Once upon a time, Garza was a chubby kid nicknamed Pudge. These days, he's at 250 pounds and has gotten his body fat as low as six percent throughout the course of the season.
Garza’s game is almost as unrecognizable as his body. During his senior year, he was the focal point of an Iowa offense ranked No. 3 in the nation. He averaged a healthy 9.7 post ups per game.
He's had four total through the first half of the year for the Celtics.
Along with drilling his 3's, Garza has become the king of doing the dirty work. Of the 268 players this year with at least 500 minutes played, he ranks No. 2 in the league in screen assists and No. 5 in box outs per minute. He leads the team in percentage of offensive loose balls recovered. He’s become a monster on the offensive glass, often going through two or three defenders to find the ball.
"I know every guy in the NBA can beat me in a 3/4 court sprint," he told The Athletic’s James Edwards during his Summer League debut back in 2021. "I know that. But is everyone going to run that hard in the game? No. But I'm going to."
Garza has made true on that promise. He might have the slowest top speed on the roster, but his average speed of 4.7 miles per hour on the floor is the fastest on the team. He is always moving.
Garza even runs during timeouts, doing wind sprints while the other nine players stand around waiting for the whistle to blow. He explained that when he checks in, he needs to play like he's hopping on a treadmill that's going 100 miles per hour.
7 comments
He’s been great for us.
Love the factoid that he has the highest *average speed* on the team. Go Go Garzilla
Garza needs to be in our center rotation moving forward. He’s so cheap and brings so much energy off the bench. He’s already good enough to be a 3rd big and he still continuing to improve
But I thought the Celtics need to push all in and trade for an “athletic big” like JJJ and his 4 total double-doubles and 10 dunks this season (Garza has 4 dunks by comparison).
Garza has an in-game average speed of 4.72. By comparison, Steph has an average speed of 4.31. Wemby and Walker Kessler have average speeds of 4.17. Zach Edey has an average speed of 4.16. JJJ has an average speed of 4.12. KP has an average speed of 4.09. Jokic has an average speed of 3.83. Luka has an average speed of 3.78. Embiid has an average speed of 3.71. Lebron has an average speed of 3.63. Harden has an average speed of 3.53 – last of any player with more than 2 games.
We had him in for a pre draft workout.
We went with Juhann Bengarin at #45.
Garza went #52.
Coincidentally, Charles Bassey went #53.
Queta went #39.
Article mentions Garza is a great offensive rebounder but don’t provide the numbers- he’s not eligible for league leaders but if he was he’d be 4th at 14.5% rebound rate between Duren at 15.8% and Mark Williams 14.3%
This makes sense now and must be the reason that once he turns red Garzilla is released.
