GM Diary: Juanma Rodriguez of Unicaja

MALAGA (Spain) - There is something special happening at Unicaja.

Sports Director Juanma Rodriguez rejoined the club in 2021 and has set about to try to rebuild the type of foundations that Unicaja was based on during his first stint, between 1994 and 2010.

After winning the Copa del Rey in February 2023, the club extended both Rodriguez and head coach Ibon Navarro until 2026.

Juanma Rodriguez celebrating the 2023 Copa de Rey victory

Contract extensions of this length for coaches - and at times General Managers - are rare in the volatile environment of European basketball. But providing stability for both key members of the club's management was only the beginning of the plan to bring about a new era of continuity.

Extensions for almost all players quickly followed, in the shape of  'two plus one' deals, where the club contracts the player for a guaranteed two seasons with the option to extend for one more.

One could be forgiven for thinking these contract extensions came as a reaction to the Copa del Rey victory but in fact Rodriguez had been planning long-term with Ibon Navarro even before he signed for the club.

"The fans like the way we play, they like the way we fight. You have to live this in person to understand how important this is" 

After all, Rodriguez's first stint at the club saw only four coaches in 16 years and he knew he was looking for another coach to build the future around, if he was to rebuild the same culture.

"When I called Ibon it was during a time when we were in a dangerous situation in the ACB but I told him that we wanted him here for a long time because I believe in the coach and the project," Rodriguez said.

When Navarro joined the club, Unicaja were only one loss away from a catastrophic relegation, whilst poor performances had seen average attendance in the Martin Carpena arena fall to just 2,500. 

Fast forward to this summer and the picture looks much more optimistic.  Just three weeks ago, Unicaja sold out 10,300 tickets for a pre-season friendly against Real Madrid.

10,300 fans inside a gloriously packed Martin Carpena

"Will Thomas told me he’d never seen that in his 16 seasons playing in Europe," recalled Rodriguez, adding context to how unusual it is to see so many fans excited for a pre-season game.

Rodriguez had already started to see evidence of the kind of connection he wanted to build between the club and the fans months earlier.

Dylan Osetkowski had promised the fans he would host a party if they won the Copa del Rey. The American center made good on the promise but very few in the club were expecting 5,000 fans to show up and celebrate with the team. 

Dylan Osetkowski partying with Unicaja fans

"I would make this more important than a title," Rodriguez said.

"They like the way we play, they like the way we fight. You have to live this in person to understand how important this is."

The GM mentality

For an entire club to function as well as Unicaja right now and for players and coaches to commit themselves long-term - sometimes even to their own financial detriment - the whole operation needs to operate like a well-oiled machine and for each person to know their own role.

Rodriguez knows that parties with the fans or building brotherhood and chemistry within the locker room are not his domain. His role is different, and he relishes it.

"I really like being a Sports Director so my relationship with the coach is shaped by this," Rodriguez said.

Unicaja coach Ibon Navarro giving instructions during a timeout

"I never speak to a coach about how they need to play, how we should play on offense, or how we should defend the next team.

"I only speak generally about the team. How we are practicing? How the players are performing in practices?"

Rodriguez has worked with coaching legends such as Javier Imbroda, Bozidar Maljkovic, Sergio Scariolo, and Aito Garcia Reneses during his first 16-year stint as the club's Sporting Director.

He oversaw a period when the club won the Liga Endesa title, its first Copa del Rey and the FIBA Korac Cup.

So it's safe to say that fostering a winning relationship with coaches and allowing them the autonomy to operate the team as they see fit is part and parcel of his key to success. 

This same, respectful distance is also important for Rodriguez when managing his relationships with the players.

'The locker room is a private space for coaches and players' - Rodriguez

"I never go into the locker room, only in very special circumstances," he said.

"This is a private space for coaches and players.

"If a player wants to speak with me about something in-depth, it's very important that they have to come and find me in my office," Rodriguez explained. 

Diary of a GM

A normal work day for Rodriguez starts with an early arrival in the office to watch the club's youth teams and academy teams train.

The next step takes him to the Martin Carpena to watch the senior men's team train, then meetings with coaches and players, and then finally in the evening, the exciting project the club has going with the women's team demands an equal amount of daily focus. 

"We follow all the teams from every league, men and women" 

And of course, there is the scouting, which possibly necessitates as much time commitment as any other task connected to the daily practice sessions and also involves a similar group of staff.

"We have a daily meeting with some of the youth team coaches and our assistant GM," Rodriguez explained.

"We follow all the teams from every league, men and women."

This exhaustive task of following every team in every league has already begun for the season, with leagues in Denmark, Lithuania, and France already underway, as Rodriguez pays extra attention to the teams that directly compete with Unicaja.

"I try to watch every game for every team in the leagues we play in, at least at the start of the season when we can see how rosters are built and get a feel for the way coaches want to play," he said.

"As soon as I hung up the call to Barcelona [about Dario Brizuela's transfer], I was on the phone with Kameron Taylor’s agent" 

 
Anatomy of a transfer

Following and talking about clubs you might never play against and players you will almost certainly never sign may seem laborious and slow, but there is always a moment around the corner when everything happens at the same time and a GM has to be ready.

A perfect example of this situation occurred this summer with the almost instant transfer turnaround that saw Dario Brizuela leave the club for Barcelona and Kameron Taylor come in to replace him.

With the loan status of Tyson Carter uncertain, the club had been compiling a list of players to replace him should he not be able to return from Zenit for another season.

Both club and player were very keen for Tyson Carter to return for another season in Malaga

On top of that list was Kameron Taylor, then at Girona. Multiple phone calls had been made and all of the information about Taylor was conducive for exactly the right fit for Unicaja, but at the same time negotiations were going well for Carter to return.

Then, just as it was looking likely that Carter would be returning and the club may not finally need to move for Taylor, the phone rang.

"It was the 12th or 13th of July when I received the phone call from Barcelona," Rodriguez remembered.

"It was a three-minute call, I told them that Brizuela had a contract and we were not willing to negotiate.

"They told me that they were willing to pay his buyout."

Dario Brizuela was a key part of the Unicaja project last season

Whilst Rodriguez was well prepared for the possibility of losing a key player - albeit a different player - the transfer was far from simple, as Kameron Taylor himself had a contract buyout and it was expiring just two days later.

"As soon as I hung up the call to Barcelona, I was on the phone with Kameron Taylor’s agent," said Rodriguez.

Indeed, Brizuela left Unicaja on a Tuesday, and by the close of business that Friday, Kameron Taylor was already a Unicaja player. 

"In pro sports, everything can change in one week and we have to be ready" 

The Future

This work ethic is a code that a Sports Director has to live by - in the good times and the bad.

"Right now we are riding a great wave, everything we are working on is working well but we must be humble," said Rodriguez.

"In pro sports, everything can change in one week and we have to be ready."

Ready is exactly what Juanma Rodriguez and Unicaja appear to be for Season 8 of the BCL as they look to improve on their Final Four appearance in the 2022-23 season.