Depiro forward Nicholas Grech is a new Valletta Basketball Club player, the club announced on Sunday.
“We are proud to announce Nicholas Grech as a Valletta Basketball Club player,” a club statement read.
“Nicholas is well known in the basketball community, he has a vast experience in the senior and junior categories. He also was part of the national team and for four years, he represented Malta in the FIBA competitions held in San Marino, Andorra and Gibraltar.”
The signing was teased in a Valletta video hours before the signing was made official, with the club confirming the move as part of their summer transfer coup in which they have brought it than four players from opposing BOV Division One teams.
Grech will be moving to the Capital club in search of better minutes after being used as a rotation player by the Mtarfa club in the past few seasons. Last season, he was brought off the bench in all of the 12 games he was utilised in by coach Ruben Baldacchino across all competitions.
Despite his limited minutes, Grech shot 33.3% from the field and the same percentage from deep and the Citizens will be hoping for this and more from the former Malta international as they look to improve on their debut season in the top division of Maltese basketball.
Grech is the third announced new signing for Valletta this summer after the club confirmed the arrival of former Hibs guard Nick Vasovic, fellow guard Francesco Mifsud Bonnici who joined from Athleta.
Valletta Import Signings
With former Athleta big man Piotr Stelmach (revealed by Malta Basketball earlier in July) together with American imports Lorenzo Anderson and Matthew Brown who are all yet to be announced, the team seem to have replaced last season’s star players who all departed after the end of their contract last season.
6’3 guard Anderson signed with the club late in August with the news confirmed by his agent at ASG Sports.
The Georgia native joins the team after a season in Kazakhstan with BC Irbis where he was part of the team that won the League Cup. Last season, Anderson averaged 17.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game in his rookie season as a professional basketball player.
Meanwhile, Brown, a 6’6 forward, will also be joining the team after his time in the East Coast Basketball League (ECBL) with the SC Letitfly Webdogs after his college career in the NCAA Division Two at the Anderson Trojans and earlier with highschool team The Spartanburg Day Griffins where he shared the court with now NBA star Zion Williamson.
Unlike Anderson, it was the player himself who confirmed all suspicions on Sunday announcing the signing on his socials.
