By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Additional firepower coming in for Lithuania champion Rytas.
Preparing to defend the Betsafe LKL title and compete in the Basketball Champions League, the team based in Vilnius announced the addition of Elvar Fridriksson on Thursday. The international point guard from Iceland will debut in the BCL following a solid display in the 2021-22 edition of the FIBA Europe Cup. The list of summer reinforcements already had Martynas Echodas, Marcus Foster, Gytis Masiulis, Benedek Varadi, and Todd Withers, while Evaldas Kairys and Jarvis Williams both penned contract extensions.
Rytas was entered directly into the Champions League Regular Season but Budivelnyk is on the task of clinching its own berth in the Qualifying Group to be held in Lisbon, Portugal. The latest move in building a strong bid was landing Canadian Johnny Berhanemeskel. The explosive guard will play alongside Anthony “Cat” Barber, Bogdan Bliznyuk, Vyacheslav Bobrov, Alec Brown, Jerai Grant, Andrey Gritsak, Archie Goodwin, Pavlo Krutous, Aurimas Majauskas, and Illja Tyrtyshnyk. The new head coach is Valery Plekhanov.
Niners Chemnitz added Matt Mooney. The Chicago-born shooting guard has played five NBA games split between the 2019-20 and 2021-22 seasons and also appeared in five BCL games with Unicaja last season. Signing a one-year contract, he completed the list of summer signings for the German side following Kilian Binapfl, Marko Filipovity, Shonn Miller, Aher Uguak, Arnas Velicka, and Kevin Yebo.
Georgia State product Justin Roberts inked a deal with Fribourg Olympic heading to Skopje’s Qualifying Group. Similar to fellow rookie Coryon Mason, he signed a four-month contract with an option for the rest of the season. Other moves saw the Switzerland champion reunite with Jonathan Kazadi, add Uros Nikolic, and retain both Milos Jankovic and Davonta Jordan.
The Qualifying rounds are scheduled to be held between 21-25 September. The opening round of the Regular Season follows in the first week of October.
Photo Credit: FIBA.BASKETBALL