Hugo Gonzalez has rushed to make himself known in the NBA despite the fact that his season of rookie He has not reached his midpoint and his playing time is being limited.
A good handful of stars already know how the former star spends his time Real Madrid, a thorn in the side for members of the noble class of the best league in the world such as Jalen Brunson, Cade Cunningham, Karl-Anthony Towns or Austin Reaves among others. But, apart from Joe Mazzulla -coach of the Celtics-, other NBA coaches are also amazed by the fundamentals and tenacious mentality of the Madrid native.
Jordi Fernandez –head coach of the Nets-, said that “he belongs at this level” and Darko Rajakovic, coach of the Toronto Raptorsmade a precise breakdown of the qualities that make Hugo a promising elite defender.
“He has very good hands, he is disruptive, he is also very intelligent, positioning himself very well on the court and he also likes to play with physical intensity and he is not going to back down from that,” the Serbian coach highlighted to MD in the preview of the Raptors – Celtics Sunday (113-121).
“He is a young and talented player from Spain, he did a great job there being raised at Real Madrid in their youth categories and he played really well for the first team. He is a player who plays with a lot of energy, he has enormous potential, he is going to be leading the Spanish team in the future,” added Rajakovic.
The Raptors coach is a good connoisseur of Spanish basketball. Between 2009 and 2012, he directed the Torrelodones Space Madrid promoted it to the EBA League and kept it in the fourth category of Spanish basketball and played a fundamental role in the development of Santi Aldama as assistant coach of the Grizzlies. Rajakovic also maintains a close relationship with the new Spanish coach, Chus Mateo, who spent a few days training with the Raptors in 2024.
NBA coaches have already realized the defensive potential of Hugo González, exhibiting those “defensive instincts” of which Joe Mazzulla talks about with his ability to find a way to not lose momentum in defense when he has to deal with blocks.
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The Spanish international has also shown his good defensive fundamentals with his use of his chest, so especially key in the NBA to stop penetrations due to the less flexibility of the referees regarding the use of arms and hands. But, the most important thing is that Hugo is not going to take a step back from his overwhelming intensity to continue. intimidating stars, rolling on the floor if necessary.
