I think garuba would look extremely solid playing alongside a good pg who can utilize the man's strength. I think the main reason why he gets so few mins even if he's probably one of the better defender on the team is bc his offense is quite lacking if u don't have someone to set him up. Garuba is a good role player who honestly deserves a bit more mins. He seems to b a Sniper at 3, can defend well against the fast players, has high bbiq and is an underrated passer. Sucks to see him get so little mins
He needs a system to play in rather than a group of people with the same color jersey all shooting at the same basketball hoop. The Rockets lack the structure to develop bigs. Watching Smith and Sengun struggle and both have polished offensive games. Garuba is a jewel and our next coach and his system with let him shine.
Let’s see what Uz looks like at 25. The 80’s? Look how good Usman is on defense, and now imagine If he could touch up people. He’d thrive in those days, IMHO.
I'm seeing a theme here....Garuba is another guy who was trashed by SamFisher. He's like our new DD. Happy belated birthday Usman. He just turned 21.
Garuba, Eason, and Alpe are motivated by the lack of minutes and driven to get better and prove they deserve more playing time. KPJ, Green, and Jabari are motivated by mistakes on the court and poor performances, they are determined to stop having such bad games. KJ Martin motivated by dunks and 3s TyTy is motivated by Gleague ...or maybe Silas is just clueless.
Meh, comparing a kid who can't out from under the last seat on the bench in an era devoid of real big man play to a guy who played 13 years started 75% of his games in his first 10 years .... in an era where big men dominated the game .... Ok. Larry Smith got 31.4 minutes a game &played 82 games as a rookie .....
There isn't a single player in todays NBA that couldn't play back when Larry Smith played. But probably half the league back then couldn't play in todays nba. The fact that people even go to this argument is absolutely insane to me. There were legit 5-6 all nba caliber centers in the league back then. Then maybe 10 decent ones or specialist. The rest of them were absolute stiffs. Bulls started Bill Wennington for like 40 games at Center when they won ships. Jordan literally was guarded by guys 3 inches shorter than him every single game. Bunch of unatheltic dudes running around half the league back then. Just stop this nonsense. Humans evolve. We get faster, taller, stronger. Literally 1 or 2 teams played physical and everyone says oh this guy couldn't play back then. Go back and watch those games and tell me it was actually physical. Just cuz they got in some real fights doesn't mean it wasn't just ticky tacky fouls left and right all game.
I think Larry Smith is a decent baseline comp for the 'Boards & Bang' PF's and bigs of the day. Garuba has similar physical game. Smith was elite on offensive boards. Its a strength of Garuba now. That was a skill greatly valued then, but its not valued too much now. Which would make Mr Mean himself and similar types not valued as much today. Doesnt mean Garuba couldnt play then though.