Bo Cruz stays in NBA: Juancho Hernangómez seeks stability at Raptors
The Toronto Raptors are Juancho Hernangómez’s fifth team since he left the Denver Nuggets two years ago, but he has achieved his goal: continuing his NBA career.
Juancho Hernangómez is back in the game. The Spanish player, who starred as Bo Cruz in the 2022 Netflix movie Hustle, has had a year full of ups and downs, but he has achieved his goal: to remain in the NBA.
Raptors become Juancho’s sixth NBA team
After emerging at Estudiantes, the youngest of the Hernangómez family headed for North America, joining a Denver Nuggets franchise that placed its faith in him and was his home for four seasons. Since he left Colorado, however, his career has been characterised by instability: he has had stints at the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Boston Celtics, the San Antonio Spurs and the Utah Jazz. In total, four teams in two calendar years; five if we count his new destination.
The Toronto Raptors have opted to take Juancho to Canada to work under a new head coach, Nick Nurse, and be a part of a project radically different from all the others he has been involved in.
The Raptors, NBA champions in 2019, are a team halfway between reconstruction and deconstruction. With an established player in Fred VanVleet, another solid performer in Pascal Siakam and Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes at his disposal, Nurse is a fantastic coach who has overcome the spate of departures the Raptors have suffered since winning the title (Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green...) and has made the team permanently competitive, tough, very strong on home court and with a defining, highly identifiable culture.
Hernangómez can expect stiff competition for game time
Juancho has joined a team with justifiable aspirations, but with a ceiling in the Playoffs. And the 26-year will face a lot of competition for court time, given the Raptors have some good other options at small forward and power forward. The aforementioned Siakam and Barnes, Otto Porter Jr, Chris Boucher. Gary Trent Jr...
They all have the confidence of the Toronto coach, whose rotations don’t tend to be deep and who only experiments until he finds a plan that works on court. Once he has, he keeps his starting five together, gives the good players a lot of minutes and doesn’t too far down the bench. That might not work in Juancho’s favour.
Raptors give Juancho chance to get NBA career back on track
Despite all this, what is clear is that Juancho has been handed a potential new lease of life in the NBA. Despite many rumours linking him with a return to Spain, the player always maintained that his goal was to continue his career in the best league in the world.
He had some good moments at his most recent team - a disintegrating Jazz - he’s a dependable role player, is blessed with good upper-body strength and is committed in practice, qualities that are well liked in the NBA. For Juancho, the uncertainty is at an end, the speculation is over and a new destination awaits. A new opportunity.