Artūras Gudaitis (born 19 June 1993) is a Lithuanian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player for Rytas Vilnius of the Lithuanian Basketball League. Standing at , he plays at the center position. He was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 47th overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft.

Early career

Before starting his professional career, Gudaitis played in the RKL with the LCC Klaipėda for one season. The next two seasons he played in NKL, and on his last season with Žalgiris-2 Kaunas he won a bronze medal. Gudaitis was respectively nominated as a most promising young player of the league on the same year.

Professional career

On 6 August 2013, Gudaitis signed a professional contract with Žalgiris Kaunas for two years and was brought into the main Žalgiris roster. Whilst suffering from the knee injury in the first half of the season he had his breakthrough game against Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar in the EuroLeague tournament, scoring 14 points with 6 rebounds. Gudaitis vastly improved during the regular season, and was called an x-factor of victorious LKL semi-final series against Lietuvos rytas Vilnius. During 2014–15 LKL season his powerful dunk over Artūras Jomantas was selected as the Top Play of the Regular Season. On 2 July 2015, he signed a 2+1 contract with Lietuvos rytas Vilnius. On 9 November 2016, Gudaitis scored a career-high 17 points and got 11 rebounds in a 101–84 win over Montakit Fuenlabrada in

EuroCup Basketball EuroCup Basketball, commonly known as the EuroCup and currently called BKT EuroCup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual professional basketball club competition organized by Euroleague Basketball. The league is regarded as Euroleague Basketbal ...

game. One week later, on 16 November 2016, Gudaitis scored 12 points and got a career-high 15 rebounds. After an individually successful 2016–17 season, he was named to the LKL All-Tournament Team on 13 June 2017. On 12 September 2017, Gudaitis signed with

Olimpia Milano Pallacanestro Olimpia Milano, commonly known as Olimpia Milano or as EA7 Emporio Armani Milan after its title sponsor, is an LBA Italian professional basketball team, based in Milan, Italy. Its colors are white and red, and the team is sometimes ...

. On 25 February 2018, Gudaitis extended his contract that would keep him with the team until the end of the 2020–21 season. On 1 February 2019, during an away game against Herbalife Gran Canaria, Gudaitis suffered an ACL injury that left him sidelined for the remainder of the 2018–2019 season. Despite having played only 21 games in the Euroleague during the season, he was one of its most efficient players, and was considered one of the league's top centers prior to the injury. On 10 July 2020 Gudaitis moved to Russian club Zenit of the VTB United League and the EuroLeague on a two-year deal. He left the team after the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

and spent the latter half of the 2021–2022 season with the Italian club Napoli Basket. On 20 July 2022, Gudaitis signed a one-year deal with Greek powerhouse Panathinaikos, returning once more to the EuroLeague. In 29 EuroLeague games, he averaged 7.5 points and 3.7 rebounds, playing around 17 minutes per contest. Additionally, in 33 domestic league matches, he averaged 7.9 points and 4.8 rebounds, playing around 16 minutes per contest. On 3 July 2023, Gudaitis was officially released from the Greek powerhouse. On 21 July 2023, Gudaitis signed a one-year deal with Alvark Tokyo of the Japanese B.League. On July 30, 2024, he re-signed with Alvark Tokyo. On 21 February 2025, Gudaitis terminated his contract by mutual consent.

NBA

On 26 February 2015 Gudaitis announced that he was going to participate in the 2015 NBA draft and prior to the NBA draft, it was reported that 11 teams were interested in his services. On 25 June 2015, Gudaitis was selected in the second round, with the 47th pick by the Philadelphia 76ers. On 10 July 2015, the

Sacramento Kings The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Confere ...

acquired Gudaitis and Luka Mitrović from the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Carl Landry, Jason Thompson, and

Nik Stauskas Nikolas Tomas Stauskas (born October 7, 1993) is a Canadian former professional basketball player who played six seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A shooting guard, Stauskas played two seasons of college basketball for the Mi ...

. It was reported that Vlade Divac himself requested to acquire Gudaitis. On 5 July 2016, it was announced that Gudaitis would represent the Kings during the 2016 NBA Summer League. On 8 February 2018, the

Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers, often referred to as the Cavs, are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Divis ...

acquired rights to Gudaitis after they completed a three-team trade with the

and

Utah Jazz The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference. Since the 1991–92 season, the ...

National team career

Gudaitis represented Lithuania at the U–18 youth tournament in Poland, 2011. His team took 5th place in the tournament, where Gudaitis scored 11.3 points, grabbed 6.2 rebounds and had 1.4 blocks per game. In 2015 Gudaitis was included in the

Lithuania men's national basketball team The Lithuania men's national basketball team () represents Lithuania in international basketball competitions. They are controlled by the Lithuanian Basketball Federation, the governing body for basketball in Lithuania. Despite Lithuania's small ...

head coach Jonas Kazlauskas extended candidates list and was invited to the training camp. He was released from the team on 1 September, just 4 days before the championship start. He represented the primary Lithuania national team during the

EuroBasket 2017 EuroBasket 2017 was the 40th edition of the EuroBasket championship that was organized by FIBA Europe and held between 31 August and 17 September 2017. Beginning from 2017, the continental championships take place every four years with a similar ...

for the first time and averaged 4.8 points, 2.5 rebounds and 0.2 assists.

Career statistics

EuroLeague

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2013–14 , style="text-align:left;" rowspan="2", Žalgiris , 7 , , 1 , , 10.3 , , .600 , , .000 , , .636 , , 2.6 , , .6 , , .4 , , .7 , , 4.4 , , 6.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2014–15 , 20 , , 4 , , 15.4, , .506 , , .400 , , .618 , , 4.0 , , .3 , , .2 , , .9 , , 6.5 , , 7.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;" rowspan="3", Olimpia , 29 , , 1 , , 20.4 , , .618 , , , , .715 , , 6.3 , , .2 , , .6 , , 1.1 , , 10.3 , , 15.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , 21 , , 4 , , 23.4 , , .639 , , , , .805 , , 7.1 , , .4 , , .8 , , 1.0 , , 12.5 , , 18.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , 19 , , 1 , , 16.5 , , .500 , , 1.000 , , .753 , , 4.4 , , .5 , , .4 , , .9 , , 7.3 , , 10.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2020–21 , style="text-align:left;" rowspan="2", Zenit , 31 , , 24 , , 20.0 , , .601 , , .323 , , .381 , , 3.5 , , .8 , , 1.0 , , .6 , , 8.8 , , 7.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , 17 , , 16 , , 19.0 , , .610 , , , , .500 , , 4.1 , , .8 , , .2 , , .7 , , 6.7 , , 8.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2022–23 , style="text-align:left;", Panathinaikos , 29 , , 12 , , 17.3 , , .640 , , , , .524 , , 3.7 , , .5 , , .5 , , .4 , , 7.5 , , 8.9 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 173 , , 63 , , 18.4 , , .607 , , .300 , , .696 , , 4.7 , , .7 , , .5 , , .6 , , 8.6 , , 11.7

Early career

Professional career

NBA

National team career

Career statistics

EuroLeague

References

External links