The roster for the upcoming season is starting to take form. Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv has signed Alex Poythress (6ft 9in, 28 years-old) for the next two years. The American power-forward, a graduate of Kentucky with NBA experience, has starred in the EuroLeague for the past two years with Zenit St. Petersburg, recently won the VTB Championship and joins the front line under new coach Oded Kattash.
“I’m very happy to join the legendary Maccabi franchise. exited to come to Tel Aviv and meet the amazing fan base”, Alex Poythress told maccabi.co.il. “I want to thank the organization and the management. l had a great talk with coach Oded. Let’s go Maccabi!”
“Alex is a fantastic athlete who plays on both ends of the floor”, stated Head Coach Oded Kattash, “He is an elite offensive rebounder and pick-and-role player who also runs the floor extremely well. Alex is versatile defensively and can provide solutions with different lineups and schemes. He is also a high-level person who comes from a great athletic background”.
In the last two years Alex Poythress established himself as one of the leading forwards in the EuroLeague with a lot of power and athleticism. He is an excellent finisher, great at spotting miss-matches and brings tough defense every night to the court.
Last season Poythress recorded 23 games in Europe’s top competition and within Zenit’s team structure averaged 7.7 points on 64% from 2-point range, along with 4.2 rebounds in 20 minutes per game. In the challenging VTB League he provided 12.9 points (70% from the field) and collected 5.3 rebounds in 24.9 minutes per evening.
Poythress was born in Savannah, Georgia on September 6th, 1993. He starred in a Tennessee high school and was considered one of the top players in his class in the United States. He received offers from several prominent colleges and chose to play on Kentucky’s excellent basketball program under coach John Calipari. He completed four years, which included impressively overcoming a frustrating injury, and reached two Final Four and one final appearance with the Wildcats.
The forward was not selected in the 2016 draft, played with Orlando in the Summer League, participated in two preseason games with Indiana and reached the G-League. In April 2017 he was signed by Philadelphia until the end of the season and displayed excellent abilities with 10.7 points and 4.8 rebounds.
The following season he took part in 25 games with the Pacers and spent some time in the G-League, before signing with Atlanta in the summer of 2018. He played 21 games for the Hawks, while in their G-League affiliate he averaged 23.7 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.2 blocks and 1.1 steals per game.
In the summer of 2019, Alex Poythress decided it was time to try his luck overseas. He signed with Jilin Northeast Tigers from the Chinese league and in December of that year came to Europe with a contract at Galatasaray, one of Istanbul’s big clubs. In the Turkish league he contributed 12.3 points and 5.9 rebounds per game and caught the eye of quite a few scouts.
It was Zenit who secured his services, where Alex Poythress became one of the important anchors in the successful team that won a historic VTB championship, which broke a 9-year CSKA streak. In his last game against Maccabi in the EuroLeague he scored 14 points with 5 of 5 for two and 4 out of 5 from the line in just 14:32 minutes.
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