Zenit St Petersburg showed its faith in center Arturas Gudaitis by signing the player to a contract extension through the end of the 2022-23 season, the club announced Thursday. Gudaitis (2.08 meters, 28 years old), who was already under contract for the coming season, had a strong first year with the club. He averaged 9.9 points on 60% field goal shooting and 4.1 rebounds in 30 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season games before suffering an injury in Game 1 of the playoffs against eventual runner-up FC Barcelona.
Gudaitis started his professional career in his native Lithuania, where he played for Gargdzai Bremena, Laivite Klaipeda, Zalgiris Sabonio, Zalgiris Kaunas and Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius. He joined AX Armani Exchange Milan in 2017 and had a terrific 2018-19 season, in which he averaged 12.5 points on 63.9% two-point shooting, 7.1 rebounds and 1.0 blocks in 21 EuroLeague games before going down with a knee injury. Gudaitis helped Zalgiris win consecutive Lithuanian League titles in 2014 and 2015 and also won back-to-back Lithuanian Cups – with Zalgiris in 2015 and Rytas in 2016. Gudaitis also won the Italian League title with Milan in 2018 and has been a member of the Lithuanian national team.