

Weaknesses
His big weakness is, physically, he’s just not overly big or explosive for the center position. He’s an undersized center but brings enough to the table to where his size isn’t a detriment defensively. But offensively, his lack of pop is a bit concerning, and it’s started to showcase itself as a concern even in Europe. He physically looks closer to maxed out than most his age.

Also, may not profile extremely well on the ball because he doesn’t have a ton of straight-line quickness or ballhandling acumen in terms of change of pace or direction. He gets a bit turnover-prone too, trying to do too much at times. Better when he keeps it simple as opposed to getting adventurous right now. Don’t see him as a Draymond Green-type of secondary ballhandler by any stretch but rather a solid passer out of advantageous situations and standstill areas where teams must collapse on him due to the threat of him scoring.

The scoring is a concern, though. His currently inability to shoot consistently does raise real questions about what his offensive role is. Nobody respected him as a spacer this season. Took 117 shots off the catch this past season and made just 29 percent of them. Typically shoots off the hop to get into rhythm. Very robotic release. Doesn’t get any arc on his shot. One of the flatter trajectories I’ve seen. Ball is way out in front of his face. Don’t think his release point is all that consistent right now. Having said that, still made 36 percent of his corner 3s this past season on over 60 attempts, per Synergy. Has some shot-making potential but will need a couple of years to work through some mechanical improvements. And even then, his touch may not be quite good enough. Still, this is not a hopeless endeavor for him. He has a shot to shoot it off the catch without movement, which might be enough given his other skills.

There is potential for his offensive game to fall apart substantially if he can’t score. If he’s not a good enough finisher at the rim against length and not a good enough shooter, will NBA teams respect him as a passer for him to take advantage of those skills? They might not. He needs to develop a consistent way to score. Otherwise, teams might not be able to take advantage of his defensive skill because he might not be able to stay on the floor enough offensively.

Summary
Garuba is one of the most complete defensive prospects to enter the NBA Draft in a while. He may not have the most upside of any player on defense in this class (that falls to Evan Mobley if things break right for his development), but he’s the best defender in the class right now. He can make a genuine impact in the NBA from Day 1 on that end, in my view. He can make an All-Defense team in his future. Ultimately, he needs to get better offensively to take advantage of those skills, though. If he’s not good enough offensively, he won’t be able to get on the court enough to make that All-Defense team and be anything more than a good role player. But if he can get that corner 3-pointer down, with the way he processes the game quickly on both ends of the floor, he’s the kind of guy who can be a closer on a contending team. That’s probably worth betting on at a top-15 level in this class.