The 75th NBA season will have three Argentines: what will be the setting for Campazzo, Bolmaro and Deck

After two seasons marked by the coronavirus pandemic, the NBA returns to its usual rhythm with a schedule from October to June 2022, date where there will be a team that will be crowned as the new champion of the best basketball league in the world. On this occasion, there will be three Argentine players who will seek to make their mark in a new campaign in the United States: Facundo Campazzo, Gabriel Deck and the arrival of Leandro Bolmaro, after passing through Barcelona.

It is important to note that this trio of the Argentine team dropped a fourth member: Luca Vildoza, who had had a great performance at Baskonia, was cut by the New York Knicks because he had to have surgery on his right foot and could not be part of the team in the preseason, a situation that was decisive for the franchise of the Big Apple decided to discontinue your unsecured contract. “This exit from the NBA is just a see you later, I will do everything possible to come back,” said the point guard, who is already recovering from his injury.

In this way, the scenario that each of the Argentines will face will be different. First of all, the only one who completed the entire previous season was Campazzo, which made its mark in 2020-2021 for various reasons. He was the first Argentine to return to the league after the retirement of Manu Ginobili in 2018 and, as the matches passed, he settled in a team that had just been a finalist.

The Cordovan guard who came from Real Madrid added his imprint to Denver’s attack, so much so that at the end of the season, the NBA chose three of his assists in the top 10 of the best in the league, including the best– A no-look goal pass that sparked a revolution in Nuggets fans.

In the numbers, Campazzo’s thing went from lowest to highest. The serious injury of the Canadian Jamal Murray gave him a space in the starting formation and air to try to make the Serbian giant’s team play Nikola Jokic, the Most valuable Player of the regular phase. In that stretch of the campaign, the former Real Madrid averaged 6 points (with a little more than 35% in shots of three), 3.6 assists, 2.1 rebounds and 1.2 steals in almost 22 minutes on court. Already in the playoffs, those records improved: he reached 9.3 points per game, slightly more than 4 goals, and the percentage of triples reached almost 40 percent in 27 minutes per game..

With the line further behind than in FIBA ​​basketball, Facu had to adapt to shooting differently. Accustomed to creating his own actions with the ball in his hands, he had to improve on the famous “catch and shoot” (take and throw). That happened with the running of last season and should definitely be a bastion of your offensive game in what is coming. Especially while waiting for the return of Murray – it remains to be seen if he will finally be available to play this season – and with the incorporation of a rookie who showed a good role in the preseason as Bones Hyland, which made up the technical staff led by Michael Malone. The same as with the return of Monte Morris, the point guard that the coach chose to start in the games prior to the start of the regular season.

At 30, after conforming to the NBA world, Campazzo knows he is facing a key season for his future in Denver. In the second and final year of their contract, the Nuggets will seek to improve what was done in the previous season, in which they were swept by the Phoenix Sun (4-0) in the semis of a conference that will once again be very competitive, on all with the good form shown in the anteroom by Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors.

Facundo will not be the only one from Córdoba in the highest sport competition on the planet. There will be another who, like Fabricio Oberto, was born and raised in Las Varillas. A player who for Minnesota Timberwolves It is a gem to finish polishing and that can be a positive impact for a franchise that, once and for all, will try to start winning games consistently. It is in this context that Leandro Bolmaro will have his premiere in the NBA.

At the age of 21, and after playing for the last year in Barcelona’s first team, Bolmaro decided to make the leap. After being selected 23rd by the New York Knicks and then directly traded by Minnesota, the Western franchise knows they have a player with a huge future in their hands. With his more than two meters (2.03), the Cordoba has already shown that his ability to handle the ball will make him a point guard with great physical and athletic capacity, but that he needs to improve various aspects of the game to accommodate a league that is faster than anyone else on the planet.

In that scenario, his development on a day-to-day basis will be a determining factor in seeing what role Bolmaro will occupy in his first season in the NBA. Before the gaze of Pablo PrigioniFormer base of the Argentine national team and today offensive technical assistant for the Timberwolves, this boy who shone in athletics when he was young, will have a plus. Chris Finch, the team coach, He has already announced that Leandro will have to improve his outside shot, an adaptation Campazzo himself went through in his rookie year.

“It is not consistent and you have to work on the form. We feel like we can make him a good shooter, just with strength, pace and some adjustments here and there, ”the Wolves coach confessed in relation to Bolmaro’s technique. For that, the Argentine who was part of the squad that competed in the Tokyo Olympics already works together with Kevin Hanson and Ernest Scott, two members of the team.

Beyond the stats in the four preseason games, The former Barça showed his stamp on defense and his reading of the game, virtues of his own that he will be able to exploit with the passage of time. Heading into the regular season, it must be said that Minnesota has a lot of weight in its perimeter: the point guard D’Angelo Russell is one of the stars with Karl-Anthony Towns. In addition, the arrival of the veteran former Clippers was added Patrick Beverley y Jordan McLaughlin. Malik Beasley I would be the starting escort, that’s why Anthony Edwards -elected in position 1 of the 2020 Draft- would go on to play forward to enhance the Timberwolves attack.

The other one who showed his cards in the preview of the start of the regular season was Jaylen Nowell, a player 10 centimeters shorter than Bolmaro, but who already has two years of experience and could join a rotation in which the Argentine’s minutes will be unknown. Is it an option for the Cordoba to play with the Iowa Wolves, the team that the franchise has in the NBA Development League? It is a resolution that we will see as the days go by, after the start of the competition.

What is certain is that Bolmaro has what it takes to play against the best in the world. We will only have to wait for what his development will be like in a different context, but according to those who know him, he is ready to take the leap.

The third Argentine in the NBA this season will be Gabriel Deck, who in the last hours was confirmed by Oklahoma within the 15-player roster who will set foot on the court for the season opener. In this way, Tortuga, who had no guaranteed contract, passed the cut after averaging 6 points and 6 rebounds in 18 minutes in the three of four games he played in preparation.

If we review the City Thunder roster, the outlook is clear for the franchise whose general manager is Sam Presti, which in recent times has accumulated more than 20 elections in future drafts with the aim of assembling a competitive team based on youth talent or to use as a bargaining chip in possible transfers of figures. In addition to Deck, the other members of the team led by Mark Daigneault are: Kenrich Williams, Mike Muscala, Vit Krejci, Theo Maledon, Ty Jerome, Tre Mann, Lu Dort, Josh Giddey, Darius Bazley, Derrick Favors, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Isaiah Roby, and Aleksej Pokusevski.

In this context, the Argentine from Colonia Dora is one of the experienced franchisees. Therefore, his choice to continue marks that he is in the consideration of a team that will seek to continue with the reconstruction, without pressure and in the search to win as many games as possible in a conference like the West that has 10 teams that they will fight for the playoffs.

In the 10 games he managed to play in 2020-2021, Deck finished with good numbers: 8.4 points (47.8% field), 4.0 rebounds and more than 2 assists in 21 minutes. As Gabriel himself stated, his intention was never to leave the NBA to return to Europe, that is why this season could be decisive to see what the future of this multifunctional player will be: if he will continue in Oklahoma as part of the team building or Thanks to a good performance, you can be seduced by other more competitive franchises.

This will be the calendar of the first Argentine matches in the NBA

Facing the season that is about to begin, there will be several options to be able to follow the Argentine trio. All the meetings of each franchise can be seen by hiring the NBA League Pass, the pass offered by the league through the official streaming subscription. What’s more, ESPN -now added the Star + platform to the package- and DirecTV Sports They will also broadcast matches during 2021-2022.

Facundo Campazzo

October 20 – Phoenix Suns vs. Denver Nuggets – 23 (Argentine time) TV: ESPN

October 22 – Denver Nuggets vs. San Antonio Spurs – 22 (Argentine time)

25 de octubre – Denver Nuggets vs. Cleveland Cavaliers 22 (hora argentina)

October 26 – Utah Jazz vs. Denver Nuggets – 23 (Argentine time)

October 29 – Denver Nuggets vs. Dallas Mavericks – 23 (Argentine time)

Leandro Bolmaro

October 20 – Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Houston Rockets – 21 (Argentine time)

October 23 – Minnesota Timberwolves vs. New Orleans Pelicans – 21 (Argentine time)

October 25 – Minnesota Timberwolves vs. New Orleans Pelicans – 21 (Argentine time)

27 de octubre – Milwaukee Bucks vs. Minnesota Timberwolves – 21 (hora argentina)

October 30 – Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Denver Nuggets – 22 (Argentine time)

Gabriel Deck

October 20 – Utah Jazz vs. Oklahoma City Thunder – 22.00 (Argentine time)

22 de octubre – Houston Rockets vs. Oklahoma City Thunder – 21 (hora argentina)

October 24 – Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Philadelphia 76ers – 20 (Argentine time)

26 de octubre – Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Golden State Warriors – 21 (hora argentina)

October 27 – Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Los Angeles Lakers – 21 (Argentine time)

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