Charles Garcia's talent never a question for Fort Wayne Mad Ants

For Charles Garcia, it’s never been a matter of having the right tools. Or frame. Or the ability to throw and twist his 6-10 body into air like a man a foot smaller.

It’s just that, as of yet, Garcia—a starting forward for the NBA Development League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants—has yet to figure out a way to make them all work for him at once. His 2012 NBA D-League All Star Game performance has gone a long way toward shaking his reputation for laziness, but he’s still plagued by concerns about a lack of focus and poor decision-making. On certain nights, though, Garcia’s looked less like an elite big man in the NBA D-League and more like a future NBA star.

On Friday night, watch him in action on SportingNews.com when the Mad Ants take on the Idaho Stampede at 9 p.m. ET.

Garcia has spent 40 games in the NBA D-League, and he’s already played for four different teams. After starring at Seattle University, he came to the league in 2010-11 and promptly spent the season on the Utah Flash and Iowa Energy benches. He went to Sioux Falls in the offseason, chased by allegations that he wasn’t willing to work hard.

By the time January’s NBA Development League Showcase rolled around, he’d mostly silenced his critics. Then, after coming through the first half of the season as one of the most promising post players in the league, he got suspended for five games for violating the league’s drug policy.He played in the All-Star Game on Feb. 25—and got waived by Sioux Falls three days later.

Fort Wayne scooped him up within two days, and since then, Garcia has fallen back into rhythm—which isn’t necessarily a great thing. In six games with the Mad Ants, he’s scored in double-figures for four games, including a high of 20 points in a loss to Canton on Wednesday. But that performance came after Garcia scored eight points, combined, in the two games before. Meanwhile, his four efforts of eight rebounds or more surround two nights where the bruiser pulled down just five boards.

But if consistency’s what he’s after, he’ll face one of his toughest tests of the season on Friday, when he clashes with the Stampede’s Mikki Moore in the paint. Moore, the former NBA player who looks to be the league’s No. 1 prospect at center, stands taller (at 7-foot) than Garcia, but he doesn’t have the bounce anymore to keep up with the Mad Ants’ big man.