The Cordoba Leandro Bolmaro was presented this Wednesday as a new player for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the NBA and, thus, he became the fourth Argentine to play in the US league alongside Facundo Campazzo (Denver), Gabriel Deck (Oklahoma City) -both with their guaranteed contracts- and Luca Vildoza (New York), who is still on probation. .
Bolmaro, 21, had a contract until June 2023 with Barcelona but paid his exit clause to be in a position to sign with the franchise that kept his NBA rights in the 2020 Draft after negotiating it with the Knicks, who selected him in the 23rd position.
“I am very excited, I waited for this moment for a long time. I worked like crazy to be here so for me this is a dream come true “, he declared. the one born in Las Varillas during his official presentation.
According to the official NBA site, the 1.98 meter guard / guard will sign for four seasons with the Timberwolves in exchange for $ 11.8 million.
In Minnesota, which has ex-baseman Pablo Prigioni from Cordoba as technical assistant, he will find a large group of perimeter comprised of: scorer D’Angelo Russell, defensive specialist Patrick Beverley and Jordan McLaughlin, substitute last year and recently renewed, between point guards; and the athletic Anthony Edwards -number one of the 2020 Draft-, the Nigerian Josh Okogie and Jaylen Nowell among the guards.
Timberwolves come from a season of 23 wins and 49 losses; they never reached a Finals and qualified for the Playoffs only once (2017/18) in the last 17 editions. His great figure is the pivot Karl Anthony Towns, of Puerto Rican descent.
His Catalan stage
Bolmaro arrived at Barcelona in 2018 from Basket Bay. He was first in the subsidiary team and in the 2019/20 season he made his debut in the first team. His best year was the last with the Lithuanian coach Sarunas Jasikevicius, adding prominence: 6.7 points, 1.9 assists and 16 minutes on average in 41 games in the Spanish League. His scoring maximum was 26 points against MoraBanc Andorra last April.
In addition, he started in the Final Four of the Euroleague, with averages of 5.5 points and 3 assists in 25.44 minutes for the team that was runner-up.
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