{"id":39734,"date":"2021-05-24T09:00:41","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T13:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=39734"},"modified":"2021-05-23T15:31:50","modified_gmt":"2021-05-23T19:31:50","slug":"luka-garza-2021-nba-draft-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2021\/05\/24\/luka-garza-2021-nba-draft-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka Garza 2021 NBA Draft Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/luka-garza-1.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luka Garza<\/a><\/strong> had a decorated career at the University of Iowa. He finished his career as the consensus NCAA player of the year. Garza was a two-time first-team All-American, two-time Big Ten POTY, and two-time first-team All-Big Ten. Oh, and he was named the Sporting News Player of the Year twice in a row, becoming the first player to do that since <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=michael-jordan-3,michael-jordan-1,michael-jordan-4,michael-jordan-2&amp;search=Michael+Jordan&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Jordan<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Luka Garza 2021 NBA Draft Profile<\/h2>\n<h3>College Career<\/h3>\n<p>Well, he will go down in history as one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2021\/03\/24\/big-ten-basketball-a-big-disappointment\/\" target=\"_self\">best college players<\/a> of the past decade, mainly because he didn&#8217;t dine and dash in the NCAA like many of the stars. Garza finished the 2020-2021 season with <a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/college\/iowa\/Article\/Iowa-Hawkeyes-Basketball-2021-NBA-Draft-Mock-Luka-Garza-Consensus-National-Player-of-the-Year-164270393\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">24.1 points<\/a> and 8.7 boards on 55 percent shooting from the field.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, his college career ended earlier than he had hoped in a second-round loss to Oregon in the NCAA Tournament. Nonetheless, he earned a much-deserved ovation after a terrific final game in a Hawkeyes uniform.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Luka Garza gets an ovation after dropping 36 PTS in his final game with Iowa \ud83d\udc4f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QSo4cjKZoM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/QSo4cjKZoM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BleacherReport\/status\/1374062260436529154?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 22, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Strengths<\/h3>\n<p>His biggest strength is his consistency at the collegiate level. He can score and rebound at a high level. Furthermore, his outside shot has increased dramatically in his last two years.<\/p>\n<p>In his junior year, he averaged 35.8 percent from beyond the arc and increased his shooting to 44 percent in his final year at Iowa. He is a good passer, especially considering his size and desired position.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udd25 Luka Garza did this in 1 half! <\/p>\n<p>36 PTS<br \/>12\/12 FG<br \/>7 REB<br \/>3 BLKS<\/p>\n<p>He finished with 41 PTS (14\/15 FG) in 29 MINS <\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fJzH2L9uiE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/fJzH2L9uiE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Ballislife\/status\/1332484818387554307?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 28, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>He can do it all. He can score, rebound, pass, and shoot the outside shot, which has become necessary for NBA players, especially considering how the game has evolved in recent years.<\/p>\n<h3>Weaknesses<\/h3>\n<p>For a player as decorated as Garza was in his career, he does have some glaring weaknesses. Usually, a player with his insane accolades would be an easy top-10 pick in the NBA Draft. However, that&#8217;s not the case for Garza.<\/p>\n<p>His defense is a tremendous liability and his lack of burst and acceleration aren&#8217;t going to be enough against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=anthony-davis-1,anthony-davis-6,anthony-davis-2,anthony-davis-9,anthony-davis-7,anthony-davis-10,anthony-davis-5,anthony-davis-3,anthony-davis-8,anthony-davis-4,anthony-davisjr-1&amp;search=Anthony+Davis&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Anthony Davis<\/strong><\/a>&#8216;s of the world.<\/p>\n<p>He will get exposed down low, especially against starting centers at the NBA level.<\/p>\n<h3>NBA Player Comparison: Hybrid of Nikola Vucevic and Frank Kaminsky<\/h3>\n<p>He can play down low like Vucevic, although not at as high of a level. However, he can pass and hit the outside shot somewhat similar to Kaminsky. To be honest, it&#8217;s really tough to compare Garza to anybody in the NBA, and his development will be a huge key to how long he lasts in the NBA. Garza should- at the very worst- be an end-of-the-bench, garbage-time minutes guy. At best he is a rotational piece on a playoff team.<\/p>\n<h3>NBA Draft Projection: Early 2nd round<\/h3>\n<h4>Possible Team Fits- Phoenix Suns, Boston Celtics, Orlando Magic, Charlotte Hornets.<\/h4>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"inCRuDRJRMxFreOG9G7r7w\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1231877835\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'inCRuDRJRMxFreOG9G7r7w',sig:'GP2dyfQRueO2bi5jTDjpZNFlX_onNiyKed-JQ-KF__Y=',w:'594px',h:'446px',items:'1231877835',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Luka Garza had a decorated career at the University of Iowa. He finished his career as the consensus NCAA player of the year. Garza was a two-time first-team All-American, two-time Big Ten POTY, and two-time first-team All-Big Ten. Oh, and he was named the Sporting News Player of the Year twice in a row, becoming [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1049,"featured_media":39756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[773],"tags":[4279,2548,3041],"class_list":["post-39734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","tag-2021-nba-draft","tag-iowa-hawkeyes","tag-luka-garza"],"modified_by":"Zach Kircher","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1049"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}