Azuolas Tubelis reportedly headed overseas after being waived by Philadelphia 76ers
Azuolas Tubelis is headed back to Lithuania.
According to a report from the Lithuanian news site 15min, Tubelis has signed a three-year contract with BC Rytas — a club in his hometown of Vilnius — to play overseas after he was waived by the Philadelphia 76ers last month. The news outlet also reported that Tubelis will join Neptunas Klaipeda on loan for this season in order to have a guaranteed role.
Tubelis played for the Rytas’ youth club before he enrolled at Arizona.
The former Arizona forward was a consensus Second Team All-American and a First Team All-Pac-12 selection as a junior last year. He averaged 19.8 points and 9.1 rebounds a game while pushing for the conference’s Player of the Year award.
Tubelis had a 40-point explosion against Oregon on Feb. 2, falling just one point shy of the McKale Center record for points in a game by an Arizona player. That was one of 18 games last season in which Tubelis put up at least 20 points.
But he went undrafted in the 2023 NBA Draft and began his career on a two-way contract with Philadelphia. The initial hope was that he could see developmental time while moving back and forth between the Sixers and the Delaware Blue Coats, but at the end of October, Philadelphia waived Tubelis.