Diante Garrett

Diante Garrett

Garrett spent last season in the D-League, trying to make it back to the NBA in which he had spent the bulk of the previous two seasons. He started with the Iowa Energy and averaged 14.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists in 36.5 minutes per game, then was traded to the Grand Rapids Drive in exchange for Willie Reed, and averaged 11.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 23.0 minutes per game there. Garrett shot 40.4% from three point range across those two stints, and has found his niche as a player; a big combo-with-point-tendencies guard with a good wing span and defensive effort, who hits open jump shots and makes relatively few mistakes. Whether he has the athleticism to make it back to the NBA is another matter - not able to get beyond the first line of the defense much, Garrett's upside at the NBA level is limited, and now aged 26, others may have the advantage.

Utah - Ian Clark, Diante Garrett and Mike Harris: Making the team lout of training camp in the unlikely role of seasoned veteran despite his relative lack of NBA experience, Harris, has appeared regularly in the rotation, and played fairly well on his way to 4.2 ppg and 48% shooting. Garrett has also had moments of stable play in a lengthy audition, and while Clark has barely played (spending more time on the court on assignment to the D-League), there seems no obvious reason for the Jazz to waive their de facto second round pick, or indeed any of the three.

Diante Garrett - Another from the big point stable is Garrett, a legit 6'5 senior out of Iowa State. Garrett hasn't exactly presided over the finest chunk of Cyclones history, yet the state of the weakened did at least give him the opportunity to become a featured scorer, and he did this by almost doubling his scoring average to 17.1 points per game last season. He also passed for 6.1 assists per game, tied for 11th with three players further down this list.

It wasn't an efficient 17.1 points per game, however, as it took 518 shots for him to score those 551 points. Garrett can't finish around the basket because he's too thin, and this inability to take contact leads to an avoidance of contact, with only 80 free throws attempted in 1,175 minutes. Worse still, Garrett is not a good jumpshooter; he has a decent pull-up mid range shot, but lacks for much three point range, and thus scored these points on only a 50% true shooting percentage.

Garrett, then, is best as a playmaker, where his size allows him to see over the defense and his speed gets him by it. He runs the pick and roll, moves it round, and keeps the turnovers to an acceptable level. He tries hard, has the physical profile, and has the statline. His future lies somewhere between that of Antonio Anderson, Nick Calathes and Greivis Vasquez. So that's either a starting role on the Euroleague champion, a role as a key bench contributor on an upstart Western Conference semi-finals team, or a bench role in the D-League followed by summer in Venezuela.