Grizzlies big man Santi Aldama has already drawn up his game plan. 

This week, before he leaves on a 19-hour journey back to his home in Gran Canaria, one of the Canary Islands off the coast of northwestern Africa, he will download as many series on Netflix as his devices will allow.

“Then I’ll watch as much of it as I can,” he said. “But after four or five hours of it, it just gets boring. At that point, I’ll just hope that I’m tired enough to sleep for a few hours.”

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The grueling flights will take him from Memphis to Dallas, Dallas to Madrid, and then almost another three hours to the island. Aldama, who just finished up a two-week summer league road trip averaging 16.8 points and 5.5 rebounds, should be exhausted. 

It will all be worth it when he lands. 

“Honestly, I’m just so excited to see my family,” Aldama said. “I miss them a lot. I just want to see them, have dinner with them, and just be able to spend some downtime with them.”

Since moving to the United States, Aldama craves his traditional Spanish food. 

“There’s this black rice (that my family cooks), you got to try it, it’s so good,” he said. “It’s amazing. It’s one of those things that the first time I saw it, I didn’t want to try it. My mom forced me to. It was so good. It was one of the best decisions, to try that rice.”

Aldama left Gran Canaria to play for Loyola (Maryland) in 2019. He went back for six months during the pandemic before returning to college, then he was drafted by the Grizzlies.

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Since then, he has been back home for just one week.

But this time, the Grizzlies are taking care of their 21-year-old big man. Just how committed are they to his development? 

Aldama has requested assistant coach Darko Rajakovic to help train him while Aldama is spending a few weeks on the island. Rajakovic, who is going home to Serbia to spend time with his own family, will also go over to work with Aldama. It is possible teammates could join him, such as fellow 2021 draft pick Ziaire Williams, although those plans aren’t official. 

“This whole summer, my focus is on getting better,” Aldama said. That includes his time at home. 

Hoops Island

The way Aldama describes his roots, it’s as if the 602-square-mile island is just like any other city with a hoops scene. 

“We have a pro team there,” he said. “I never played for them. But they are a pretty good team. They play first division. They played EuroLeague a couple of years. So yeah, the whole city is very involved in basketball.”

But maybe not quite as basketball-crazed as Memphis. 

“We are a basketball city, I would say,” Aldama said. “But we also have soccer team there, too. It’s Spain, so soccer is a little bigger. But we support both teams a lot. Our basketball team is first division and our football — well, soccer team — almost made it to first division this year.”

The island is small in size, but not in population. It is home to more than 850,000 people, and is a popular vacationing spot for people around the world.

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“It’s pretty cool,” Aldama said. “When I moved to Baltimore and Memphis, I kind of realized how lucky I was. We have weather from the 50s to 70s all year. Coming here and experiencing summer, which is super hot, and winter, which can be cold, really made me appreciate the weather at home. People from there tend to take it for granted.”

The average temperature in the summer is between 68 and 79 degrees Fahrenheit, and the climate makes it a destination for wind sports on the water. But Aldama will pass on that. 

“We have a lot of different beaches,” Aldama said. “There’s calm areas where you relax, and also windy areas. A lot of people surf. I think they have the world championships there for wind surfing. A lot of my friends do that, but I was never good at it. I’ve tried it a few times, but I’m not really good. 

“I’ll stick to the boogie board. I’m average at that. But I’m sure if a pro saw me, he would say that I’m pretty bad. Being 7-foot on a small board definitely makes it harder.”

Aldama was destined to play basketball, anyway. His father and uncle, Santiago Aldama and Santi Toledo, respectively, played professionally in Spain. He attended the same school every year of his childhood, an English school, where he learned a second language and played hoops. 

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“I would say (the competition) there was comparable to high school (in the United States),” Aldama said. “You had better teams, and then teams that were not so good. We had a pretty good basketball scene there. We had not only players from Spain, but also from other parts of Europe and Africa. The competition was really good, especially towards the end of my stay there. We would play in the national championships, and then it was really good. We played against Madrid and Barcelona, which are obviously top teams.”

And Aldama was offered opportunities to go play professionally for those big-city teams while he was at the high school age. He turned them all down to stay on the island and play as an amateur for Canterbury Academy. 

“Where I was at, that was my school, my family and my friends,” Aldama said. “But also the level of basketball was pretty good. I just didn’t see the advantage to going to one of those teams. And if I wanted to come to the States and play college basketball, I couldn’t sign with them.”

Journey to America

In 2018, Aldama’s interest in college basketball peaked when current UCLA assistant Ivo Simovic took an assistant coaching job at Loyola (Maryland). Simovic had known Aldama’s father. 

“He told me to come on an official visit, just to see if I liked it,” Aldama said. “If I wanted to play professionally, he said it was no big deal. I went and visited Loyola and I liked it. I told him, ‘If I’m coming to America, I’m coming with you.’ ”

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The commitment was a huge steal for a mid-major school like Loyola, and a life-altering decision for Aldama. He was headed to a new country and environment. 

“There was a culture change, but it was an easy transition because I went there with a friend from the national team (Alonso Faure),” he said. “This sounds kind of dumb, but the hardest thing for me was eating dinner at 6 or 7 p.m. That was the hardest, because I was never hungry but I would have to eat because that’s when the dining hall was open. We eat between 8 and 10 p.m. (in Gran Canaria). It took me a long time to get used to.”

Because of his play as a star with the Spanish national team, Aldama figured to be an immediate impact player for the Greyhounds. Instead, his freshman season was the most challenging of his career. 

“I had knee surgery and I played 10 games,” he said. “It was more about me being willing to play than being ready to play. Then after that, COVID hit. That was a terrible time for everybody, but it was months without playing basketball.”

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It was during that time that Aldama said he learned to value his body as well as his game. He used the break to get stronger and prepare for the physicality of a full season of college basketball. 

Despite his upbringing on an island and his mid-major choice, Aldama had little doubt that the NBA would find him once he was ready. 

“I think COVID made exposure even harder,” Aldama said. “But that wasn’t something I ever worried about. For me it was about my journey. It was about my degree, which I eventually still want to get, and getting better at basketball.”

Mystery to main attraction

After averaging more than 21 points and 10 rebounds as a sophomore, Aldama put his name in the NBA draft. He didn’t work out for anyone, which led many to believe that perhaps he had a draft promise from a team. 

He was a man of mystery, and still doesn’t say much regarding why he chose that path. If he did have a promise, it doesn’t sound like it was from the Grizzlies. 

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“I had no idea (they would pick me),” Aldama said. “I expected to get drafted high, definitely higher than people would think. The draft process is very unique for everybody. I think landing here with Zach (Kleiman) and Taylor (Jenkins), and the trust they have in me, it was a pretty good fit for me.”

Aldama scored just 25 total points in 2021 summer league. He followed that up with a limited role for the Grizzlies, and served as a useful depth piece for Memphis while the team rotated players out of the lineup due to health and safety protocols. 

“Last year, in summer league, I came all the way here from Spain,” he said. “I was jet-lagged and nervous. I was just trying to learn so much in a short period of time. This time, it’s completely different for me. I’m one of the vets on the summer league team.”

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And Aldama has never been as important to the Grizzlies as he is right now. Star forward Jaren Jackson Jr. is recovering from surgery to repair a stress fracture in his foot and will miss four to six months. That clears the way to playing time for someone at the power forward position, and Aldama is clearly in the mix to be one of the recipients.

“Last year it was a theme that when different players got hurt, the next person stepped up and made things happen,” he said. “Obviously, we wish Jaren was with us 100%. It’s unfortunate, what happened. But I’m ready to go. I want to get some minutes and help the team win. That’s really what it’s all about.”

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After a slow start to summer league again this season, Aldama picked up his play with scoring performances of 22 and 31 points. He has also shot the ball well from the 3-point line (38.5%), which he didn’t do last summer. 

“Earlier in summer league I wasn’t in my groove, but the last few games is what I’m about,” he said. “That’s my game.”

The Grizzlies will hope that it translates to the regular season when October hits. Until then, a training session on the island for the first time in a year hopefully will help him recharge. 

“As soon as last season ended, I’ve used the time to start from scratch,” Aldama said. “The focus has been on summer league and then on training camp. I feel like I’m in a pretty good spot. I’m comfortable with my game right now.”