Luka Garza Will Make You A Timberwolves Fan For 7 Minutes A Night.
Luka Garza Is The Perfect Timberwolf
There’s a specific sound that reverberates through the bowl at Target Center when Anthony Edwards is out front of a fast break. The anticipatory crescendo is more than just increasing volume. A palpable energy and the rising of heads as people prepare to explode from their seats accompanies the audible “oohhhhh.” It’s a sound Target Center has reserved only for Ant.
Until now.
There’s a second player who has been deemed worthy of this building anticipation. And it’s not a max player, not DLo, not KAT, not Gobert. It’s not for Jaden or the Naz Reid freight train. This sound arrives for a two-way player with slow feet averaging under 8 minutes per game. That’s right, Luka Garza has earned the “entire arena is mesmerized” audio. When a rainbow three leaves his hands, the electricity in that moment is unmistakable. You can hear it on TV. You can REALLY hear it at Target Center.
Luka Garza has played in 16 of the Wolves 49 games. He averages a just under 8 minutes and 6 points a game. And ever since his first high arching three splashed through, he’s had fans ready to go crazy.
Let’s acknowledge the very Minnesota-ness of all this: A tall, gangly, bench mob leader who spent four years of Big Ten basketball at Iowa and despite collegiate accolades, was drafted late in the second round only to be cut by the team that drafted him. It’s a recipe for a Twin Cities fan favorite. Wolves fans were pre-destined to love this guy.
But I’m here to push against that expected rationale. I don’t think that’s why Garza has so quickly made himself a fan favorite. I think it’s something else.
I think it’s because of his hustle. More importantly, I think it’s because of how his hustle looks. Luka Garza looks like he’s working harder than everyone on the court.
The line of Wolves fan favorites over the years is littered with guys who played hard and looked like they were playing hard. Kevin Garnett. Mark Madsen. Pat Bev last season. Even Josh Okogie got more love than he should’ve, just because of Obvious Hustle.
Garza has the Obvious Hustle gene. He chops his feet like a football player doing up-downs, using activity as a way to compensate for actual quickness. He bodies people up. He takes charges. He boxes out. He (slowly) sprints back on defense. He’s somehow always on the ground. As soon as he steps on the court, it looks like he’s leaving everything out there. Obvious Hustle looks like heart. And Minnesota fans L.O.V.E. players with heart.
(KAT is the reverse of this. A guy who gets himself way out of position, but then make over-the-top “effort” plays and gestures as if he’s working harder than everyone else.)
**TRIGGER WARNING** There’s another guy Wolves fans would love who has the Obvious Hustle gene and, as Crunch Wears No Pants podcaster Jordan Alamat pointed out, he’s playing best-in-the-league defense down in Utah.
Of course, Garza’s game is more than Obvious Hustle. It might not always be pretty, but he wasn’t the two-time national college player of the year for working hard.
The guy can score. And like the Ant breakaway energy, Garza has a signature, hype-building skill: a high-release, higher-arching three-point shot. One that leaves fans hanging for an extra beat before it splashes. It’s a skill that makes the Obvious Hustle even more exciting.
The players that leave the biggest marks in Minnesota are the ones with Obvious Hustle. KG had it (and happened to also be the best player in franchise history). Ricky Rubio had it, too. Rubio was the prodigy that never fulfilled the promise, but even with his flaws, he still gets ovations when he’s back.
And every Rubio no-look pass was accompanied by that special Target Center sound. The sound that you hear with Ant on a breakaway and, now, a Luka Garza three. Garza is Midwestern kid who didn’t have big NBA prospects, got cut, and worked his way into the rotation. Combined with his Obvious Hustle, Luka Garza might be the perfect Timberwolf.
