Lithuanian champions Zalgiris completeted the signing of Ty Lawson to improve their backourt. 23-year-old point guard moves to Europe after two seasons in the NBA with Denver Nuggets.
Zalgiris took advantage of current NBA lockout which resulted in notable increase of available players in the market. Lawson is currently under contract with the Nuggets therefore he will be forced to travel back to Denver as soon as the lockout is over.
Though the primary goal of Zalgiris was to sign free agents who would stay with the team for an entire season, GM Paulius Motiejunas stated that the situation in the market is changing and the club is acting accordingly.
Lockout is now expected to last longer than it was thought earlier this summer which makes more top teams to reconsider the option of singing players who are contracting with NBA teams.
Lawson became the second player to join Zalgiris during lockout. Sonny Weems who is a restricted free agent agreed to a one-year deal with the club a few weeks ago.
Previous season was Lawson’s best so far as he averaged 11.7 points, 4.7 assists and 2.6 rebounds per game in 80 games in the NBA. Although Nuggets were knocked out in the first round of the playoffs, Lawson improved his scoring to 15.6 points per game.
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