Everyone got into the exhibition game with Florida Southern on Tuesday with the exception of one player who took the game in from the bench in his sweats, Gorjok Gak. The lanky 6’11” big man has been injured often during his first two years at Florida and though he was out for the exhibition and could miss the start of the regular season it is believed he’ll get close to 100% in a week or two and that could mean for the first time we see what he can really accomplish. The tallest and longest of Gators on the roster, Gak’s frame brings an element to the center position they won’t get from Kevarrius Hayes, Dontay Bassett, or Isaiah Stokes, and his rim protection could change the way Florida defends. Here’s how Gak’s return will affect the Gators.
Rim Protection
Gak is a perfect study in why you can’t just look at shot blocking numbers to gauge how good of a rim protector a particular player is. Gak’s shot blocking numbers are actually decent with a block rate of 4.9 (second to only Hayes on the team, and he had the 36th best block rate in the country at 9.3) but the real story behind his rim protection is how many difficult shots he forces that turn into ugly misses. Opponents are only shooting 37.5% at the rim around Gak, and get this… in his 259 minutes played last year, he didn’t commit a single foul when contesting a shot at the rim. Can you believe that? Making shots that should be high percentage difficult and not committing fouls in the area most fouls are committed is highly impressive. He was also decent when guarding post ups, allowing opponents to shoot 43.5% but guess what, only committing fouls 4.3% of the time.
By the way, this doesn’t mean Gak doesn’t commit fouls, he actually fouls a lot averaging 5.6 fouls per 40 minutes, second on the team behind Dontay Bassett who commits an astonishing 9.0 fouls per 40 minutes. I guess I should address where these fouls are coming from.
Switching Out
Switching is not an area well suited for Gak’s game. I’m sure the fact he was playing with injuries didn’t help his foot-speed but when he out on the perimeter he was committing A LOT of blocking and holding fouls as he was challenged to keep players in front of him. Gak is a great interior defender and I think the Gators need to play to that to the best of their ability and not play as many switching schemes when he is on the floor to allow him to stay close to home at the rim. When guarding pick and rolls, the Gators could utilize a “drop” coverage where Gak falls back into the paint and the guard chases the ball handler over top of the screen forcing him towards Gak and the hoop. That could be a good coverage to maximize Gak’s lockdown ability in the paint while not forcing him to have to move out on the perimeter.
I’d also be intrigued by a 2-3 or 1-3-1 zone with Gak in the center of it. Coach White hasn’t used zone much these last few seasons and last year he didn’t do it with Gak on the floor. I understand that he used the zone when Gak was out with injury to try to make up for their lack of size but I’d love to see a zone used when Gak is healthy to utilize size. Either one of those zone looks would totally limit the amount Gak has to run around and instead keep him close to the hoop in a rim-protecting role. A zone that showcases his best defensive abilities while hiding his limitations could be devastating to opponents and I hope we see it.
Rebounding
If you thought Gak’s pure length would instantly relate to rebounding, well, you’d be correct. Grabbing offensive rebounds on 13.8% of the Gators misses he would have been one the best offensive rebounders in the country if he played enough minutes to qualify and his 16.4% of defensive rebounds hauled in was second on the team to Egor Koulechov. The Gators were not a good rebounding team last season and gave up far too many offensive rebounds (on 30.6% of misses) and being able to roll out Gak for more minutes could help shore up the glass. The offensive rebounding he could provide would definitely be nice as those extra possessions are always graving but putting an end to defensive possessions with a defensive rebound could be what really commands minutes for Gak.
Offense
Offensively, Gak’s return won’t change much of what the Gators do. Still fairly limited on the offense end, Gak was mostly limited to being a dump-off finisher inside though there has been some chatter of him developing a mid-range jump shot in the offseason. Hopefully the shot is improved as that should also mean he could be a better free throw shooter than the 39.3% we saw from the charity stripe last season. A player who finished well a few times last season off the pick and roll he could be maximized with some pinpoint passes from Andrew Nembhard but I’m not sure we’ll see that be a mainstay of the offense.
Season Outlook
If Gak is healthy and can provide regular minutes he’ll be impactful on the defensive end and when it comes to rebounding. Sharing the center position with Hayes, Stokes, Bassett, and Stone at times even means Gak should stay fresh and be able to put out maximum effort when on the floor which could be a nightmare for teams trying to keep him off the glass. Any offensive production would be welcomed but being the most dominating defensive player possible should be his central focus.