Former University of Hawaii guard Garrett Nevels builds on experiences in G League

FRISCO, Texas >> Since playing his final game at Hawaii in 2015, Garrett Nevels has seen the world.

But after four seasons overseas, the 6-foot-2 guard who spent his final two collegiate seasons with the Rainbow Warriors (2013-15) is happy to be playing stateside again with the Agua Caliente Clippers of the NBA G League.

“It’s been a pretty good experience for me,” Nevels, a two-year starter at UH, said before a recent road game in Texas. “My family and friends can come to my games now and I like that a lot. Yeah, just being in the States, being in front of NBA execs, that’s what I want at the end of the day.”

In 23 games with Agua Caliente, which is based in Ontario, Calif., he is averaging 5.5 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.5 steals per game.

But for Agua Caliente head coach Brian Adams, Nevels’ value to his mostly young squad can’t be quantified in mere numbers. “Garrett’s been awesome,” Adams said. “We’ve had a lot of different lineups and he’s had to play (at the) 1 whereas normally he’s more of a combo guard. He’s also been able to play combo for us. And then he’s also been able to be like a utility wing because he’s out there and he can shoot, he can dribble, and he can attack. He plays really hard defense as well. He’s just a great kid too, which adds to your culture.”

Now in his fifth professional season, the ex-Rainbow from Los Angeles sees his two seasons in Honolulu as integral because those experiences laid the foundation to adequately prepare him for the rigors of the pro game, both in the States and abroad.

“I look at it like it was a good two years,” said Nevels, who averaged 12.0 points for his UH career and shot 37.9% on 3-pointers, eighth-most-accurate in program history. “I look at that as my second home. I had pretty close bonds with people there and we still talk to this day. I love Hawaii. I’d say the one (memory) that stands out the most is just being one game away from the NCAA Tournament. We lost in the conference championship and I still think about that a lot.”

Fifth-seeded UH, led by interim coach Benjy Taylor that 2014-15 season, fell 67-58 to third-seeded UC Irvine in the Big West title game at the Honda Center. Nevels recorded 14 points on 6-for-12 shooting in his final game as a Rainbow, UH’s season done at 22-13. Many of his teammates would return for an NCAA breakthrough the following season under new coach Eran Ganot, but Nevels had expended his eligibility.

“Garrett’s been terrific. During a key stretch when I first got hired, he was tremendous,” Ganot said Saturday, a night that UH honored its alumni at the Stan Sheriff Center and abroad for the ’Bows’ 100th season celebration game. “Kind of helped me with the transition. Such a great kid. I didn’t coach him, but I surely wish I did. His work ethic, his respect, he always reaches out, during good and bad times.”

Nevels’ four subsequent seasons overseas, three in Spain and one in Italy, saw him debut in 2015-16 with Albacete Basket of the Spanish fourth division. After helping lead them to the Liga EBA championship, earning a promotion to the third division, he spent the following season in the Spanish second division before finishing his four-year run abroad with one season each in Serie A, Italy’s top league, and Liga ACB, the Spanish first division.

And after going undrafted in 2015, he remains grateful for the opportunity to play consistent minutes overseas, all while being exposed to different countries and cultures, experiences that helped him mature on and off the court.

“I started from the bottom levels and got all the way to the top. I think it shaped me a lot,” Nevels said. “Now, I’m just prepared for anything, meeting different types of people, different cultures. I feel like I’m almost comfortable in any situation now. I feel like I can adapt to anything. (I learned) more Spanish than Italian. The languages are similar, the people are different. I liked how clean the environment is, how clean the food is.”

Not only has his time abroad already paid big dividends in his own career, those experiences are also rubbing off on his new coach and teammates in the G League.

“The one thing I heard coming in is that he’s a worker. He’s been the hardest worker on the team, and you can tell how he’s refined his game,” Adams said. “He’s a pro like he’s been a pro for a while. He warms up like a vet versus say somebody new that doesn’t have a routine. He’s got every routine in the book that he follows. It’s been cool to see a pro at that age. Definitely overseas has prepared him for that.”

Of course, the main reason Nevels returned to the States was to be in a better position to realize his dream of playing in the NBA, the goal of every player in the G League. Being front and center in the G League gets him one step closer and this former Hawaii standout feels that if he can hone a few things in his skill set that he should be ready for a call-up to the Association.

“To get a call-up I would say (I need to) probably just continue to take and make the right shots, probably just improve my assists and working in the pick-and-roll,” Nevels said. “That’s what the NBA is right now. I think having those two things, I could get it done.”

Two other UH alumni, forward Stefan Jankovic (2014-16) and wing Noah Allen (2016-17) are teammates on the G League’s Capital City Go-Go, the Washington Wizards’ affiliate.

The Star-Advertiser’s Brian McInnis contributed to this story.