Samanic signed a one-year contract with Turkish club Fenerbahce on Monday.
The 24-year-old big man from Croatia will make his return overseas after he had spent the past five seasons stateside since entering the NBA as a first-round pick of the Spurs in 2019. After failing to emerge as a rotation player with the Spurs over his first two seasons in the league, Samanic played exclusively in the G League in 2021-22 before resurfacing at the NBA level with the Jazz over the past two seasons. He made a career-high 43 appearances in 2023-24, averaging 4.1 points and 2.4 rebounds in 9.1 minutes per contest. Since Samanic likely would have had to settle for a non-guaranteed deal in free agency if he had chosen to stick around in the NBA, he'll head to Turkey on what's presumably a more lucrative contract.