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EuroLeague transfers and rumors: Ignas Brazdeikis joins Olympiacos from Zalgiris Kaunas on a long-term deal

Olympiacos is still active on the transfer market following the losses of Kostas Sloukas and Sasha Vezenkov this summer. The Greek club has already added Nikola Milutinov, Luke Sikma, and Nigel Williams-Goss but those players won’t be able to fill the scoring punch left by their two major departures. 

The Reds have heavily pursued Kendrick Nunn all summer but the American guard has made it clear that he wants to exhaust all possible NBA opportunities before signing a permanent deal with an overseas team. Olympiacos decided they couldn’t afford to wait any longer and added scoring on the wing by bringing in Lithuanian wing/forward Ignas Brazdeikis.

Only 24 years old, Brazdeikis was solid in his debut EuroLeague season for Zalgiris. He averaged 11.6 points per game for the Lithuanian club in EuroLeague. However, he was only an average spot-up player, averaging 0.86 points per possession which was right around league average but he did average 0.99 points per possession as a pick-and-roll ballhandler which was good enough for the 87th percentile per Synergy Sports. 

It will be interesting to see how head coach Georgios Bartzokas decides to use Brazdeikis, who was not cheap. He signed a three-year contract and cost the Reds a 500,000 euro buyout. Brazdeikis is very good but it’s hard to see him replacing what Vezenkov and Sloukas gave Olympiacos in terms of offensive firepower for at least this season, but perhaps he could reach that level in the future.