I’m for both showing out. Def not a hatah. I just haven’t seen anything from Nix to light my fire. If Nix deserves to play, play Nix!
Spain just finished the match against Finland. 100-90 win and is already in the semifinal (nobody expected that Spain would get this far without the Gasol brothers, Ricky Rubio, Mirotic, Llull, and many other absences). The stars of the game were the Hernangomez brothers, specially Willy, but Garuba played very well when he was in the court, contributing with very good defense, good rebounds, very good game vision, and even a 3pointer. 7 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists in 15 minutes.
I don’t understand the hate on Garuba. We need role players on this team too. Players who don’t need the ball in their hands at all times and do other things that would impact the game. It’s only his 1st year and it feels like this numb nuts are better basketball players in real life. Grow up people
Defense is not as enticing as offense (and also infinitely harder to measure), so when a purely defensive talent gets drafted, he is still judged for his ability to perform on offense.
He is starting to look like he is getting in game shape again. For a team that will likely struggle for another year, why not use him as the backup C? He is good enough for Spain, but not good enough for the Rockets behind Sengun? Give me a break.
I forgot to mention that he is playing all the time as backup center. He looks thicker than 1 year ago (but still athletic) and it helps him when playing against 6’10-7 feet centers
https://rocketswire.usatoday.com/20...ised-by-usman-garubas-strong-eurobasket-play/ Rafael Stone not surprised by Usman Garuba’s strong EuroBasket play
It's pretty simple actually. The main requirement of a player that doesn't have the ball is that they can shoot consistently.
the point was to see if he could be a small ball 5 / poor-mans draymond green. cut bait and add him the eric gordon deal.
He’s been doing that role with a team that has been more succesful in the European Championship than Luka Doncic, Jokic or Giannis.
Actually, the main requirements are offense and defense. You're talking about 1 aspect of only 50% of the game here. There is absolutely nothing that states you can't win a title with a no/poor shooting big man. Garuba is an undersized C with lateral quickness and wingspan in the mold of Draymond. If this was a requirement of all players, we have to explain why 9/10 champions have a non-shooter on the floor. The only absolute requirement to be a player in the NBA is for your offense minus defense to be sufficient to fill time or create production for your team. If you're a championship calibre 8-deep, then you can even get away with a net negative situational player for your 9th/10th rotation spots. More important, dominating defensively is no different than dominating offensively, except if there's a possession at the end of a game where a win can be secured. So in reality the game is like 50.1% offense and 49.9% defense. The league has shown us time and time again that if a big man anchor can dominate defensively, then being willing to be in frequent PnR's OR shooting can make them net-neutral on offense, which means his net impact can certainly still be elite if he stops eating cheeseburgers.
Today's rules have tilted the balance toward offense--more specifically, perimeter offense (shooting, ISO, creating, PnR). So much so that if you have a great perimeter offensive player, the defense can't consistently stop you even if they have a great defensive anchor. So I'd say it probably 60% offense, 40% defense. It might be true in the regular season. But we have seen time and time again how a big man anchor who can't play switch defense is rendered a liability in the playoffs. Gobert is the most glaring example in recent history.
I’m really impressed with Garuba’s court awareness and passing for a 20yr old. He’s always active and knows where others are, much like Draymond. That can make up for lack of perimeter shooting.
See I've heard these two things floated around but I've never seen any proof. The league changed the rules so that all possessions would go up, which means there's proportionally just as many defensive and offensive possessions as there always was. There are more points, and there's more defense to play. The league never made any rule change (nor is it possible to do such a thing) to create a larger gap between defense and offense. On #2, I don't think that's true either: Draymond Giannis McGee Siakam Draymond Draymond Tristan Thompson These are the last 7 champions worst shooting starter. They're all 30% from 3 or lower. It's still the norm rather than the exception that you win with a non-shooting player on the floor. I know in the future it will change and in the playoffs people make those changes, but what we're asking here is whether Garuba can fill a role similar to Draymond, McGee, Tristan, etc. I believe he has the talent to do it. Plus as I mentioned a year ago, Garuba is obviously going to end up a really good passer of the ball and that will improve his net production too.
