By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
In his fifth year in the NBA with the Memphis Grizzlies, Santi Aldama is playing for Finnish head coach Tuomas Iisalo.
Preparing for the first full season under the guidance of the Helsinki native, the 24-year-old Spanish forward/center looked to enhance their partnership with a specifically designed offseason training schedule, combining with representing Spain in the EuroBasket 2025.
“I’ve been lucky enough to be with teammates with the national team that have played a very similar style of basketball. He coached for Paris, and Valencia plays a very similar style. So throughout the whole summer, I spent time with three or four guys that played that same style of basketball,” shared Aldama in a recent interview with EssentiallySports.
Following a successful coaching career in Europe, including a Basketball Champions League title with Telekom Baskets Bonn and a BKT EuroCup title with Paris, 43-year-old Iisalo joined the Grizzlies in 2024 as an assistant, but was promoted to interim head coach late in the 2024-25 Regular Season after the dismissal of Taylor Jenkins, and named permanent head coach to start the offseason.
“I’m chopping it up and understanding where to get the advantages and what they’re doing in Europe and how it translates to NBA offenses,” said Aldama.
“It’s mainly how you transition from offense to defense and defense to offense,” he explained. “The whole idea is how to maintain advantages and put yourself in a position where downside is minimized.”
“It’s a five-man thing. If three guys do it and two guys don’t, then it doesn’t work. But that’s why we’re slowly getting there. The earlier conversations with Coach were like, ‘By February or March, we’ll want to be at 100% with this system.’ It’s not easy to adjust, especially with the situations that we have with a lot of guys being injured. But the only thing we can do is stick with it and trust it. We’ve been doing a good job of that,” he added.
Excitement around the Spanish national team
Last summer, Spain was limited to 17th on the final standings of EuroBasket. With Chus Mateo in charge, the focus turned to future challenges, from the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers and possibly reaching the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games to his country being the main host of EuroBasket 2029.
“We are very excited. Hugo González with the Celtics is a very good kid. Then we have a bunch of guys in NCAA that are up and coming. Those guys will be in the draft this year. We have a very good group, but we’re young. We’re using that to our advantage with playing at a fast pace. Basketball is different than it was 15 years ago. But Spain is always Spain. We always play to win,” said the Las Palmas native.
Combining with his NBA career, Aldama suited up for the senior national team of his country in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and FIBA World Cup 2023, before last summer’s EuroBasket.
So far in the 2025-26 Regular Season with the Grizzlies, he has averaged 12.9 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.7 blocks per contest over 27 appearances, including five starts.