Houston (USA), Jun 4 (EFE) .- The New Orleans Pelicans could not achieve the goal of being in the Western Conference playoffs, but center Willy Hernangómez had the compensation to conclude the 2020-2021 regular season as the best Spanish player of the five who competed.
Although the older of the Hernangómez brothers did not get too many minutes in the first half of the season, because the new Pelicans coach, Stan Van Gundy, had New Zealand center Steven Adams as a starter, and young Jaxson Hayes, 20 years, as an objective to develop, in the second, everything changed in favor of the Spanish international.
Van Gundy began to trust Willy’s complete game and not only gave him minutes but with the injury problems Adams suffered, he raised him to the starting five and the former Real Madrid player never let him down.
“He is an exemplary player, he is always ready to help the team, as well as an exceptional teammate, his contribution to the team has been very positive,” said Van Gundy. “He has also matured as a player and has acquired great experience.”
The result was that Willy, 26, finished the season with 47 games played, 12 as a starter, and averages of 7.8 points; 7.1 rebounds; 1.1 assists and 18 minutes, the best since his rookie season with the New York Knicks in 2016-17.
If Willy was the positive note, the rest of the four Spanish players did not have their best performance, starting with point guard Ricky Rubio, who began his second stage with the Minneapolis Timberwolves and was very far, at least in the final statistics, of the expectations that team managers had placed on their game.
Rubio, 30, had, for the second consecutive season, to start with a new team, which made him experience the process of knowing a different system of play and teammates.
Despite having already spent his first six years as a professional in Minneapolis and knowing the organization of the Timberwolves, Rubio could not bring all the energy and spectacularity of his game that was expected of him with a team that was the sixth worst in the league. .
The statistics did not leave any doubt that the El Masnou player lived his worst season of the ten that he served as a professional in the NBA.
Rubio barely achieved averages of 8.6 points; 6.4 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 26.1 minutes in the 68 games played, 51 starts.
Nor did his compatriot and teammate, power forward Juancho Hernangómez, Willy’s younger brother, who also in his fifth season as a professional, the first complete with the Timberwolves, had to live an irrelevant role as a reserve.
The youngest of the Hernangómez brothers, 25, who in the previous season had played 14 games with the Timberwolves since he was traded by the Denver Nuggets until the stoppage of the coronavirus pandemic, all starting, in the past just He came out six times with the starting five in the 52 he played.
He also saw his minutes reduced from the bench at the end of the season with 17.3 on average compared to 29.4 the previous one.
The averages of their individual production were not good either, staying with 7.2 points; 3.9 rebounds and 0.7 assists.
More frustrating was the season for veteran center Marc Gasol, 36, who decided to start his thirteenth as a new player for the Los Angeles Lakers, the NBA champions, who offered him two contracts for the minimum wage of less than three million. of dollars.
Well below the 11 a year for two years offered by the Toronto Raptors with whom he got his first NBA champion ring.
But Gasol chose to have the option of looking for more league titles and considered that together with forward LeBron James and center Anthony Davis he would have more options, in addition to having assured him that he would start with the team.
The plans were not fulfilled as he had planned and Gasol lived his worst season since he arrived in the NBA when he was relegated to the bench after the signing of center Andre Drummond and now the Lakers eliminated from the playoffs.
The final statistics also left no doubt as to how frustrating Gasol’s season was, which recorded the worst season as a professional with just averages of 5 points; 4.1 rebounds; 2.1 assists and 19.2 minutes per game in the 52 he played, including 42 as a starter.
While the case of the Spanish Congolese center Serge Ibaka, who like Gasol left the Raptors to sign as a free agent with the Los Angeles Clippers, had both sides of the coin.
Ibaka, 31, became the undisputed starter and key player for the Clippers who began a new era under coach Tyronn Lue until a back injury cut short his brilliant career.
In the end Ibaka could only play 41 games, 39 as a starter, for an average of 11.1 points; 6.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists, the fourth worst since joining the NBA 12 seasons ago.
(c) EFE Agency