Lietuvos Rytas parted ways with one more point guard following the departure of Sarunas Jasikevicius. 28-year-old American point guard Jerry Johnson is also heading to Turkey to sign with Turkish league leaders Galatasaray, according to lrytas.lt. Johnson joined in Rytas in summer from Belgian champions Spirou Charleroi.
Johnson was supposed to be the team’s starting point guard but he got injured before the start of Euroleague. The player missed the entire Euroleague regular season due to an injury. He only played in six LKL games averaging 6.3 points and 3.2 assists per game.
The departure of Jerry Johnson leaves Rytas with only two point guards – Khalid El-Amin and Zydrunas Kelys. The latter is yet to make his debut for Rytas as he is still recovering from an injury. 23-year-old Kelys has no serious experience other than LKL which makes the point guard position seriously weaker for Rytas.
Lithuanian champions are likely to add at least one more player for the Euroleague Top 16. Rytas will face Greek champions Panathinaikos, Spanish champions Caja Laboral and Unicaja in Group E.
Rytas’s primary goal was to strengthen the centre position, however, the loss of two experienced point guards could raise new problems on the roster.
Jerry Johnson is the third player to leave Lietuvos Rytas this season. Previously Igor Milosevic and Sarunas Jasikevicius left the team to sign with teams. All these players are point guard and all of them chose to continue their career in Turkey.
