Anywhere, Hugo, I'll Follow You Down: Projecting Hugo Gonzalez as an NBA Player

Stephen dives into the game of Real Madrid's Hugo Gonzalez, how he projects to the league, and his prospects for the 2025 NBA Draft.

May 14, 2025

Scouting international players can be a tough process for me. Their season is very different than that of the domestic players; they play at different times of the year. At the beginning of what many consider the start of “evaluation season” we’ll see some of these international dudes play when the collegiate athletes are waiting for their seasons to begin. I find myself thinking, “Yeah, this player is dominating with draft buzz now, but how much of this is because the college season hasn’t started yet?”. Then the college calendar kicks off and, if left to my own devices, I find myself completely engulfed in their film and games. I let what I am more comfortable with take up the majority of my scouting time.

I have to put things in place to force me to “check in” with these stars overseas. From what I have learned over the years I have been evaluating talent, this isn’t a phenomenon unique to me. Unless you have the funds to support you traveling across the globe, international scouting is done behind a screen. That’s fine, but sometimes I like to break up the monotony of firing up a computer with checking players out in person. That’s harder to do with these guys.

There is the fact that I am not as familiar with how good their leagues are in the same way I am with domestic players. Sure, some of the better leagues (like Euro League, Super League in Turkey, Liga ABC in Spain, Lega Basket in Italy, the NBL, etc.) are well-known, but I’m just not as well-versed on history, team philosophy, team depth, coaching history, or as many player backgrounds prior to their projected draft year. So “finding” players is completely different when scouting internationally compared to in the States.

What makes things even harder in scouting international prospects is how often young, NBA Draft prospects aren’t featured as much as I (selfishly) would like to see, due to the importance for those teams to win in their leagues. I’ll often see these players featured in more modest roles if they aren’t basketball prodigies. This can make their evaluation more difficult for me, forcing me to scour film in as many exhibitions as possible.

One such player in this year’s draft class that fits that mold is today’s featured prospect, Real Madrid’s Hugo Gonzalez.

The Buildup

Hugo Gonzalez has been involved in Real Madrid’s system since the age of 9. Listed now at 6’6” and 200 pounds, Hugo has historically been an overachiever at a young age. He made his professional debut in Liga ACB while he was not even 17 years old. He has been a part of some very talented teams, playing for Real Madrid’s U18 team in the Next Generation Tournament. He was featured on a team that included notable players, such as Egor Demin and Jan Vide. In this tournament, Hugo averaged 17.9 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 2.1 APG, and 2.6 SPG—with shooting splits of 55/38/82. This performance was against teams featuring Nikola Topic, Pacome Dadiet, Kasparas Jakucionis, Neoklis Avdalas, Dame Sarr, Mohamed Faye, and Mohamed Diawara. Leaning on these sorts of outings for Gonzalez helps to contextualize how talented he is—even outside of the Real Madrid Euro League and Liga systems.

It’s also worth noting that Hugo helped the Spanish U18 team earn silver in the 2023 European Championship Finals against a Serbian team that featured Nikola Topic and Bogoljub Markovic. The year before, in the 2022 FIBA U17 World Cup, Gonzalez helped Spain earn silver against the USA team. This US team had Ron Holland, Cooper Flagg, Asa Newell, Boogie Fland, Karter Knox, and Ian Jackson. Hugo had big games in each of these tournaments as well, which built the foundation for him to become a professional basketball player.

The Dive

Contextualization is going to be huge when evaluating this season for Hugo Gonzalez. Playing for Real Madrid, Gonzalez was on a team that had Mario Hezonja, Dzanan Musa, Serge Ibaka, Dennis Smith Jr., Facundo Campazzo, Sergio Llull, Bruno Fernando, Usman Garuba, and Walter Tavares—NBA-level talent—as an 18-year-old. Synergy Sports credits Hugo with 209 possessions in 57 games played. Simply put: this is a small sample size of a season. This is why looking at his ANGT and FIBA film is vital in assessing and projecting Gonzalez’s game.

The Offense

During this season with Real Madrid, Hugo ranked within the 45th percentile in Points Per Possession (PPP), averaging 0.885 PPP. That number goes up to the 47th percentile when including assists. Modest numbers, for sure, but for an 18-year-old in a pro league, this is pretty encouraging. His usage for Real Madrid was predominantly divided into four play types: Spot-Ups (37.8% of his possessions), Pick-and-Roll Ball-Handler (15.3% of his possessions), Transition (14.4% of his possessions), and Cutting (9.1% of his possessions).

Spot Ups

We’re going to start off on some rough areas in terms of advanced numbers, but remember: these samples are smaller. Gonzalez ranked in the 19th percentile when spotting up, and ranked in the 76th percentile in plays coming from spotting up. After doing some hand-tracking, Hugo averaged getting a shot up on spot-up opportunities with about seven seconds on the shot clock. Getting handed “grenades” while only averaging about 13 MPG is a tough way to cut your teeth on a vet team in one of the world’s toughest basketball leagues.

Here we have an example of why Hugo (#9 in white) shot just over 28% on spot-up play types. We can see that his role at the start of this clip was to swing the ball so that Sergio Llull (#23 in white) could get the ball going downhill. Once he gives up the ball, Gonzalez’s role is to simply space the floor. Once Llull gets the ball, he attacks. The door is shut on him, and he kicks the ball to Facundo Campazzo (#7) in the strong-side corner. Campazzo swings the ball to Hugo.

With seven seconds on the shot clock, Hugo goes with a quick jab step and pulls up for a three. If you’ve seen Gonzalez play this season, you can tell he just isn’t comfortable shooting it here, just based on his shooting motion and shot base. He misses right.

That type of thing has been a common occurrence, unfortunately. These grenades happen at a significant clip. So, why am I optimistic about Hugo moving forward? I’m glad you asked.

This clip shows how Gonzalez could be used within this same play type, but certain plays can allow him to be more comfortable shooting the ball. Sergio Llull begins the play on the left side of the court, but then drives right. He attracts multiple defenders, which gives Hugo some space.

Instead of being stationary, Gonzalez swings up from the strong-side corner to the wing. Llull gives him a bounce pass—allowing Hugo to gather the ball in motion, and get into his shot. Notice how Hugo looks far more comfortable here. His form is picturesque. Nice base, shoulders square, good lift, high release, and a smooth follow-through. These culminate in three points.

Here’s another example of proper spacing and a well-timed and placed pass resulting in Hugo connecting from deep. Alberto Abalde (#6 in white) attacks the defense on a pick and roll set. The defense is set up to converge on the drive—which it does. As the defense rotates over, Abalde kicks the ball to the opposite corner, which is where our guy is. Hugo gets the ball and steps into his shot.

Again, Gonzalez has a sweet motion and high release, resulting in another made three.

We’ve even seen moments of Hugo doing some work off the bounce. While the numbers aren’t amazing right now, considering that Gonzalez is able to do things like the clip above gives promise for his development.

Mario Hezonja (#11 in white) gets the ball on the left wing, following a drive-and-kick from Campazzo. Hezonja drives to the baseline and looks for an alley to get his shot off. After getting a reverse layup deterred, Mario kicks the ball to the right corner—where our guys is standing by. A sharp closeout gives Hugo pause on pulling up, and he starts with some movement toward the basket.

Gonzalez recognizes that his defender is playing on their heels as he begins his attack. He goes to a slick step-back and launches a quick release. There are some alligator arms here, but the footwork is clean and the base is good. The ball finds the bottom of the net before the buzzer goes off.

P&R Ball Handling

It doesn’t take long to see that Gonzalez feels comfortable creating with the ball in his hands. In this clip, Hugo gets the ball off just inside halfcourt, and waits for the rub screen set on the right wing. Once his teammate is in position, Gonzalez makes the defense pay and attacks with suddenness.

Hugo’s speed is too much for the switch to get into position and get in front of him. Notice, too, how Gonzalez bumps the defense off of their line while he steps into the Euro. He creates space and is able to lay the ball in on a play he makes look too easy.

Following the last play, we see Gonzalez’s ability to reject the screen and catch the defense off guard. Once Hugo turns the corner on this drive, he forces the defense to commit hard to angling off the drive baseline. He sees this and is able to spin to his right to get the layup off cleanly.

It’s a very poised scoring approach for the young player, but he also showed some promise creating for others out of the pick-and-roll.

Hugo’s passing has had some very high moments during this year. Here we get a chance to see him run a pick and roll action that is frequently run in the NBA. Gonzalez’s teammate, Sidi Gueye (#15 in white), comes up to set a high pick-and-roll to Hugo’s left. Hugo accepts the screen and zooms past his defender. As Gueye’s man attempts to position himself between the ball and his man, Hugo sees the path for a lob to his guy. Once he sees the lane, our guy lobs up a pretty feed that Gueye converts in the air.

Much like the previous play, here is another look out of the pick and roll set that Hugo will need to be able to hit in order to transition well to the NBA. Hugo gets the ball on the right wing and looks to get set up at the top of the key. Gonzalez gets a pretty weak screen set for him, but backpedals out of it as he gets blitzed. Hugo regroups and keeps his head up to see Llull wide open in the opposite corner. Sergio hits the open three following the nice feed.

As I stated earlier, the highs for Hugo in the pick-and-roll are fairly nice, but there are some concerns that exist.

Two concerns that I have regarding Hugo’s ability to run these sets in the NBA are: 1) the ability to consistently handle pressure. 2) The passing accuracy on the move.

Here we see Hugo run a pick and pop look for NBA-vet, Serge Ibaka. Gonzalez gets the ball on the left wing and runs a double drag set. The defense converges on him—going so far as to double him on the drive. Look, this is a difficult pass to make for a lot of people; I’m not trying to say this look is a gimmie. However, the NBA is going to be more difficult to make these types of passes.

Hugo rotates off his drive and makes the kickout to Ibaka. Ibaka makes the shot here, but the accuracy of the pass is really what can be concerning. Serge has to jump to catch the high pass before getting his shot off. Luckily, Ibaka’s defender doesn’t opt to close out more aggressively.

Passes like this can be the difference in three points, a turnover, or forcing the offense to create another shot.

Transition

Transition sets are pretty obvious and easy to understand what went right or wrong. It’s interesting that Hugo grades out poorly in transition, considering the speed, quickness, and footwork we saw in the pick-and-roll sets earlier. We won’t look at many of the clips under this set, but just enough to see the good and the bad.

Here we see Hugo going into his favorite move when driving to the basket: the Euro step. Gonzalez gets the ball on a quick outlet pass on the left wing. He quickly forces his defender to scramble into a recovery stance, driving to the left block. Once Hugo baits his man to recover hard baseline, Gonzalez rips the ball through and finishes with his right hand. Easy look.

There were moments where he would have unforced errors in transition that really drove his percentages (on a smaller sample) down.

Hugo does a great job here of sprinting out after a forced turnover. The ball finds Llull, who then does a touch pass to our guy. Gonzalez has a clear path to the hoop, and the ball rims out. Now, if you look at just this play, you could talk yourself into this being a one-off. If you look throughout the other looks, this happens a fair amount. If transition fumbles are correctable, then NBA teams could feel good about instilling confidence in Hugo’s ability to be a threat here.

It’s also worth noting that 10 of the 19 transition shots Gonzalez took were from deep—where he shot just 30%.

Cutting

While this may have been Hugo’s best play type among the four we’re focusing on, it was the one in which he was utilized the least. Still, there is some promise in Gonzalez’s ability to move well away from the ball.

Gonzalez is an instinctual cutter and mover away from the basket, and will often make moves based on what the defense is focused on.

On this clip, we see Hezonja coming off a screen set by Usman Garuba (#16 in white) on the right wing. Hezonja and Garuba set up in a pick-and-roll look, but Usman slips the screen and dives to the basket. Mario delivers a slick bounce pass to the big man.

The defense now has to help off to stop Garuba from having a clear path to two points. Notice how—and when—Hugo dives to the basket from the opposite corner. He doesn’t sit there waiting for a kickout three. Instead, as soon as his defender goes off to help, Gonzalez runs the baseline and is ready for the short roll pass from Garuba. He’s able to lift off and flush a two-handed jam.

Decisive: that’s what Hugo is when he is allowed to roam and be fluid within an offense, versus being a statue along the perimeter.

We see that here. Real Madrid runs a handoff between Campazzo and Llull, to which Llull takes the ball and moves into a screen set by Walter Tavares (#22 in white). It helps to have a player like Sergio Llull—who can throw any sort of pass required on an offensive possession. Notice how Llull has two men blitzing him off of the screen, but it still able to toy with the back line of defense.

Llull could have easily lofted a pass to Tavares, who would have the ability to either finish over the shorter defender or make a pass off the short roll to either Campazzo or Hugo. Llull lobs a beautiful pass to our guy cutting baseline, who converts the layup off the glass.

Again, this is made possible by what Hugo sees the defense doing. His man slinking in to stop a rumbling Tavares signals to Hugo that he can be assertive to get the ball. Decisive.

This is the last play here. The thing that I want to highlight with Gonzalez within this play type is: traits. Notice the suddenness. Observe the length. Pay attention to the strength and athleticism.

Hugo gets the ball from Llull to start this clip off. Sergio gets the screen from Serge on the left wing, and then gets the pass from Hugo. Ibaka sets a back screen for our guy, who then bursts through the lane. Hugo is able to soar up to convert a well-placed lob. The traits Gonzalez is able to show off to make plays like this are impressive.

The Defense

Synergy grades out Hugo Gonzalez in the 48th percentile—which is considered average. He is credited with allowing a field goal percentage of just 36.0% on 186 shots attempted, and just 33.0% on threes (94 attempted).

Some of the questions that come up regarding Gonzalez’s defense are about his versatility. Here, we get to see Hugo matched up against former NBA player, Rodrigue Beaubois (#1 in blue).

Beaubois has barely lost his step, and presents a unique challenge for Hugo defensively. Rodrigue starts this play off running off a screen on the right wing—forcing Hugo to fight over the top to stay with his man. Gonzalez gets help from Tavares baseline to prevent a shot at the rim. Rodrigue kicks the ball out, but gets the ball back in the left corner.

Notice Hugo’s footwork. He closes out hard and defends him center—giving Beaubois his choice of which direction he would want to attack. Rodrigue drives right, forcing Hugo to shift his weight to maintain in position. Rodrigue hits Hugo with a step-back and is able to cash in a three while Gonzalez scrambles to contest.

Like most young players, Gonzalez can have a tendency to overcommit to what he sees defensively.

The ball starts off on the right wing on this clip, with Hugo being in help. As the ball comes toward the top of the key, Gonzalez sees how far his man is away from the three-point line and slides over to help. This could be part of the defensive scheme, but there is not a ton of good that would come from Hugo sliding over. The best case is that he pokes the ball out, but he is a low steals guy (0.26 SPG). The more likely outcome is either a foul, or what actually happens on this play.

The ball-handler finds himself in between three defenders, and he sees that Hugo’s assignment is wide open. The ball is swung to the left wing—into the hands of Gonzalez’s man, who pulls up for three points.

These are the mistakes, and they are common for young players. There is, however, a lot to be excited about in terms of on-ball defense.

We saw Hugo matched up against a former NBA player earlier, and we will see him do it again here against Justin Holiday (#1 in black).

Holiday gets a down screen to start this play, and gets the ball toward the top of the key. Holiday gets a screen set to his left, to which he runs Hugo into. Justin picks the ball up and is smothered by Gonzalez. Holiday swings the ball to the left corner and gets it right back.

Another screen is set for our guy, this time on Holiday’s right. Holiday gets Hugo screened and tries to burst through the lane. Hugo is able to fight over the top of the screen and sprint back into a contest position to force the missed layup from Holiday.

This last defensive play we’ll look at shows off something we touched on earlier: traits. Hugo’s burst, strength, and athleticism hasn’t been heavily featured on defense, but there have been several moments where it’s shown up.

This clip begins with Hugo’s man getting the ball at the top of the key. Gonzalez gets a pretty hard screen set to his right; a lot of players would have probably given up on the screen set against him. Hugo is able to get under the screen and get back into a good position. As Hugo’s man is driving to the block, he is able to maneuver himself in such a way that he rejects the shot put up against him.

Worth noting: Hugo Gonzalez put up only 27 stocks (steals+blocks) to 107 fouls committed.

Curtains

The scout on Hugo Gonzalez is an interesting one. There isn’t anything that jumps out are screams: “Hey! I’m definitely a translatable NBA skill set!” with him, but there are some strong moments of production when he has been in a setting with his peers. It’s hard to rely exclusively on the Real Madrid film this year, as it is a smaller sample size than many of the other players in this class. How much will NBA teams want to invest in a player like this?

I’m of the mindset that the team will: 1) Have to either have multiple picks. 2) Be deep and established enough to take a chance on a young talent. 3) Take him in the second round.

That seems like a lot of paths, but each is very specific—which makes me think that Gonzalez will be taken in the late first to early second round range.