Santi Aldama: Shine with the national team to grow in the NBA
Santi Aldama started the new NBA season with a great performance. The Spaniard was the top scorer for the Memphis Grizzlies (27 points) in the victory over the Utah Jazz (126-124) and received praise from his coach, Taylor Jenkins.
“He’s had two great summers in a row. I think that the experience with the Spanish team has made him more confident. It’s not just the three-point shot […]but the creation of the game, the cuts to the basket. He got an offensive rebound [importante] at the end of the game…”, Jenkins highlighted.
Santi Aldama has measured every step of his career and, although he has stood out from a very young age (he was MVP of the 2019 U-18 European Championship ahead of the Turkish Alperen Şengün), postponed his debut with the senior team until the 2023 World Cup to focus on his adaptation to the NBA.
But now that he needs to take the next step, Aldama has turned the tables: the last two summers with the Spanish team, and especially that of 2024, have helped him take the measure of a new suit, that of a player who He begins to assume the weight in attack that he can due to his talent.
“At the level of confidence for me and the team, seeing me in these types of different situations is something that gives them confidence and it is one of the conversations we have had since I returned,” he acknowledged in an interview in Mark.
“I am very excited because I believe I can take a step forward. and look for different ways to help the team.
And thus respond to the demands of his two coaches, Jenkins (Memphis Grizzlies) and Sergio Scariolo (Spanish team), who have a common pattern: they need to be more aggressive.
Aggressive to deploy all the resources that Santi Aldama has, and that enable him to be second or third sword; and in defense to, in the absence of great physical qualities, take the initiative.
In short, that step forward that the Spanish team needed and now the Memphis Grizzlies expect.
