If Usman Garuba has said it on social media, the Warriors have once again added a two-way player that is more than his title.
The Warriors announced on Monday the signing of Garuba to a two-way contract, completing their second of three scheduled two-way deals. The news comes weeks after he initially agreed to terms with Golden State.
Shooting guard Lester Quinones, the G League’s Most Improved Player last season, took the first slot in late July after the summer league.
Quinones spent one season in the Warriors system, both in Golden State and its Santa Cruz G League affiliate. But who is Garuba and what does he bring to the Warriors?
Garuba is a 21-year-old, 6-foot-8 power forward/center who was taken No. 23 overall out of Spain (Real Madrid) by the Houston Rockets in the 2021 NBA Draft. Overseas he modeled his game after Warriors versatile star forward Draymond Green and continues to do so in the NBA.
Garuba in a Q&A with HoopsHype published in May 2022 said he saved “a ton” of Green clips on his iPad and studied how Draymond played defense and set screens, saying even his leadership and communication in the court.
“He made everything easier for the Warriors,” Garuba told HoopsHype, speaking like a future Warrior himself.
Although he only has two seasons and 99 games in the NBA in his experience, Garuba is no stranger to top-tier competition. He became the youngest starter in Real Madrid history at the age of 17 in 2019 after making his debut for the first-tier Real Madrid team at 16, and was a main rotation player in Liga ACB for two full seasons. before being drafted in 2021 The high-energy, defense-first big man is a full two years younger than Trayce Jackson-Davis, the Warriors’ second-round draft pick from this past June.
Defense is Garuba’s first ticket to more opportunities. His first sport growing up in Spain was soccer, which translated into his quickness and lateral agility. Garuba as a small-ball center knows how to use his strength at 230 pounds and his length (7-foot-2 wingspan) to be a defensive disruptor, even if he isn’t an elite one. athlete or jumper.
Watch him get upset by NBA MVP Joel Embiid last season, a game in which Garuba had five points, two steals and two offensive rebounds in nine minutes.
The two steals are evidence of where Garuba can fit into the rotating Warriors defense. They weren’t seen in the clip above, but Garuba’s two offensive rebounds were also needed. That is his elite attitude. Garuba only averaged 12.9 minutes per game for the Rockets last season and grabbed a lot of offensive rebounds in 34 of the 75 games he played.
Garuba is at the top of the grading scale in several offensive rebounding categories, ranking in the 98th percentile of offensive rebounding talent, per the BBall Index.
Last season’s Warriors were in the middle of the pack, 14th overall, averaging 10.5 offensive rebounds per game. Garuba in his first two seasons averaged 7.4 offensive rebounds every 36 minutes.
Offense and scoring remain secondary as seen by Garuba’s low 63.0 percent clip from the free-throw line so far in the NBA, but he shot 40.7 percent (24 of 59) on 3-pointers last season.
Steve Kerr doesn’t have to rely on his two players as much as he did last season when Anthony Lamb and Ty Jerome were regular parts of the rotation. But Quinones and Garuba should give the Warriors two players who can continue to develop and should not be shy from the moment Kerr calls their number. But like Lamb and Jerome last season, the late changes won’t be completely dismissed before the start of the regular season.
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In the middle of his time in Houston and traded to Oklahoma City this summer, Garuba found himself in a tough battle in a number of positions loaded for the game. two teams. The Thunder decided they were out of room and waived Garuba on August 21. He took to X, formerly Twitter, on the same day and sent a seven-word message that the Warriors want to live up to.
“I will prove everyone wrong. Mark my words.”
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