Kings Pulse: 2021 NBA Draft Prospect Profiles €“ Usman Garuba and Isaiah Jackson

Garuba is 18 years old? GTFO! Dude looks 25, lets see the birth certificate and lets have it analyzed by a team of forensics to verify its authenticity. Sorry I am not buying it, he’s fudging on his age just like Buddy, only to a greater degree, to get the guaranteed dollars.

I question if Garuba is a legitimate 6’8″. Looks like 6’6. Regardless we have Garuba on our team already and his name is Robert Woodward, similar physique, an undersized PF with extra long arms. Woodward flopped in training camp and G-League, over which many of the hometown fans are in denial, outclassed by the hypertalented Metu, and I only have slighter rosier projection for Garuba.

The cool kids calling it “flipping the hips”. Garuba does a better job of this than Woodward trailing the guard to the rim. Woodward struggled in part because he could not guard on the perimter. I also like Garuba as a pick and roll, because he is so wide, and “hip rolling” comes into play during the roll part of the pick and roll.

The problem is when Garuba catches the ball out of the pick and roll he has no moves and no touch. He is probably worse than Woodward on offense and Woodward has almost NO offensive game. And Garuba is going to learn to shoot from deep when he has NO touch from two feet? Don’t bet on it.

Lets not even talk about comparisons to Draymond because while they are similar in body type and defensive intensity Green can dribble and pass and survey the floor. He’s a point forward. Woodward and Garuba have no inclination in this regard.

Garuba is a PJ Tucker like player, maybe. The real question is he younger or older 😉

Uh, the discussion of Isaiah Jackson is just misguided and without substance. You may be interested to know that Jacksons father is Marine! This is major, that work ethic and discipline will be on point.

If you are presumptively and presumptuously labeling Jackson a center, of which you did not sound too sure, then you have either not done your homework or are simply too quick to assign labels so you can dismiss him as a prospect. I believe the latter is the case.

The whole reason Jackson is intriguing and my frontrunner to be selected is because of his positional versatility and that he is not a center. He also does not consider himself a center and his skillset was narrowly expressed at Kentucky due to the restrictive system and lack of player freedom granted by Callipari.

Over the course of the season Jackson role did expand from off the bench to starter and though he averaged only 8.8 PPG overall, he averaged 15 PPG in 6 of last 7 games.

Lastly how can you question whether a prospect with a 13% block rate, which is phenomenal, was a skill that would translate. With this perspecive everything becomes an unknown, that is what a player does well is dubious and what a player does not do well is dismissive. In other words, I wonder if Giddey passing is translatable? I wonder if Garuba hustle is translatable?

You can project shot blocking in this case because in addition to the gaudy numbers and wingspan you have the fact that Jackson blocks shots with his non-dominant hand. Right hand players turn right into his “swat zone”. Jackson does not reach across his body to try to challenge the shot. He has the ambidexterity and effeciency to get to shots with his left hand, unlike Marvin for example, who is a lost cause as a shot blocker because he cannot challenge with his right hand, has poor anticipation, and lacks the desire to be a great defender.

And though you assert Jackson tries to block everything, I disagree. He actually stays down a lot of the time and waits for the offensive player to commit to a shot before he goes after it. These are the finer points that is required to notice to project the level of success most likely or unlikely. And one more finer point is that Jackson catches everything, which will be help him to become a dominant rebounder and finsher when he gets the requisite strength.