Affected by several injuries, the JDA Dijon – nonetheless victorious in the first leg of the play-ins against Peristeri this Tuesday – has decided to react by hiring the American combo-guard Matt Mobley, as a freelance doctor for the US winger Chase Simon. The latter, hit in the groin since the beginning of December, will in fact have to be operated on and will be absent for several months. At the same time, Abdoulaye Loum (calf recurrence) and Jonathan Rousselle (Achilles tendon injury) are currently unavailable, although they are expected to return shortly.
“Chase Simon has groin problems which are affecting his performance,” Dijon sporting director Fabien Romeyer revealed in a press release. “His pain has been increasing for several weeks and it was agreed that an operation was needed. It therefore seemed essential to us to react quickly to find a replacement for this long absence. »
A formidable striker
The Dijon club has set its sights on Matt Mobley (1.92m, 28 years old). The native of Worcester (Massachusetts) started his professional career in Europe with Spirou Charleroi (Belgium) in 2018 (3rd best scorer with 16.5 points). Signed by Pau / Orthez in 2019-2020, where he was ultimately not retained, this 2-1 position quickly rebounded to P1 Turkey (21.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists on average). He then moved to the Frankfurt Skyliners (Germany), finishing second best scorer in the Bundesliga in 2020-2021 (20 points including 42% from three-point range, 4.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 31′ per game).
Less visible in Zaragoza (Spain) in 2021-2022 where he was a teammate of former Dijonnais Hans Vanwijn (10.3 points, 3 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 24′ on average), Matt Mobley returned to Germany, to Ulm, at the start of the season. Failing to establish himself there (8.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 23′ after 5 games), he finally flew to the Philippines, excelling there with Tropang (28ppg).
Gregor Hrovat replaced in position 3
If Chase Simon played mainly as a winger, Matt Mobley is instead a 2-1 position, notably able to come and relieve David Holston and Jonathan Rousselle in front. “We decided not to swap position by position, partly because the market for position 3 is very complicated at the moment and we had to react quickly, but also because we felt we could rebalance the team,” explains Fabien Romeyer. “Matt Mobley is an experienced hard hitting combined guard who brings real danger to the outside line, which will allow Gregor Hrovat to return to his favorite position, the 3 position, to allow him to express himself fully and with better consistency in his We hope that this rebalancing will allow us to continue our good start to the season and achieve our important goals. »
Hopefully the qualification of Matt Mobley, who has been in training this Wednesday with his new team, against Sluc Nancy (Saturday, 8pm at the Palais des Sports) on behalf of the 16thand elite championship day.
