Free agent guard/forward Talen Horton-Tucker has officially signed a two-year deal with Fenerbahce, according to a press release from the Turkish team.
Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews reported at the beginning of September that Horton-Tucker had reached a tentative agreement with the reigning EuroLeague champion but was still hoping to sign an NBA contract. Marc Stein later clarified that Horton-Tucker had a 21-day window to find a new NBA opportunity.
Evidently Horton-Tucker was unable to find the type of NBA deal he was seeking, as he will now be heading overseas for the first time in his career.
The 46th overall pick of the 2019 draft, Horton-Tucker has spent the past six years in the NBA, most recently suiting up for his hometown Bulls. In 305 regular season games, he holds career averages of 9.2 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 19.5 minutes per contest, with a shooting line of .427/.299/.771.
Horton-Tucker won a championship as a rookie with Los Angeles in 2020 and was a Laker for three years prior to being traded to Utah in the 2022 offseason. He spent the next two years with the Jazz, but was unable to find a guaranteed contract as an unrestricted free agent in the 2024 offseason.
The Chicago native signed a non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 deal with the Bulls last September and wound up making the team’s regular season roster — he was the only player on an Exhibit 10 contract last fall to have that deal become a standard non-guaranteed pact.
Horton-Tucker, who said it was a “dream come true” to open the 2024/25 season with Chicago, not only made the roster but eventually had his salary guaranteed when the Bulls decided to keep him around past the January deadline to waive non-guaranteed contracts.
Horton-Tucker appeared in 58 games last season for the Bulls, averaging 6.5 PPG, 1.7 RPG and 1.4 APG in 12.5 MPG. His shooting line was .457/.336/.735.
Fenerbahce’s roster features several other former NBA players, including Wade Baldwin IV, Khem Birch, Nicolo Melli and Brandon Boston Jr.