2026-27 projection
| GP | MPG | FG% (FGA) | FT% (FTA) | 3PM | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 62 | 24 | .475 (9.9) | .700 (2.3) | 1.5 | 12.7 | 6.4 | 2.6 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 1.3 |
Aldama's 2025-26 line was 14.0/6.7/2.9 with 1.6 threes, 0.9 steals, and 0.7 blocks in 27.9 minutes across 43 games. He shot 47.9% FG, 35.0% from three, and 66.7% FT before right-knee surgery ended the season.
Fantasy translation
- Nine-category: late-round upside pick once cleared. He supplies rare threes/assists from a big, but low FT% and merely useful stocks prevent a clean breakout.
- Points: deeper-league forward whose value rises with starting minutes; broad counting contributions are more useful than his category scarcity.
- Dynasty: age-25 hold/buy. Dallas traded meaningful assets for him and he fits Flagg's timeline, though Morez is the longer-term frontcourt threat.
Role, floor, ceiling, uncertainty
- Median role: first skilled frontcourt reserve, playing beside Gafford/Lively and selective small-ball center minutes.
- Floor: 18 MPG or a slow return after March arthroscopy, approximately 9/5/2.
- Ceiling: 30 MPG, 15/7/3 with two threes if Dallas trades Washington or Gafford.
- Health: the official March 18 injury report listed right-knee surgery recovery. A report on the trade said Memphis expected a full recovery, but camp participation remains the meaningful next milestone.
Sources
- Mavericks acquire Aldama — official Dallas transaction release, July 8, 2026.
- Santi Aldama 2025-26 statistics — 43-game baseline; accessed July 18, 2026.
- NBA injury report — official March 18, 2026 right-knee surgery listing.
- Trade and knee-recovery report — July 2, 2026; secondary transaction/medical context.
Career record
Pre-NBA: Spanish youth basketball, then two seasons of NCAA Division I. He came up at Canterbury Basketball Academy in Las Palmas — 18.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists at the 2017 Spanish U16 Championship — with a 2018 loan to FC Barcelona's under-18 side and a stint at NBA Academy Europe in Serbia. He was named MVP of the 2019 FIBA U18 European Championship. He then took the unusual route of a low-major American college rather than an ACB contract, at Loyola Maryland. Freshman year (2019-20) was only 10 games after a February 1, 2020 debut: 15.2 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.7 blocks. Sophomore year (2020-21) was 17 games in the COVID-shortened Patriot League season and produced the draft case: 21.2 points, 10.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.7 blocks on .513 from the field and .368 from three, first-team All-Patriot League, one of only two Division I players to average 20 and 10 that year, including a 30-point, 22-rebound triple-overtime game on February 13, 2021 that set the program rebounding record. His college free-throw percentage was .639, an early version of the flaw that persists. He has since become Loyola Maryland's first basketball Olympian for Spain. Draft: 2021, first round, 30th overall, Utah Jazz; his rights were traded to Memphis on draft night.
| Season | Age | Team | GP | MPG | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | 3PM | FG% | FT% | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | 21 | MEM | 32 | 11.3 | 4.1 | 2.7 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.2 | .402 | .625 | 0.5 |
| 2022-23 | 22 | MEM | 77 | 21.8 | 9.0 | 4.8 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 1.2 | .470 | .750 | 0.8 |
| 2023-24 | 23 | MEM | 61 | 26.5 | 10.7 | 5.8 | 2.3 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 1.7 | .435 | .621 | 1.1 |
| 2024-25 | 24 | MEM | 65 | 25.5 | 12.5 | 6.4 | 2.9 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 1.8 | .483 | .691 | 1.1 |
| 2025-26 | 25 | MEM | 43 | 27.9 | 14.0 | 6.7 | 2.9 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 1.6 | .479 | .667 | 1.3 |
| Career | MEM | 278 | 23.4 | 10.4 | 5.4 | 2.1 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 1.4 | .463 | .686 | 1.0 |
All five seasons were in Memphis. He was acquired by Dallas in a six-team trade on July 8, 2026, so 2026-27 will be his first season outside the Grizzlies organization.
Fantasy history: Season-end nine-category per-game ranks are not verifiable from the sources available here, so no year-by-year figure is asserted. The shape is consistent and unusual: a big man supplying 1.6-1.8 threes and 2.9 assists, which is genuine category scarcity, offset by a career .686 free-throw percentage that has never once cleared .750 and a block rate too low for his position — 0.4 and 0.7 the last two years. That combination makes him a late-round nine-cat asset who is materially better in punt-FT and punt-block builds than in balanced ones. Points leagues like him somewhat better than categories, because the broad counting line rewards him and the free-throw ratio damage disappears.
Durability: 32 games (2021-22, rookie rotation limits rather than injury), 77, 61, 65, 43 (2025-26). The 2025-26 season is the concerning one. Right knee trouble cost him five games before February 4, 2026; he played that night against Sacramento and did not appear again. A planned March 3 return against Minnesota ended as a late scratch minutes before tip-off, and Memphis announced in mid-March that he had undergone an arthroscopic procedure on the right knee and would miss the remainder of the season, with the official NBA injury report listing the surgery as of March 18. A separate calf injury also cost time earlier that season. He had never had a season-ending injury before this one, which argues the 43 games are an event rather than a trend — but a knee that required arthroscopy after two months of failed management is the single biggest variable in his 2026-27 outlook.
Trajectory: Aldama is the rare case where the improvement is real rather than a minutes artifact. Per 36 minutes he went from 14.5 points, 7.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 2023-24 to 17.6/9.0/4.1 in 2024-25 and 18.1/8.6/3.7 in 2025-26, with field-goal percentage climbing from .435 to .483 to .479 across the same span — rate gains and efficiency gains together, which is what separates development from opportunity. The mechanism was a shot-diet correction: he stopped taking the long twos that dragged 2023-24 down and settled into a catch-and-shoot plus short-roll passing role, and the assist growth from 1.3 to 2.9 shows Memphis trusting him as a connector rather than a spot-up outlet. At 26 for most of 2026-27 he is entering his physical prime with four straight seasons of upward movement behind him, and on talent the 14.0-point season understates him because it came at only 27.9 minutes and 11 starts. Two things cap the projection: the knee, which has no post-surgery data yet, and a Dallas frontcourt containing Gafford, Lively, Washington and Flagg, which is a harder minutes environment than the one he just left.
Career sources: ESPN career stats, Wikipedia, NBA.com: Grizzlies say Pippen Jr. and Aldama will miss rest of season following surgery, Patriot League: Aldama selected in first round by Utah, Loyola Maryland athletics profile
Open questions
- Is Aldama unrestricted when camp opens?
- Does May treat him primarily as a four or a five?
- Does a frontcourt trade open 28+ minutes?