Entering his fifth NBA season and his first as a Boston Celtic, Luka Garza has seen the blueprints that lead to successful pro careers.
Garza spent his last three seasons deep on the bench of the Minnesota Timberwolves, two of which were on a two-way contract before earning a standard deal in April 2024.
After signing a two-year, $5.5 million deal for the Celtics, he’s hoping now is his chance to carve out his own path to consistent opportunities on the floor.
Working with Jr. Celtics at a youth basketball clinic at The Track at New Balance on Thursday, Garza spoke to Celtics media members about the expanding role he expects in his first season in Boston, the people who set forth a path for him to follow in his search for greater opportunities, and the areas of his game he wants to showcase in 2025.
“I’ve always been in different positions in different points in my career so this for me feels like a moment where – not through the work this summer but the work I’ve been doing my whole life and especially since I got to the league – it has prepared me for what’s to come,” Garza said.
Garza cites former teammates like Kelly Olynyk, Rudy Gobert, Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker as colleagues who have not only helped him grow, but have shown him the way in which players extend their careers even when significant roles aren’t always readily available.
After the Gobert trade between Utah and Minnesota before the 2022-23 season, Garza recalls a time when Reid was regularly picking up DNPs right next to him. Reid had six DNPs in the first 20 games of that season. Flash forward a year and Reid was named NBA Sixth Man of the Year during Minnesota’s run to the conference finals.
He also remembers Alexander-Walker joining the Wolves with his career in flux before breaking into the Minnesota rotation and later earning a multi-year contract with the Atlanta Hawks this summer.
“I’ve seen the blueprint and I’ve been around so many amazing guys, coaches, staff so it’s kind of just using all those examples to fuel me and to learn from them,” said Garza.
This summer, Garza has spent time figuring out what role his new coaching staff envisions for him. That includes the defensive coverages they want him to train for, and the ways in which he slots into an offensive system that looks much different from what he saw in Minnesota as well as how the Celtics played a season ago.
One thing he specifically wants to prove is that he can be a dependable stretch big for a team in need of one.
“I know I can shoot the ball,” Garza said. “Especially at the big position, I can shoot with the best of them, and I know that and have a lot of confidence in that. I think with the right opportunity and the ability to get out there and let it fly I’m going to show that.”
In 124 NBA appearances, Garza has attempted 156 3-pointers, converting on 31% of those attempts, most recently shooting 10-of-36 in his final season with the Timberwolves. In his last G-League stint with the Iowa Wolves in the 2022-23 season, he attempted 4.7 threes per game, connecting on 43% of those looks.
In Garza’s small 2024-25 3-point shooting sample, a majority of his attempts and makes came off above the break pick-and-pops. Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford were both effective pick-and-pop threats from the same area on the court, but their departures now leave the Celtics with a severe lack of stretch big options.
With that being said, Garza knows that in order to have a reliable role on his new team, he’ll have to impact the game without scoring the ball. The development of Luke Kornet was another blueprint he mentioned to media members, noting how Kornet was also a G-League/deep bench mainstay that eventually rose into a consistent role in his final seasons in Boston.
With Neemias Queta likely starting at center, Garza will probably begin the season in an off-the-bench role. The chance he has at a consistent, season-long spot in the rotation is right in front of him though, and he’s entering Year 5 intending to follow those familiar blueprints to build his own path forward in Boston.
“I’m fortunate and blessed to have that opportunity to put on that jersey, and I’m so excited to get out there,” he said.
