Lietuvos Rytas improved its frontcourt for the upcoming Turkish Airlines Euroleague Qualifying Rounds by inking power forward Lawrence Roberts to a two-year deal, the club announced Tuesday. Roberts (2.06 meters, 28 years old) arrives from Anadolu Efes, where he averaged 6.5 points and 5.1 rebounds in 16 Euroleague games last season.

Before that, Roberts was a major contributor as Partizan Belgrade made an historic run to the 2010 Final Four. He was the Euroleague’s second leading rebounder in the 2009-10 season with 7.4 boards per game to go with his 9 points on average. He also led the 2009-10 Top 16 in rebounding at 7.8 boards per night and won the Serbian Cup, Serbian League and Adriatic League titles with Partizan.

Before that, Roberts played the previous season with Belgrade’s other major team, Crvena Zvezda, where he put up 12 points and 8.1 rebounds over 8 Eurocup games. He had previously played professionally with Memphis of the NBA in 87 games over two seasons and collegiately at Baylor and Mississippi State unversities.

“I wanted to be useful to a team and this agreement with Lietuvos Rytas is signed in the belief that this team needs me,” Roberts said. “I was very excited when I found out that the club had the interest to sign me.”

Source: Euroleague.net