Following what was a truly memorable career in the NCAA, former Iowa standout Luka Garza enters the 2021 NBA Draft with high hopes. He is currently expected to be selected somewhere in the second round, with his skillset being likened to the NBA bigs such as Enes Kanter and Nikola Vucevic.
Garza himself has heard about the comparisons and has acknowledged how he sees a lot of himself in Kanter:
“I think that there are a lot of great players in the NBA,” Garza said on a recent interview on ESPN (h/t Alex Seats of 247 Sports). “I think that I see myself in a lot of comparisons. I was actually watching the Trail Blazers last night. The role Enes Kanter plays and he comes in, he's very successful off the bench. He's averaging 12 and 12. He's very, very good and, obviously, he's on offense, he can score every time down the floor and everything like that. So I see myself on the block, kind of similar to that.”
Last season, Garza averaged 24.1 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.6 blocks, and 1.4 triples per game en route to bagging the 2021 Naismith Player of the Year award. As he described above, his game does have a lot of similarities to that of Kanter.
When asked about his thoughts on being compared to Nikola Vucevic, however, Garza provided an honest take:
“Obviously, Nikola Vucevic is an All-Star, so I don't know if I can see myself at that level,” he said. “But his ability to stretch the floor and play in the post and that kind of stuff is something I see kind of similar to myself in terms of what I bring to the offensive end of the ball.”
Luka Garza isn't exactly the quickest player out there, and the experts are saying that he could be a liability on defense. Nevertheless, he has a ton of accolades under his belt, and he could always develop into a real stud in the NBA. He'll be playing with a bit of a chip on his shoulder too, so we could be in for a surprise with the 6-foot-11 big man here.
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