The 2023/2024 NBA season begins with less Latin and Hispanic representation, but the four active names, the Dominicans Al Horford, Karl Anthony Towns and Chris Duarte, and the Mexican Jaime Jáquez, promise a lot of prominence in their respective projects, some of them with the ring as their goal.
Of the Latinos who will start the season, there will be notable Dominican representation with Al Horford, Chris Duarte and Karl Anthony Towns.
Plus the emergence of Jaime Jáquez Jr who promises very fun days with the Miami Heat shirt.
This season has the absence of Juan Toscano Anderson, who signed with the ‘Mexico City Captains’ of the G-League, but the NBA champion of Mexican origin remains a free agent and could once again have opportunities in the best league in the world after an irregular year with the Lakers and Jazz jerseys, plus transfers involved.
The incombustible Al Horford
There are few daring people who talk about retirement when they refer to a guy like Al Horford, because mainly, since he ‘got older’, his physique has responded more and his weight in the Boston Celtics is unquestionable.
He is a guy who has always been a starter, a very starter. The Dominican has started from the start in 1,003 of his 1,013 games in the NBA, with only Mike Woodson with the Hawks and Brett Brown being the ones who sat him in those ten games.
The arrivals of the Latvian Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday could threaten the Dominican’s immunity, turning him into a sixth man who adds a lot.
What is clear is that he is a key man for Mazzulla and Brad Stevens, who had to get rid of a veteran and chose Marcus Smart over Horford, who started this seventeenth season at 37 years old.
The clear objective for him is that ring that he has not yet been able to win, and he starts again on a winning horse, these Celtics who are the main favorite along with Denver according to the polls.
Chris Duarte, in the Kings
Chris Duarte changed teams this summer to acquire a new role in Sacramento, a more exciting and ambitious project in the medium term than that of the Pacers.
An ideal place for the Dominican to continue developing, and also under the orders of Jordi Fernández who has already molded other young talents such as Jamal Murray or De’Aaron Fox.
Being important in the rotation, that seems to be Duarte’s role in 2023/2024 with his new jersey.
Although if Duarte has something it is the ability to always make his coaches doubt whether he should play more minutes, and Mike Brown himself, who gave him the start in the preseason against the Warriors, recognized his impact: “He was very good with the starters , very good defensively and correct in attack,” the coach acknowledged after the crash.
Against him, the injury that occurred and that will prevent him from starting playing in the regular league due to a hematoma in the bone in his left knee.
He will have more opportunities to prove that the Kings were right when they decided to give the Pacers two second rounds in 2028 and 2030, in what is considered by many to be the steal of the summer market.
Jáquez, a first-year ‘veteran’
Just saying that Jaime Jaquez has completed his four years of college at UCLA before submitting to the NBA Draft explains absolutely everything.
It is not the usual path, and while the forward of Mexican origin saw how other teammates made the jump to the Draft with just one year of his career, he decided to finish it.
On his way, a very unusual competitive display and playing style, which in the Heat Culture seems like it will fit like a glove.
In his four years at UCLA he was a leader, and led his team to their nineteenth Final Four in 2021, plus two appearances in the ‘Sweet Sixteen’.
His versatility, being able to occupy different positions on the field, is a plus, and with his intelligence on the court he has managed to impress teammates like Jimmy Butler.
“He always makes the right play, he plays like a veteran, I think because of his experience in the NCAA and ‘March Madness’, he is very, very smart,” said the Miami star about the Mexican.
The non-arrival of Damian Lillard favors Jaquez Jr, he will have many more minutes than expected, he has earned them in an excellent preseason in which he has not needed time to adapt to the level of demand of the NBA runner-up.
The maturity of Karl Anthony Towns
It had been a quiet summer for a smiling, happy and even dancing Karl Anthony Towns to wear the Dominican shirt in the World Cup, and the start of the season has brought him rumors, many rumors of departure.
There has been talk of interest from the Knicks and the Hawks, as well as that for the first time in a long time the Timberwolves could study this operation and get rid of their big bet on number one in 2015.
The reason? That this 2023/2024 season will be the last before his new contract comes into force, with which he will earn 232 million in the next four seasons, or what is the same, between 20 and 30 million more per year.
Whatever happens, Towns is expected to take a definitive step forward to regularly be that dominant player. The injury that kept him in dry dock for four months last year seems forgotten.
2023-10-21 19:40:59
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