Luka Garza’s Celtics tenure began with a boast.
After arriving in Boston on a two-year, $5.5 million contract, Garza called himself one of the NBA’s best shooting big men, despite the fact that he’d made just 31.4% of his career 3-pointers across four seasons with Minnesota and Detroit.
“I know I can shoot the ball,” Garza said in August. “Especially the big position, I can shoot it with the best of them. I know that, I have a lot of confidence in that, and I think with the right opportunity and the ability to get out there and let it fly, I’m going to show that.”
Nearly halfway through his first season as a Celtic, Garza has backed up that declaration.
The 27-year-old already has logged more minutes (506) as Neemias Queta’s understudy than he did in any of his years with the Timberwolves and Pistons, and he’s emerged as one of the league’s most efficient 3-point shooters, albeit on limited volume. He’s shooting 51.2% from beyond the arc, the best mark of any NBA player with at least 40 3-point attempts this season.
Has he replaced the perimeter shooting Boston lost when Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford departed last summer? No. Those ex-Celtics bigs both averaged more than five 3-point attempts per game last season; Garza is taking just 1.3. But he’s brought timely scoring to Boston’s second unit, especially since he returned to head coach Joe Mazzulla’s regular rotation in late December.
Over the Celtics’ last 12 games, Garza is shooting 66.7% from the field and 62.5% from deep (10-for-16) with seven double-digit scoring nights off the bench. That, combined with his effective offensive rebounding, active screening and all-around high motor, has helped the C’s outscore opponents by 111 points with Garza on the floor during that stretch.
“The ability to play the way he does is a skill,” Mazzulla said after a Dec. 22 win over Indiana. “That’s why he’s hung around the league. That’s what makes him a special player. But he’s got a knack for the ball and the offensive end. He has a knack for getting angles, drawing fouls on offensive rebounds. … He just keeps getting better for us.”
Garza hasn’t shown this caliber of 3-point shooting, however, since his days as a Naismith Award-winning collegiate standout at Iowa. He shot 44.0% from beyond the arc as a senior in 2020-21 before posting marks of 32.7%, 35.9%, 28.1% and 27.8% over his first four pro campaigns.
Caitlin Clark, who starred for the Hawkeyes’ women’s team that season, recently vouched for Garza’s shooting ability on social media, replying “I knew” to a post on X calling him “the stretch big no one knew existed before this season.”
I knew https://t.co/AHfQcWAd2n
— Caitlin Clark (@CaitlinClark22) January 11, 2026
With Queta exceeding expectations as a first-year starter and Garza playing the best basketball of his career, the Celtics have fielded a more capable frontcourt than most expected this season. But they still could be looking to upgrade that group ahead of the NBA’s Feb. 5 trade deadline. Trade rumors have linked Boston to a slew of potentially available big men, including Ivica Zubac, Daniel Gafford, Robert Williams III and Jaren Jackson Jr.