By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
After signing three centers, Nate Sestina, Georgios Papagiannis, and Sertac Sanli, as well as former Partizan point guard Yam Madar, Fenerbahce has further strengthened their backcourt with the addition of NBA veteran Raul Neto, as the Turkish club officially confirmed. The contract is for one season with an option for a second.
Neto has spent the last eight years playing in the NBA, most recently with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He averaged 3.2 points and 1.6 assists across 50 appearances in a reserve role with Cleveland last season.
Having played 464 games in the NBA, split across the regular season and the playoffs, Neto arrives at Fenerbahce with plenty of experience under his belt. He spent the first four years of his NBA career with the Utah Jazz, where he first established himself in America. The 31-year-old appeared in 199 regular-season contests for Utah, as well as 20 games in the postseason, between the 2015-16 and 2018-19 seasons. In that time, Neto averaged 4.6 points, 1.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists.
In the summer of 2019, Neto moved to the Philadelphia 76ers. He played 56 games for the team in the 2019-20 campaign, posting 5.1 points, 1.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists. From there, he spent the next two seasons with the Washington Wizards, playing 134 regular-season games and five times in the playoffs. In the 2020-21 season, he had averages of 8.5 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists. Then, in the 2021-22 campaign, Neto posted 7.5 points, 1.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists before joining Cleveland on a one-year deal.
Neto began his professional career with Minas Tenis Clube in his native Brazil, where he played between 2008 and 2011. He moved to Spain in the summer of 2011 and signed with Gipuzkoa Basket. After three years with Gipuzkoa, where he played under ex-EuroLeague coach Sito Alonso, Neto joined UCAM Murcia, where he stayed for the 2014-15 season prior to beginning his journey in the NBA. Now, the point guard will start a new experience in the EuroLeague with Fenerbahce, which has aims of returning to the Final Four for the first time since the 2018-19 campaign.
Photo: fiba.basketball