Santi Aldama gave up playing in the Eurobasket this summer to focus on the NBA season. He knew that he had a golden opportunity to settle in a first level team like the Memphis Grizzlies. Jaren Jackson, starting power forwardwho finished in the best defensive quintet last year and was a finalist for the best defense award in the league, had surgery in june from a stress injury to the foot and I was going to be several months off the slopes. It was his chance to establish himself in the Memphis rotation as one of the team’s big men. The Spaniard has not missed that opportunity. Until tonight Aldama had started in all 14 games for the Grizzlies, averaging 9.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in an average of 27.7 minutes.compared to 4.1 points, 3.7 rebounds and 0.3 blocked shots in 11.3 minutes last year, when he played 32 of 82 regular-season games, all coming off the bench.
But that open door that has allowed him to show that he is an NBA player with all the letters it is no longer wide open. jaren jackson is back to play half a year later and He has done it by entering directly into the starting five. Taylor Jenkins is clear about it, his starting power forward is Jackson and he hasn’t even waited a few games to reintroduce him to the team from the bench. As soon as he has been able to, he has put him on track. Of course heIt’s going to be hard to get in shape and that will continue to give Aldama plenty of quality minutes for a few more weeks. Without going any furtherThe two have played the same minutes today, 25, with similar statistics: 8 points and 7 rebounds from the Spaniard to 7 and 6 from the American. Where Jackson has stood out is in the blocks (5), where he finished leader of the league last season. And where else has logic been noticed? oxidation it is on the roll of three (0/7).
But beyond the particular interest of Aldama and the Spanish fans, it is clear that for memphis this is great no matter where you look. Retrieve one of its holdersabsolutely key in the defensive scheme, and add one more substitute of guarantees to an already broad bench in itself. And no one will be left over, especially in the coming weeks, in which they will not have their second best player, Desmon Bane. After missing the previous match, the defeat against the Wizards in which Ja Morant did not play either, today his coach has confirmed that the toe problem will keep you out for two to three weeks for now. luck is that ahead they have a quite affordable calendar, with most rivals below 50% wins. In this crazy West, where no one seems to want to take the helm, everything can change from one week to the next. Any factor can be decisive for the final classification and the absence of a player as differential as the shooting guard is not nonsense.
So far the Grizzlies have lost the last two games without him. today before orphaned Pelicans by Zion Williamsonthat Monday he stepped on Usman Garuba’s foot and hurt his own. The same one in which he underwent surgery and had him sidelined all of last season. The alarms went off right away, although his coach, Willie Green, has been quick to say that it is not serious and that he could play tonight against the Bulls. for now today Command has been taken by CJ McCollum, who had come off four horrendous shooting games (9.5 points with 27% accuracy)but what in the visit of the Grizzlies he recovered his aim. The guard scored 30 points -although he was not the top scorer of the game (it was Morant with 36)- with a 7/13 in triples. And also scoring 14 of those goals in the third quarter, when the locals regained the initiative on the scoreboard before breaking it in the last (24-15 partial). Willy Hernangómez ran out of minutes once again and that’s it…