Efes Pilsen lands Lawrence Roberts

One of the revelations of last season is switching Turkish Airlines Euroleague Basketball teams with the announcement Wednesday that Efes Pilsen has signed forward Lawrence Roberts to a one-year deal. Roberts (206, 27) was a major contributor as Partizan Belgrade made an historic run to the 2010 Final Four. Roberts was the Euroleague's second leading rebounder for the season with 7.4 boards per game to go with his 9 points, 2.3 assists and 1.1 steals on average. In the Top 16, with teammate Aleks Maric sidelined due to injury, Roberts led the entire competition in rebounding. Despite a pair of overtime losses by Partizan at the Final Four, Roberts continued to show why he was considered one of the top newcomers in the competition, scoring 16 points and pulling 8 rebounds in the third-place game against CSKA. Before Partizan, Roberts played the previous season in Europe with Belgrade's other major team, Crvena Zvezda, where he put up 12 points and 8.1 rebounds over 8 Eurocup games. He had previously played professionally with Memphis of the NBA in 87 games over two seasons and collegiately at Baylor and Mississippi State unversities. At Efes, Roberts will be expected to anchor the rebounding efforts and lend his defensive skills in the post.