Longtime NBA Stretch Big Davis Bertans Signs with Dubai Team

Veteran free agent stretch-four power forward Davis Bertans has opted to forgo another NBA opportunity this summer in favor of a deal with ABA Liga team Dubai Basketball Club, according to Kevin Martorano of Sportando. Dubai itself also announced the news on its own Instagram page.

Martorano notes that it had also been speculated that the 6-foot-10 Latvian sharpshooter might link up with EuroLeague club Real Madrid.

Bertans didn’t wind up finding an NBA club this summer, though he was expected to work out for the Golden State Warriors. Per hoops insider Marc Stein, the 31-year-old agreed to a long-term offer from Dubai. His contract reportedly includes language that could let him opt out early and return to the NBA if a deal presents itself at some point.

“Davis Bertans clearly brings exceptional basketball talent to the table,” Dubai head coach Jurica Golemac stated in a press release included within the team’s Instagram announcement. “As an eight-season NBA player with substantial European experience, his arrival underscores the commitment and ambition of our project, while also greatly enhancing the credibility of our newly established franchise.”

Bertans now resumes his career abroad following an extended NBA tenure. From 2007-16, Bertans suited up for his native Latvia, plus teams in Slovenia, Serbia and Spain. He had been selected with the No. 42 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft but ultimately did not make the NBA leap until 2016-17 when he was a deep-bench role player on the San Antonio Spurs.

After logging his first three NBA seasons in San Antonio, the sharpshooting big submitted what remains his best-ever NBA season in 2019-20 with the Washington Wizards. He finished eighth in Sixth Man of the Year voting and 11th in Most Improved Player, voting after averaging 15.4 points on .434/.424/.852 shooting splits, 4.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 0.7 steals, and 0.6 blocks a night, across 54 games (four starts).

That impressive 42.4 percent 3-point rate arrived on a whopping 8.7 long-range attempts a night.

That season’s output arrived at exactly the right time for Bertans to make a fortune. He inked a generous five-season, $80 million deal with the Wizards as a free agent that summer, and promptly began a fairly steep decline.

After it was clear that Bertans’ breakout was more of a fluke than a trend, he was traded first to the Dallas Mavericks in 2022, then to the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2023, and finally to the Charlotte Hornets around the 2024 trade deadline as salary-matching collateral in the Thunder’s deal to acquire Gordon Hayward.

Early into the official start of the 2024 offseason, Bertans was waived by the Hornets. Though he was talented enough to linger on the club, Charlotte is clearly more interested in carving out rotation minutes for its younger, more athletic forwards next year.

Read more: Recently Waived NBA Forward Doesn’t Care He Was Cut From Team

He had been owed $16 million for Charlotte’s 2024-25 season — though just $5.25 million of that deal is guaranteed.

Bertans appeared in just 15 games with a contending Thunder team in 2023-24, averaging 6.1 minutes as a non-rotation player. With a lottery-bound Hornets club, he got significantly more burn. Across 28 games (one start), Bertans averaged 8.8 points on .394/.375/.889 shooting splits, 1.8 rebounds, 0.9 assists and 0.8 steals a night.

All told, Bertans played in 475 regular season games for five teams, starting just 41, while averaging 7.7 points on .422/.396/.863 shooting splits, 2.4 rebounds, and 0.9 assists a night.