Arizona’s Azuolas Tubelis agreed to a two-way contract with the Philadelphia 76ers almost immediately after he was not taken in the 2023 NBA Draft on Thursday.
Tubelis' agent, Greg Lawrence, confirmed the deal to the Star on Thursday night. It was initially reported just about 15 minutes after the draft ended by The Athletic's Shams Charania.
The Sixers appear to have opportunity to offer after having no picks in Thursday's draft, having traded away its first-round pick and losing 2023 and 2024 second-round picks as a penalty for tampering.
Philadelphia also reached agreements with Smith and Arkansas forward Ricky Council IV, two of the other two top undrafted players.
A two-way contract would earn Tubelis about $500,000 for shuttling between the 76ers and their G League affiliate in Delaware. The Lithuanian big man also had an estimated value in the low six figures had he returned to play professionally in Europe.
ESPN draft analyst Jonathan Givony ranked Tubelis eighth among players not taken in the draft Thursday, while college basketball analyst Jay Biles noted how many of college basketball’s star big men — such as Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe, Gonzaga’s Drew Timme and Tubelis — were not drafted because of how the NBA now deploys post players.
“The game has changed, and it’s more of a perimeter game,” Bilas said. “If you can’t shoot it, it’s going to be a long night for you.”
UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez was the Pac-12’s only first-round pick in Thursday’s draft, while the conference also had three second-round picks: Washington State’s Mouhamed Gueye (39th to Charlotte), UCLA’s Amari Bailey (41st to Charlotte) and UCLA’s Jaylen Clark (53 to Minnesota).
Arizona forward Azuolas Tubelis holds up a piece of the net after the team’s win over UCLA in the Pac-12 championship game in March.
A second-team All-American last season as a junior forward for the Wildcats, Tubelis was projected to be a late second-round pick or one of the top undrafted players.
Recruited by then-UA coach Sean Miller mostly over Zoom because of the COVID restrictions of 2020, Tubelis became a starter seven games into his freshman season of 2020-21, averaging 12.2 points and a team-high 7.1 rebounds while becoming an all-freshman Pac-12 pick.
Tubelis was named to the All-Pac-12 first team as a sophomore in 2021-22, and last season wound up leading the Pac-12 in both scoring (19.9) and rebounding (9.1), becoming the first player to do so since Cal’s Leon Powe in 2005-06. He had 14 double-doubles and became a consensus second-team All-American.
Tubelis appeared to finish second to Jaquez for the Pac-12 Player of the Year voting but won the Pac-12 Tournament Most Outstanding Player award after leading the Wildcats past Stanford, Arizona State and UCLA in Las Vegas from March 9-11.
While the Wildcats have not had a player taken in three of the past five NBA Drafts, they had three draftees each in 2020 and 2022. Josh Green (18), Zeke Nnaji (22) and Nico Mansion (48) went in 2020, while Bennedict Mathurin (6), Dalen Terry (18) and Christian Koloko (33) were taken last year.
Arizona forward Azuolas Tubelis discussed end-of-the-year awards and bouncing back against the L.A. schools ahead of the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas.
