All the changes made by Rytas Vilnius
All the changes made by Rytas Vilnius
The 2018-2019 season was a good one for Rytas. They managed to qualify for the Eurocup playoffs, where Valencia, now Eurocup champion, eliminated them by 2-0. In the domestic league, they were stopped only in the big final by Euroleague power, Zalgiris Kaunas by 3-0. It was a very disappointing result for their fans, but comparing the two rosters, it was maximum for Rytas.
Rytas made some important changes in their roster. First of all, all the foreign players left the team: Artsiom Parakhouski, Rok Stipcevic, DJ Seeley and Derek Nedham.
In exchange, Rytas added eight new players, a mix of experienced and young ones. The experienced players are: first, Francisco Cruz (29 years-old, 1.90m, G). Last season he played for Fuenlabrada in Spain averaging 14.4 points and 2.8 assists. He shots very well from the 3-point line, 40,9%. Next player is the Australian Cameron Bairstow (28 years-old, 2.06, PF). He came from Brisbane Bullets where he averaged 11.6 points and 5.8 rebounds in 29 Australian league games. He played 36 games in NBA for Chicago Bulls in 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 seasons. Then, they brought in the last year assist leader in Lithuania, Dovis Bickauskis (25 years-old, 1.91m, G). He averaged 10.2 points and 5.7 assists in 39 league games for Juventus. And the last experienced player added was Steponas Babrauskas (35 years-old, 1.97m, G/F). He`s a known player for Rytas, playing for them seven years, in the 2003-2004 season and between 2008 and 2014. He won several trophies with the team, making him one of the most hated players, by the rival fans of Zalgiris Kaunas.
Speaking about the young core, they added some interesting prospects. First, Ilija Dubrovin (17 years-old, 2.16m, C) from Zaragoza. He will continue his development in Lithuania, one of the best places for him because he has a lot of potential. Next, from Greece was added Andreas Kalogiros (17 years-old, 2.03m, PF). Last summer at the U16 European Championships, Kalogiros stats for Greece were 13.1 points and 10.1 rebounds. Two young Lithuanian players, Evaldas Dziaugys and Marek Blazevic completed the roster for Rytas.
Rytas will continue the good results, but the most important thing, they will continue to develop and raise young basketball prospects. In my opinion, some of these young bulls will develop into very good players and we`ll hear about them in the future. I respect what Rytas`s doing here and hope that this mix will help them to achieve at least the same results as last year.
Photo credit: championsleague.basketball
Bogdan Vasile Tirc
