Leandro Bolmaro
Leandro Nicolás Bolmaro (born 11 September 2000) is an Argentine-Italian professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He also represents the senior Argentina national basketball team. Early years and youth career. Bolmaro began playing the sport of basketball in his home country of Argentina. He started playing with the youth teams of a local club named Almafuerte from town, in Córdoba. On 13 April 2018, he played for the World Team at the Nike Hoop Summit in Portland, Oregon. Professional career. Estudiantes de Bahía Blanca (2017–2018). Bolmaro began his pro career  on 16 July 2017, when he was 16 years old, after he signed with Estudiantes de Bahía Blanca of the Liga Nacional de Básquet, the top basketball league in Argentina. In 23 games played during the 2017–18 season, Bolmaro averaged 2.0 points, 0.7 rebounds, 0.5 assists, and 0.4 steals, in 7.2 minutes per game. He shot 37.3% overall from the field, 53.6% on 2-point field goals, 17.4% on 3-point field goals, and 75.0% on free throws. FC Barcelona (2018–2021). For the 2018–19 season, Bolmaro moved to the Spanish club FC Barcelona. He averaged 10.4 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.7  assists, and 1.2 steals per game for club's the reserve team, while playing in the LEB Oro, Spain's second-tier level league. With the reserve team, he played in a total of 33 games, and averaged 24.1 minutes per game of playing time. He shot 39.6% overall from the field, 45.5% on 2-point field goals, 30.8% on 3-point field goals, and 65.2% on free throws. In Barcelona's 2019–20 season, he split playing time between Barcelona's reserve team and senior team, which competed in the Liga ACB, the highest level Spanish league, and the EuroLeague . During the 2019–20 Spanish 3rd Division season, while playing with Barcelona's reserve B team, he averaged 14.9 points, 2.7 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 1.8 steals, in 26.3 minutes per game, in 9 games played in the Spanish 3rd Division. On 13 August 2020, Bolmaro signed a contract extension with Barcelona through 2023. After getting selected in the NBA draft, Bolmaro opted to stay with FC Barcelona. In September 2021, Bolmaro paid his buyout clause in order to leave Barcelona and henceforth be able to sign a 4-year rookie-scale contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Minnesota Timberwolves (2021–present ). In the 2020 NBA draft, Bolmaro was selected by the New York Knicks with the 23rd overall selection, but his draft rights were traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a three-team trade. On 18 September 2021, Bolmaro signed a 4-year, $11.8M rookie contract with the Timberwolves. Bolmaro made his NBA debut on October 20th, 2021 in the Timberwolves 124-106 win against the Houston Rockets. He hadn’t seen many minutes prior to November 27th, 2021 in which he played a career high 17 minutes against the Philadelphia 76ers. National team career. Junior national team. In  2017, Bolmaro won a silver medal with Argentina's Under-17 national team at the FIBA South America Under-17 Championship in Lima, Peru. He averaged a team-high 13.8 points per game. Bolmaro also represented the Argentine Under-19 national team at the 2019 FIBA Under-19 World Cup in Heraklion, Greece, where his team finished in 11th place. He left the tournament's opening game early, with a minor strain. During the tournament, he was Argentina's leading scorer, with an average of 10.8 points per game. Senior national team. On July 29, 2021 Bolmaro scored 2 points in a loss to  the Spain men's national basketball team at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.