{"id":78928,"date":"2024-05-27T10:14:17","date_gmt":"2024-05-27T14:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=78928"},"modified":"2024-05-27T10:14:17","modified_gmt":"2024-05-27T14:14:17","slug":"2021-nba-first-round-pick-expected-to-sign-with-real-madrid-usman-garuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/27\/2021-nba-first-round-pick-expected-to-sign-with-real-madrid-usman-garuba\/","title":{"rendered":"2021 NBA First Round Pick Expected To Sign With Real Madrid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Selected 23rd overall in the 2021 NBA Draft, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/garubus01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Usman Garuba<\/a> hasn\u2019t made much of a mark in his three seasons. He has appeared in just 105 NBA games in those three years. The 6-8&#8221; center\/forward looks to be heading back where he\u2019s had more success. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurohoops.net\/en\/euroleague\/1677642\/usman-garuba-near-a-return-to-madrid-poirier-on-the-way-to-efes\/amp\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">According to Aris Barkas of Eurohoops.net<\/a>, the 22-year-old Garuba is expected to sign with Real Madrid of Liga ACB and the EuroLeague. He previously spent much of his late teenage years playing for the Spanish club.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Per Eurohoops sources, Usman Garuba is near a deal with Real Madrid, leaving the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NBA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#NBA<\/a> and returning to the team he was formed as a player. More coming soon at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EurohoopsES?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@EurohoopsES<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Eurohoopsnet?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Eurohoopsnet<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Aris Barkas (@arbarkas) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/arbarkas\/status\/1794852780416569372?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 26, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nBorn in Spain, Garuba may just want the opportunity to receive more playing time while doing so in his home country where he is more comfortable.<\/p>\n<h2>2021 NBA First Round Pick Expected To Sign With Real Madrid<\/h2>\n<h3>Not Much Accomplished At The NBA Level<\/h3>\n<p>In the 2021 NBA Draft, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/13\/rockets-plans-for-no-3-pick-revealed\/\" target=\"_self\">Houston Rockets<\/a> had three first-round picks. With their first choice, they took guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/greenja05.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jalen Green<\/a> second overall. They then selected Garuba 23rd and guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/chrisjo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Josh Christopher<\/a> 24th overall.\u00a0After appearing in just 24 games as a rookie (missed time with a fractured wrist), Garuba was a part of Houston\u2019s rotation for much of the 2022-23 season, a team that went just 22-60. While he played just 12.9 minutes per game, Garuba did appear in 75 games. He posted averages of 3.0 points and 4.1 rebounds.<\/p>\n<p>In the 2023 offseason, Garuba was actually involved in two trades. First, he was involved in a large five-team trade that shipped him to the Atlanta Hawks. Just a few days later, he was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder released him in August, and a month later, he signed a two-way deal with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doncilu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Golden State Warriors<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Garuba spent the majority of the 2023-24 season with the Santa Cruz Warriors in the G-League. In 22 regular season games with them, he averaged 13.0 points, 10.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.2 steals, and 1.2 blocks while shooting 56.6% from the field. He played just six games (18 minutes) with Golden State in the NBA totaling three points, seven rebounds, and three blocks.\u00a0In 105 career NBA regular season games, Garuba has averages of 2.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 0.8 assists in 11.7 minutes.<\/p>\n<h3>Usman Garuba Back To His Old Stomping Grounds<\/h3>\n<p>Garuba\u2019s experience with the Real Madrid senior team goes back to the 2019-20 season when he joined them full-time. His debut game with them actually came in October of 2018 when Garuba was just 16 years old.<\/p>\n<p>His play in the 2020-21 season earned him multiple awards. Garuba won the ACB Best Young Player Award and was named the EuroLeague Rising Star. Other notable players to win the EuroLeague Rising Star include <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bargnan01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrea Bargnani<\/a> (2006), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/f\/fernaru01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rudy Fernandez<\/a> (2007), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gallida01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Danilo Gallinari<\/a> (2008), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rubiori01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ricky Rubio<\/a> (2010), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mirotni01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nikola Mirotic<\/a> (2011 &amp; 2012), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bogdabo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bogdan Bogdanovic<\/a> (2014 &amp; 2015), and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doncilu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luka Doncic<\/a> (2017 &amp; 2018).<\/p>\n<p>Garuba showed enough on the court that season to become a first-round pick in the NBA. Now it looks like he\u2019s heading back to where he\u2019s had his most professional success. Whether he ever returns to the NBA remains to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Selected 23rd overall in the 2021 NBA Draft, Usman Garuba hasn\u2019t made much of a mark in his three seasons. He has appeared in just 105 NBA games in those three years. The 6-8&#8221; center\/forward looks to be heading back where he\u2019s had more success. According to Aris Barkas of Eurohoops.net, the 22-year-old Garuba is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5060,"featured_media":78964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1608,61,62,3],"tags":[4279,1721,4232],"class_list":["post-78928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-warriors","category-basketball","category-international-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-2021-nba-draft","tag-euroleague","tag-usman-garuba"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78928","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\/5060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}