The 31-year-old import’s last gig was in Mexico. It was a brief stint and before that, he played for the Auckland Tuatara on an all-star roster where he had an upgraded support role.
But at the Nuggets, Buay (pronounced boy) is the man.
He is expected to carry a heavier load on offence and he has met the demands during the first five games.
Tuach is averaging a team-high 20.8 points and is the second-leading rebounder in the squad, pulling down 5.8 boards per game.
‘‘I love it. The team values me a lot. The coach values me a lot,’’ he said.
‘‘It makes me happy just to see that I have that much value to a team. So from my end, I have to bring that same energy and I have to perform in a way that helps the team.
‘‘But it is what I love to do. I love to play basketball.’’
Tuach was born in Addis Ababa — the capital of Ethiopia — but he is South Sudanese. His family moved to the United States when he was a toddler.
They settled in Houston, Texas, initially before moving to Omaha, Nebraska, which is home to Tuach when he is not travelling the world for basketball.
He got his start in the sport when he was about 12. Before that, he played American football.
The athletic swingman attended Northeast Community College and then Loyola Marymount University.
After college, he had a short stint in Germany followed by two seasons with the Westchester Knicks in the NBA G League.
He has also had professional stints in the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico and Greece.
He is an experienced campaigner and the Nuggets will need him near his best this afternoon.
They have travelled to Napier to play the winless Hawke’s Bay Hawks.
The home team are a lot better than their record suggests.
They pushed the Tuatara close in their last outing and with players like Daniel Grida and Keanu Rasmussen in the line-up, and with the home court advantage, they will be a challenging opponent.
‘‘If you watch their games, all the games that they lost, most of them, they’ve been close games. So for us, it’s just about worrying about ourselves and executing our game.’’
The Nuggets are fresh from their first loss of the season. They were defeated 87-72 by the Canterbury Rams in Christchurch.
The Rams have a quality lineup, and the Nuggets were backing up from a tense game against the Manawatū in Dunedin two nights earlier.
‘‘The main lesson is just honestly just moving on from a loss, and how we carry ourselves through a loss and how we attack the week,’’ Tuach said.
The Nuggets will be without livewire defender Matthew Bardsley.
