Who is Luka Garza? Discover the 25-year-old Timberwolves center who impressed in his preseason debut against the Lakers

Well, the Timberwolves' first preseason game is set. Your opponents? The Los Angeles Lakers. As expected, the entire nation was focused on the highly anticipated debut of Bronny James. However, it was Wolves center Luka Garza who stole the show with his impressive performance. Garza usually plays as a backup to Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid and isn't seen on the court too often.

I'm sure many of you would be curious to know more about the center who decimated the Lakers' defense. So, let’s dive in.

From a family of athletes to national player of the year

Although Garza was born in Washington and is an American citizen, he has a very diverse family background. This is because his mother Sejla is from Bosnia and Herzegovina while his father Frank is from Spain. And Luka was destined to pursue a basketball career, as both parents were former basketball stars who played professionally in Europe. Not only his parents, but also Luka's grandfather James Halm and his uncle Teoman Alibegovic played basketball at a high level and even once represented the Slovenian national team.

With a family full of basketball players, Garza quickly discovered a passion for the game and played four years in college for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Luka was a great player from the start and really made a lot of progress in his junior year, averaging 23.9 points and almost ten rebounds. In fact, he received several awards, including National Player of the Year honors and first-team All-American honors. He continued that momentum, averaging 24.1 points as a senior and becoming a two-time national player of the year. As expected, the NBA came!

Late second-round pick to dominate the Lakers in the preseason

Despite his stellar college resume, Garza was selected late in the second round of the 2021 draft. And it was the Pistons who gave him a chance at No. 52. However, his game didn't translate well to the NBA and he averaged just 5.8 points as a rookie while playing in less than half the games. And after just one season, he parted ways with the team that drafted him and joined the Timberwolves. Luka is also a substitute player for his new team and hardly gets any significant minutes. Well, that's to be expected since the team has no shortage of talented bigs.

But Garza has averaged 5.3 points in his two years with the Wolves so far, and that was enough to get him to re-sign with the team for two more years. He is currently on a $4.5 million deal. And he may have shown tonight that he's worth the new contract as he helped his team to a 124-107 win over the Lakers. Coming off the bench, Luka scored 20 points and nearly had a double-double with nine rebounds. With KAT gone, the big man could get more minutes in the future and will hopefully continue that form for the rest of this season.