Usman Garuba's play in Spain vs. Slovenia

His build and way he moves is very reminiscent of Draymond Green.

 

Usman, it’s in your name… come to the U.S., man!

I keep hearing PJ Tucker comparisons, but I see a lot of pre-nut kicking Draymond Green in him. Especially on defense. Offensively I see more of a young Montrezl before he developed the array of offense.

 

I'm not worried about Garuba

It's Sengun I'm wondering if he will translate to the speed and physicality
of the NBA

Can't wait to see Sengun vs NBA talent

Thanks Clutch

 

Not too worried about Sengun. Usman and Sengun aren’t too different athletically, Sengun a tad more physical and Usman with better lateral quickness.
Speed and vertical look quite similar

 

I like your confidence; but I still would like to see him against Embiid, Jokic, Valanciunas,
Vuc, Zion, Julius Randall, Nurkic, Myles Turner, Dwight Howard, Brook Lopez, others.

Darko Milicic tore up his league before not tearing up the NBA

 

There will be effort and physically he can bang with them. But don’t think he’ll be shutting any of them down or them able to shut him down. Sengun has a very strong base

 

Thanks Clutch for posting

I really loved this pick. once it was reported that the rockets were leaning green, I thought outside of pairing him with mobley, which wasn't realistic, Garuba was the net best long term fit.

in the same sense, just like the warriors paired a dominant offensive player in Steph with a dominant defensive player in dray. I see a lot of dray in Garuba, not just the ability to switch on to 1-5 but in his passing and dribbling and shaky shooting lol. I really feel those guys are the future starting 2 and 4 of the next great rockets team. we'll see how KPJ and wood pan out and fit in, we'll see how Sengun and jaygup develop, and of course our 2 FRPs next year and 3 the year after.

 

Luka nailing that three over him was absurd. You can’t play D much better than that.

 

As of now, it is not possible for him to establish a physical superiority against most of these names while on the court. If you have this expectation, you may be disappointed. That's why I prefer him to fight with the reserve five in his rookie year against the rivals' reserves.

Putting him on the court right now and waiting for him to fight against human monsters like Embiid, KAT, Gobert can hurt his self-confidence. Sometimes I see some messages in the topics that the Rockets should start with all young players in this season, but I don't think it's a good choice for any rookie (at least in the early part of the league) to be thrown directly onto the court, including Green. In a possible bad situation, their self-confidence may be broken.

 

By the way, Garuba is a really good one-on-one defender. His arms are too long. He can defend all positions from 1 to 5. His lateral quickness is quite satisfactory. Players with such defensive skills are rare. I did not watch his performance in the Olympics, but when I look at the box-score, his statistics do not look heartwarming. Don't get too hung up on it. I watched him in Euroleague all season. I think he will be a good role player in the NBA. He just needs to improve his shot ability. There's a chance he'll be a great 3&D player.

 

I had a weird dream last night (probably during this game) that we got Draymond Green to help develop the rookies.

Remember distinctly saying, “I can’t believe I’m going to have to root for Green.”

Probably me hoping Garuba becomes Green. Man, I’d be happy if he becomes a 4” taller Tate with longer wingspan.

 

Yes, I believe you are right.

I just want to gauge how far away he is?
If he has a chance to ever get to starter level or quality?

At his age I leave room for improvement.

Rule of thumb is you can't teach height. So he has that.

Foot speed is where I wonder about Sengun. Luis Scola got
pushed out of the league because he became too slow defensively.
In the videos Sengun looks a tad slow. This is where I want to see him
against Jokic and other big guys. They will lean on Sengun and spin off
of his frane......how does he do against that? Recovery? There are foot
work drills that may improve that, though. Depends on how much lateral
quickness he has......or lacks.

But Kyle Anderson who is as slow as malaises is still in the league. Basketball
I.Q. goes a long way. The ability to anticipate and out think your opponent.

 

Darko Miličić averaged 9 points and 4 rebounds on 45% FG in 20 minutes per game in the second tier of Serbian League.

Sengun is light years ahead.

 

Just the fact that Garuba is on the court (for a good team) in the Olympics is a great opportunity for him to develop and compete at a high level. That's valuable experience for any player, especially for a rookie 19-year old. The intensity of the Euro league, and now the Olympics, is an outstanding way for players to get ready for the NBA.

 

Clips 3 and 4 show off his IQ and understanding of the game. He'll earn you multiple extra possessions per game. I love the Draymond Green comps, but I haven't seen him tear down a board and initiate the break yet. Or make any long outlet passes. But his body type is like a younger Green.

Clip 1 Garuba's in a zone assignment and #27 (Ziga Dimec) makes a "veteran" move on that moving screen, sneakily hooking Garuba's extended hand. Makes sense that he was upset. The officials whistle the 19-year old with the foul. Until our guys get a lot more experience, we should be prepared to see a lot of this sort of thing.

 

No worries on that front...

 

Jokic just won MVP.

 

Man, I'm just loving it! Picking up Luka and making it hard for him to hit that jumper gives me extra confidence about Usman. It was his hard work that resulted in Luka's foul. He has the tools to improve his 3 point shot. He's of Nigerian descent too! Hakeem Olajuwon certainly will be proud of him when Usman plays hard for the Rockets. Work on his buyout quickly Stone!

 

Basketball has gotten weird nowadays. Players who do everything average instead of doing one thing very well are now more valuable. The fact that a player has an impeccable offensive skill set doesn't make up for his defensive incompetence. That's why I don't like players who stand out only with their defense or only their offense. To give an example, you saw how Simmons, who was marketed as the new Lebron, got kicked in these play-offs because he couldn't shoot. Simmons is a great defender. There are almost no positions and players that he cannot defend, but unfortunately he is a terrible offensive player. Such a player has no value to me. For us to call a basketball player a basketball player, at least he must be able to shoot. Shooting is the main element of this game, right? The existence of a basketball player who can't shoot seems illogical to me.

Coming to the point, I can honestly say that I don't think he will ever be a perfect defender, but there's no need for that. Check out Jokic, the regular season MVP who has always been compared to Sengun. Is he a great defender? Definitely not. His feet are pretty slow. But I wouldn't call him a very bad defender. Because his game intelligence is so high that he can collect all defensive rebounds almost effortlessly. On defense, he can calculate and sense where the balls will go. He takes a position accordingly. You can't do this by working hard. It's an innate talent. His teammates are mostly able to compensate for the weakness he created on defense because he is not entirely a black hole in defense. He's an average, maybe a little bit of below average defender, and that's enough because he's an excellent offensive player. There is no player who would not be worthwhile with an average defense next to a perfect offense. That's what I want from a player. Either perfect offense and average defensive ability, or perfect defense and average offensive ability. How many players are in the league where both offense and defense are perfect? One? Two? Three? How many were there in history?

Let's look at the other side. Rudy Gobert, one of the best long defenders in the league. Put it in the center and sit back and enjoy the defense. A great ring protector. There's probably no position under the rim that he can't defend. BUT, Gobert has no presence on offense unless Gobert is given a good enough pass like to say "take this ball and throw it". We saw how Utah was wiped out in the playoffs, right? They were a team that can't even punish the opponent's short fives from the inside. Absolutely not acceptable.

The only thing I want from him is to carry the offensive set he showed in the Turkish League to the NBA and to raise himself at least to the average level defensively and to increase his speed of foot. He's already an average and adequate help defender. Rebound senses and position knowledge are satisfactory. I will never expect him to be a great ring protector and perimeter defender. Because he never came to the fore with these skills.