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“We deserve beautiful miracles, and they will happen…”.
It was mid-February, prior to the two matches that Argentina had to play in Buenos Aires for the World Cup qualifiers, and Luca Vildoza, a fan of Indio Solari and Los Redondos, he repeated -smiling- that phrase from the song “Amok, Amok” in a fun back and forth with Joseph Montesano, journalist from Tyc Sports. It was the return of the man from Mar del Plata to official action, in this case with our National Team (5 points in 21 minutes against Panama and 6 in 26 against Venezuela), after undergoing an operation on his right foot, on October 5, 2021, to put an end to the pain that had had him mistreat during the last few months. “I have been carrying this injury since before the Tokyo Games and I had really difficult months. It was intense and constant pain. I made this decision thinking about my future”, said the point guard. Days before the intervention he had been removed from the Knicks squad after being able to play only one game in the Las Vegas Summer League. It was immediately after the Olympic event, in which Vildoza did not play well, partly due to foot pain. There he put an end to the ordeal. But he promised to return, after a failed first experience in New York. “This departure from the NBA is just a see you later for me. I will do the impossible to return, from tomorrow. It is my dream and I will pursue it while I can, ”he warned.
Words that marked your goal. After what happened to Tom Thibodeau Y the Knicks (he earned 3.5 million dollars but did not even debut), many thought and even believed that the best thing for him was to return to Europe, especially to Spain, where he is highly respected and valued –he was MVP of the Endesa League and champion with Baskonia-, but Luca did not want to return. First, according to what he was able to find out Infobaebecause he had to pay an important clause to play for a team other than Baskonia and secondly because he preferred not to return to Vitoria.
Luka was clear that, to return to the world basketball elite, he had to go little by little and so he concentrated on that, designing a plan that began at home, in Mar del Plata. There, at the beginning of the year, he started working alone and then going to Quilmes, the club from his beginnings. Then, in February, he moved to Buenos Aires and continued his personalized training at La Bombonerita, under the watchful eye of Néstor Che García, who had already decided to add him to the team that would face the double qualifying round. He then returned to Mardel, where he continued his development in Quilmes until he played both games with the national team. In Obras, Vildoza showed the usual talent, but also lacked rhythm and physical condition, especially in the defeat against the tough Venezuela.
“In the windows we were surprised by the speed of execution… When he accelerated it was as if he was playing at another speed. He was logically out of rhythm for the match, but he trained well. Later, it is true, he was inaccurate in the two games and that led him to get frustrated, but best of all, he did not have pain in his foot”, analyzed a member of the coaching staff of the selected team. To continue improving and seeking to refine details and find the famous rhythm, after those two games he joined the training sessions of the U18 National Team. “His level grew and the boys, except for the first day, treated him like one of the others, defending him strongly. In those days we saw a tremendous version of Luca, “he said. Herman Mandole, national coordinator of training teams and head coach of the U18 that would later be South American runner-up in Venezuela.
Vildoza also did individual sessions with Mariano Sánchez, individual technique coach who is part of the national coaching staff of the U18 but also has a great history of specific jobs that empowered players, including NBA players and, especially, louis scola in the run-up to his great 2019 World Cup. “We worked on many situations that covered 70% of the field to work on physical conditioning and, at the same time, real match situations, thinking that surely in the future he would have to face athletic players and great size, doing an arrhythmic job and looking for an improvement in which paths to take to the hoop and how to attack them”, said Sánchez, son of the renowned Egg which gave more details about this search.
“Luca is an elastic player, fast, with a lot of change of pace, that goes well up, but we seek to enhance another resource, that of feints and breaks on the floor to be able to find more definition opportunities when he has to meet bigger players on his way to the hoop. We simulate different game actions, emphasizing body language on the ground, looking for greater elasticity towards the wings, more pronounced breaks and more footwork to find the small corridors towards the hoop”, Sánchez specified, who finally gave a vision of how he sees him thinking about the new chance. “Physically, he is doing very well. He took care of himself and trained a lot, I saw him take off great towards the hoop and with reaction to accelerate and go up. He maintains the mischief to cut systems and make easy annotations. I feel that he absorbed the work and that he has the pack to elevate the game as the NBA requires. There they will tell you what you need to continue improving, ”he said.
While it was getting ready, between February and March, Vildoza plucked the daisy’s leaves. With Europe ruled out, he received offers from National League teams, an option that might seem utopian but Luca took it seriously, knowing that he needed to play. With practically eight months of inactivity, he knew that he could not afford to continue standing still. Somewhere he had to play and, although the priority was his return to the NBA, if nothing came, finishing the season playing for a team in Argentina was a firm option in his mind. Just at that moment, Milwaukee appeared, a team that has been following it for years through its international recruiters.
In this case, with a plus: the man from Mar del Plata has the same representation agency (Octagon) as Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Greek who is the superstar of the team and the NBA. That paved a way for a chance, no less than in the champion. Thus closed a contract for the remainder of the season in exchange for 51,347 dollars – prorated salary, according to the remaining games, according to the Spotrac site – and the next one, for 2,190,797, although in the case of 22/23 it is not guaranteed – they can cut him without paying him anything, although not redeem it until 5/7/22-. In addition, we must add a qualified offer for 23/24 of 2,190,797, which would allow the player to be a non-free agent without restrictions – the team maintains the right of first refusal. All this is what Luca signed this Wednesday, already in the most important city in the state of Wisconsin, where the point guard is waiting for his debut, probably in these days – it could be this Sunday in Cleveland, in the last game of the regular phase.
The situation, then, is a lot like the Knicks, which didn’t end well for Luca. First, because he arrives in the final part of the season, a few days before the playoffs begin, when the teams are already armed and shot, it is very unlikely that they will make him a place in the rotation. Thibodeau, DT of NY, didn’t even sign him up for the postseason and in the Bucks looks like it will be different. That was announced by the journalist who gave the scoop, the prestigious Adrian Wojnarowski. But from the Vildoza environment they assured “that this promise does not exist”.
Even so, the chances of playing are few. Because the Bucks already have three bases (Hrue Holiday, starter and star, veteran George Hill comes off the bench and the third is Jevon Carter, who performed well in Hill’s absence due to injury) and three escorts (Wesley Matthews, starter, Pat Connaughton and Grayson Allen, as reserves). Coach Mike Budenholzer, key in the formation of Manu as a player when he was Gregg Popovich’s assistant in the Spurs, he reduced the rotation to nine players in these last games of the regular phase, thinking about the postseason and it seems very difficult to make a place for a player who It comes with little competition rhythm, like Vildoza. Hope is the precedent of last year, when Milwaukee signed a player who came from Europe (yes, with much more filming, being a figure of Macabbi Tel Aviv) at the end of the regular phase and Budenholzer made him a place. Is about Elijah Bryant, a shooting guard from the same agency (Octagon) who debuted precisely in the last game of the regular phase and then, during the playoffs, had some income (albeit limited: he never played more than 9 minutes). That background, very curious in the NBA, arouses hope, despite the difference in pace between that Bryant and the current Vildoza.
The international recruiters of the Bucks, as Infobae learned, have been putting together reports about Vildoza for years, since before Worlds 2019, and Milwaukee feels this was the time to test Luca. “They consider him to be a talent and they want to have a very long team with options that complement Giannis. Today the team revolves around him, he is well armed but perhaps they think that Vildoza has something to give him, based on the greater magic and creativity of the point guards that he has, knowing the shot that he has as well. They think about just that, about having one more creator on the court and someone who can shoot when it’s open. It’s also true that the way the contract is, the Bucks don’t lose anything. Neither of them would say. Luca, on the one hand, has one more chance, although it is not that important. And Milwaukee gets to see a talent that catches its eye up close,” says a source familiar with the franchise.
It would seem, then, that the biggest chance for Luca will be in the coming preseason, as it happened in NY. That time, after going to Tokyo, he did not arrive well and could only play a friendly. “Yes, he goes to the Bucks for a kind of test, with few certainties. But in his favor he has that in Milwaukee and in the NBA, Luca is highly regarded, more so than in Europe and I would even tell you more that Facundo (Campazzo) was valued before he played in Denver. They see his game very NBA ”, they assured Infobae from the player’s inner circle.
Finally, it also analyzes the complexity that this competition has when it comes to analyzing movements. “The NBA is rare and there are things that are not understood from a more Latin perspective. Look at what has happened with Campazzo, who went from having great games to not playing. Or Deck, who was removed from Real paying an important termination clause and then hardly had a chance to play, losing it when he returned to Spain. And if you look at who that team (Oklahoma City) bets on, you see that they are guys inferior today to Tortuga, but that perhaps in years they will be stars. There are many teams that follow that path, the one that the Bucks traveled with Giannis, for example. The Greek arrived eight years ago as a kid, at 18, quite a project, and for two years he has been the most decisive player in the NBA. That case broke the market and today it is called the NBA Process”, commented a scout who knows how several of the franchises think and act today.
For now, today it is celebrated that another Argentine has a new chance. Opportunities that do not abound. Now it will be up to Vildoza to take advantage and earn a place among those who play every night to make this new commitment to return to the elite worthwhile.
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