The new Barça basketball project, led by Roger Grimau, does not stop and is taking shape with a common denominator: the Spanishization of the team. A few minutes after midnight on Thursday, the signing of Willy Hernangómez was announced until 2026, after Real Madrid did not exercise the right of first refusal, and a few hours later the arrival of Darío Brizuela was confirmed, who previously paid his termination clause, close to a million euros, to dissociate himself from Unicaja de Málaga.
The 28-year-old from San Sebastian, nicknamed the Basque mamba by his idol Kobe Bryant, arrives to occupy the shooting guard position initially thought for the American Kevin Punter, who finally declined his arrival at the Palau Blaugrana to renew for Partizan. Brizuela, who also signs until 2026, will be the free verse of the team, the player capable of generating plays on his own, of getting out of a corseted system if necessary. That role, which did not fit into Jasikevicius’s schemes, can also be played by the guards Laprovittola and Higgins, whose departure from the club is still on the table due to their high salary.
“Thank you, Dario. From the club we wish you all the best on a professional and personal level. Málaga will always be your home”, Unicaja said goodbye to Brizuela, who last season won the Copa del Rey in Badalona. The escort, with 27 points, was one of the executioners in the quarterfinals for Barça, who later took revenge on the Andalusians in the semifinals of the Endesa League. The Basque finished training in the Estudiantes academy and in his four years in green he has played 173 games with an average of 12.3 points and 2.1 assists.
For his part, Hernangómez, 29 years old and 2.11 meters tall, will fill the void left by Sanli. Unlike the Turk, who liked to get out of the area and shoot three, his best virtue, the man from Madrid is an old-fashioned power forward, one of those who fights in the paint, a profile he did not have and did not intend to have either. Jasikevicius. Only James Nnaji, who longs to go to the NBA, resembles those characteristics. The Madrid youth squad has gone the other way, wanting to vindicate himself in Europe after several disappointments in the North American League, in his opinion with few minutes despite being champion and MVP of the last Eurobasket with Spain.
That team led from the bench by Sergio Scariolo rose to the European throne against the odds without any Barça player. Now, the national team faces the World Cup next August with the continental champions and new Barcelona players Joel Parra, Brizuela and Willy Hernangómez, as well as Abrines, who was not in the last Eurobasket due to injury. From having problems meeting the quota of players trained in Spain, having to sign a player like Paulí or raising youth squad player Sergi Martínez, who barely had minutes, Barça has become one of the teams with the most national players.
Another Spaniard could still arrive, power forward Juancho Hernangómez, Willly’s brother. Before, however, the termination of Nikola Mirotic must be resolved. “First we have to close Mirotic’s contract and then we will see,” said the representative of the Montenegrin and also the Hernangómez medium, Igor Crespo, in RAC1. “We cannot agree or sign any contract with another team because Mirotic is still a Barça player,” said the agent, who said he had not received “any written notification or anything official” from Barça, only “verbally” after losing the blaugrana in the semifinals of the final four of the Euroleague against Madrid. “We are not in a hurry,” he warned the club, which costs 31,000 euros a day to keep a Mirotic still under contract. Perhaps coach Roger Grimau, who will be presented at the Auditori 1899 at 12 noon, can shed light on this matter today.
