shangrila wrote:Norseman79 wrote:shangrila wrote:I don’t get the obsession with Garza. He scores but can’t defend or rebound. There’s not a ton of value in that in today’s NBA and doubly so with our roster construction
As a starter I would agree with you. As the third center on the depth chart I think he's pretty solid. Completely depends on his minutes and matchup. I would also only offer him a minimum contract.
But why does anyone care about the 3rd C on the depth chart?
I’d actually argue he’s 5th behind towns, Gobert, Reid and Anderson when we go small. So in reality he’s the human victory cigar.
As you can see no one in MIN FO is rushing things, because our off-season really starts with Naz Reid decision. But as we could see last season depth was very critical during regular season, even though at the beginning of the season I was believing that we have too much depth at C. Considering offensive jump whole NBA is making, and load management, I hope we can keep Garza, once Reid situation is resolved. And yes, I would keep him for Gupta special even if Reid re-signs, because I don't believe that we will keep both Gobert and Towns after 2023-24 season.
Another thing about Garza is that although he is very limited athletically, he has still potential to improve as player. When I watched this playoff I was wondering whether he can be poor version of Sabonis running fiveout offense and I found many stilistical things that might suggest that Garza can be that 3rd string C who can be highly effective: he can postup, he can shoot open 3s AND he can pass. The only big question to me is his rebounding ability, but I think he can improve here, at least he doesn't lack effort. It is very unique for current gleague that a big drops 44 and 47 points whole being highly efficient, but that's what Garza is - a unique player, with rare skillset.
P.S. I understand that we want new names to play for MIN in gleague. But the truth is that Connelly strategy for many years might be this "delayed draft approach". Let me paraphrase: we draft (find) players who might be 1-2 years from being ready to play like Minott, Jaylen Clarke. This year Minott will probably be treated like our first round pick. We kind of delayed last year draft. I also like Connelly approach with guys like PJ Dozier and Garza who were drafted by other teams and got opportunities within our organization.