Lithuania’s Zalgiris Kaunas is close to an agreement with former NBA wing Maxwell Lewis, who played for Juventus Utena last season, BasketNews reports.

Lewis is expected to sign a multi-year contract but he would be loaned in the first year to another team, most likely the London Lions. The 23-year-old Lewis averaged 13.6 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists last season with Juventus in 22 games. He also played 22 games with Turkey’s Tofas before parting ways with that club in March.

Lewis was selected 40th overall in the 2023 draft and spent two seasons in the NBA. Drafted out of Pepperdine, Lewis began his professional career with the Lakers, but logged just 103 total minutes in 34 appearances at the NBA level as a rookie, playing primarily in garbage time. The 6’7″ forward played in seven more games for Los Angeles during the 2024/25 season before being dealt to Brooklyn. Lewis was limited to 21 appearances for Brooklyn after fracturing his tibia in his first game as a Net. He averaged 5.3 points and 2.5 rebounds in 14.2 minutes per game.

Zalgiris is also finalizing an agreement with former NBA guard Carsen Edwards, according to BasketNews. Edwards spent the 2025/26 season with Virtus Bologna, averaging 17.3 points, 2.2 rebounds, 2.3 assists in 25 minutes per game in the EuroLeague. Edwards logged 72 games in the NBA, mainly with Boston.

Here’s more from around the international basketball world:

• Trae Young, Zach LaVine, Andrew Wiggins, Isaiah Hartenstein and Fred VanVleet are some of the big-name players who hold options on their contracts for next season. What will they do? The Athletic’s John Hollinger makes his prediction for each of these contract decisions as well as several others with partial guarantees or team options.
• The look of a championship team has evolved, Hollinger opines in a separate piece. He notes that the model of having a dominant regular season built around a superstar is no longer the blueprint. While superstars always matter, teams that have a strong overall lineup are emerging as true contenders. That’s due to defenses switching nearly everything and offenses hunting matchup advantages. Having the least-bad weakest link can and does matter as much as, or even more than, having the best superstar, Hollinger adds.
• Want to own a piece of BIG3? You may soon get your wish. The league, co-founded by rapper Ice Cube, is eyeing a $290MM valuation as it plans to go public later this year, according to ESPN. The league announced Friday that it will offer fans a chance to buy stock in the league. They are targeting an offering on one of the major stock exchanges in the fourth quarter of 2026 under the ticker TONT (for 3-on-3). The BIG3 is starting its ninth season next week in Los Angeles.