Lithuanian big man Azuolas Tubelis seeks a chance to latch on with Sixers

The 6-foot-11 Tubelis went undrafted out of Arizona following an All-American junior season. He is expected to sign a two-way contract with the Sixers.

Thunder guard Tre Mann, right, defends against 76ers forward Azuolas Tubelis during an NBA summer league game on July 6 in Salt Lake City.Read moreRick Bowmer / AP

by Gina Mizell

Published July 12, 2023, 4:24 p.m. ET

While poring over recruiting film of overseas prospects Kerr Kriisa and Augustas Marčiulionis a few years ago, Arizona assistant Jack Murphy kept noticing “this really big, physical, athletic [forward/center] from Lithuania.”

“Man, how do we get him over here?” the Wildcats’ associate head coach said to himself.

That was Azuolas Tubelis, who eventually morphed into a second-team All-American at Arizona. Now, after going undrafted, the efficient around-the-rim scorer is aiming to prove he is an NBA-caliber player with the 76ers’ summer league team. He is still expected to sign a two-way contract, joining Terquavion Smith and Ricky Council IV as players who will split time with the Sixers and G League-affiliate Delaware Blue Coats during the 2023-24 season.

“That was my goal: to be in summer league, to be healthy and just experience all this at the highest level,” Tubelis said at the Sixers’ practice facility on July 1, before departing for Salt Lake City. “I’m just happy to be here with the team.”

Tubelis’ production has been quiet in limited minutes after he initially dealt with an injury that forced him to miss the Sixers’ opener in Salt Lake City last week. Perhaps his best performance came in his July 5 debut against the Utah Jazz, when he totaled two points, four rebounds, two assists, and one steal in 13 minutes. In Monday’s loss to the Dallas Mavericks in Las Vegas, he finished with three points, two rebounds, and one block in 11 minutes. He has sometimes shared the floor with fellow big man (and former second-round draft pick) Filip Petrušev, though Tubelis could be in line for more playing time if the Sixers begin shutting down players as their stay in Las Vegas progresses.

Tubelis and Murphy first linked in person at the Basketball Without Borders camp at 2020 All-Star Weekend, where he was named an All-Star performer alongside fellow Arizona standout-turned-pro Bennedict Mathurin. That showcase event also took place weeks before the world shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a precursor of sorts to Tubelis’ unique college experience.

Because of ongoing travel and gathering restrictions, Tubelis and twin his brother, Tautvilas, could not arrive on Arizona’s campus until the weekend before fall semester classes began, leaving little time for them to acclimate to their new team and desert surroundings. More recently, their home country — where their mother, Valentina, still lives in the capital city of Vilnius — has outspokenly opposed nearby Russia in its ongoing war against Ukraine.

“It’s a lot to go through as a 21-year-old,” Murphy recently told The Inquirer by phone. “And he still gets the task at hand done. He doesn’t let it affect him. But I know that his heart and his mind is over there a lot.”

Tubelis’ breakout performances came as a freshman against Evan Mobley — the former USC star who blossomed into the runner-up for the NBA’s 2021-22 Rookie of the Year award — when he totaled 31 points on 11-of-16 shooting in Tucson, then recorded 16 points and 15 rebounds in a victory in Los Angeles. When new coach Tommy Lloyd arrived at Arizona before Tubelis’ sophomore season, he utilized a fast-paced style that would take advantage of Tubelis’ quickness and agility to run the floor in transition.

As a junior last season, Tubelis upped his rebounding average to 9.1 per game, while Lloyd also highlighted improvement as a passer and one-on-one post player. He dropped 40 points on 16-of-21 shooting in a win against Oregon. He outplayed Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis, a second-round draft pick last month, with 21 points, seven rebounds, and three blocks in their marquee matchup in Las Vegas. He was a consensus All-American and one of five finalists for the Karl Malone Award given to college basketball’s best power forward after averaging 19.8 points per game on 57% shooting, while anchoring an Arizona team that went 28-7 and earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Still, outside questions lingered about Tubelis’ NBA potential. Stretching the floor has become a virtual requirement for modern NBA big men, and he shot 29.5% on 112 total three-point shots throughout his college career. Murphy added that Tubelis also still needs to develop defensively, but the coach believes he will benefit from the shorter NBA shot clock that requires less time guarding on an island.

Murphy also called Tubelis an “acquired taste” whose impact might not instantly pop during a three-hour pre-draft workout. But as far as translatable skills, the coach compared Tubelis’ short-roll game to how the Golden State Warriors use Draymond Green.

“I’m not saying he’s Draymond, by any stretch,” Murphy said. “But just offensively, [Tubelis is] kind of a mid-post, elbow player who’s a really efficient scorer at the rim and developing perimeter jump shooter. … You have to be around him day-to-day to really value what he does.”

Tubelis acknowledged that he “didn’t expect to hear my name” called during last month’s NBA draft. Though his agent was aware of some possible draft-and-stash landing spots, they viewed a two-way chance with a Sixers team that did not hold a 2023 pick as Tubelis’ best opportunity to begin his career. Murphy was also quick to remind that the last Sixers undrafted player out of Arizona, T.J. McConnell, “worked out pretty well.”

And Tubelis has provided a glimpse of his potential so far in summer league play.

During last week’s game against Utah in Salt Lake City, he delivered an open-court bounce pass to D.J. Steward, then kept pace and inadvertently went up with the high-flying Council to try to catch the alley-oop pass that neither could corral. But later in the game, Tubelis ran the floor again and secured the feed for the one-handed dunk.

“The great part, I think, for Azuolas is he’s going in with very low expectations as a guy who was undrafted on a two-way deal,” Murphy said. “But I think the great thing for the 76er organization is they got a guy that easily could have been a late-first to second-round talent.”