Real Valladolid Basketball: Kabasele: Pucela Basket 2022-23 already has its wall in the ‘paint’

Pucela 2022-23 basketball already has “five”. A powerful and intimidating center necessary for modern basketball who had resisted in recent years. Kavion Pippen – with whom his continuity is still being negotiated – was very close to this role, more in the opposing baskets than in his own, and his replacement responds more to this profile, without being better offensively.

Hervé Kabasele Kasonga (Democratic Republic of Congo, 1996), a 2.08, also knows the competition very well from his last years in Oviedo and those he spent in Canoe and Breogán (5 seasons in total in LEB Gold).

With Kabasele, Pucela Basket confirms its sixth piece of the puzzle and second recruit after Alex Mazaira.

This Congolese player responds to the profile of a pure pivot and has important athletic conditions that allow him to impose himself in the racket by his power and his physique. Capable of playing above the rim, the African ‘five’ contributes to defense with his intimidation and ability to block and condition opponents’ shots, as well as do damage in attack by playing close to the basket , from behind and with its average shooting distance.

Kabasele grew up in his native country, first training at the New Generation in Kinshasa between 2012 and 2015. His first experience abroad came next, when he made his debut in the Tunisian championship with the Sports Star Goulettoise. A year later, however, his original team returned, where he shone and won the best defender of the season award.

Likewise, his first steps also reached the international level and his good performances in the Afrobasket 2017 caught the attention of Breogán, a team that signed him and in which he played a course to be transferred later. The Real Canoe Natación Club Baloncesto Masculine de LEB Oro was his destiny and in the historic Pez Volador he played for two seasons, signing the first 11.9 average PIR credits with 8.1 points, 6.6 rebounds, including 2 .87 on offense (the second best mark of the season in the category), and 1.6 blocks, a figure that makes him the third best blocker. Hervé Kabasele, at the first opportunity, left his mark on the silver division of Spanish basketball.

Kabasele delights in exploiting the Pantzar gang. /

Rodrigo Jimenez

After shining in Spain, in January 2020, he made the jump to the NBA’s development league, the G-League, by signing for the Erie Bayhawks, a subsidiary team of the New Orleans Pelicans. In Pennsylvania, the African “five” trained and played six games, but the pandemic ended the season prematurely.

Hervé Kabasele left the United States and landed again in Spain, in the ranks of Oviedo Club Baloncesto, on loan from Breogán de Lugo. In Pumarín, under the command of Natxo Lezkano, the African interior showed his best version and in the last season he averaged 7.8 points (56.2% success in the placement), 5, 6 rebounds, 0.4 assists, 0.8 blocks and 10.9 rating credits. In the promotion playoffs, as if that were not enough, these averages rose to 10.3 points and 14 efficiency, figures that make him a reference in the category. In the LEB Oro, likewise, he has accumulated 87 official matches.

At international level, as if that weren’t enough, Hervé Kabasele is a regular in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has played a total of 17 matches split between Afrobasket and the qualifying rounds for the said competition and for the World Cup. Indeed, during the 2017 edition of the African championship, the new blanquivioleta player shone with averages of 14.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and a PIR of 18.8, competing with the elite of the continent .

In short, Hervé Kabasele is a powerful athletic center who is already a classic in the LEB Oro and whose incorporation represents the second new face of Real Valladolid Basketball and the sixth piece for the 2022-23 season.

‘One more of the family

The new Real Valladolid player Baloncesto, in his first words after concluding his commitment with the club, showed the happiness of taking this step. “I am happy to be part of this family, of the Real Valladolid Basketball family. We hope that this season will be very good to take advantage of it ”.

The arrival of Hervé Kabasele also brings a series of very useful characteristics, analyzed
Pepe Catherine. “In the evaluation of the signing of Álex Mazaira, we pointed out that this year the objective of the sports planning was to have five interior players: three more versatile capable of playing inside and outside. outside and two more inside. Within this group of two, it would be necessary to be more athletic, with a good physique, intimidating in defense, a good rebounder, able to block, who runs the ground well and in attack able to make good chases, hard-hitting in the finishes play above the hoop and provide those doses of drama that these types of players have. Hervé Kabasele meets all these requirements and it must be added that he already has previous experience in competition, something to always keep in mind, and that he is constantly improving, which we hope will continue to grow up here at Real Valladolid Baloncesto”.

Likewise,
Paco Garcia He continued in the line of the sporting director of Blanquivioleta and appreciated the incorporation of the African Hervé Kabasele. “His hiring is due to the aspiration that we have to improve the team at the level of the internal game, at the physical level. With his arrival and pending the last hiring in the internal game, already counting on Sergio, Jordy, Mazaira and Kabasele himself, there is still an inside player to bring in. Kabasele is above all a physicist in the service of the team, with excellent performances near the basket, very good percentages near the circle, dunks, layups, good moves near the basket. Coming back, defensively, he has a great ability to intimidate and can be a great all-around player for that player who hasn’t come yet. We’re trying to complete such a solvent pair of ‘fives’ and reliable as possible.