Rytas Vilnius parted ways with head coach Dainius Adomaitis early on in the summer and handed the reins to young Lithuanian tactician Donaldas Kairys. But Kairys's tenure at the helm was short-lived, as Rytas decided on January 16 to dismiss him and name his former assistant, Giedrius Žibėnas, as the new head coach.

The latest addition to the 2020-21 Rytas roster is free agent Keith Benson who last played for South East Melbourne Phoenix in the Australian league. The 32-year-old has previous experience of both the Lithuanian LKL, as he played for Neptunas in 2014-15 and of the BCL, in which he competed in 2017-18 with Aris Thessaloniki.

Previously, Rytas had brought on Ryan Boatright  to replace Demetrius Jackson, who had a very promising start to the season but decided on October 30th to depart Lithuania due to personal reasons, as per a club statement.

Boatright spent the 2019-20 season between Cedevita and Avtodor, averaging 11.5 points and 2.9 assists in 15 games in the ABA Adriatic  League with the Croatian team and 16 points with 5 assists in the VTB United League with the Russian side.

Earlier on, Rytas had brought on board former Real Madrid and New York Knicks power forward Maurice Ndour.

The 28-year-old Senegalese international spent last season at Valencia, averaging 6 points and 3.7 rebounds per game in the Spanish Liga Endesa with 6.3 points and 2.4 boards per game in the EuroLeague.

Just prior to Ndour, Rytas had signed another big man in Estonian center Kristjan Kitsing, who has spent most of his career at Kalev/Cramo.

In the 2019-20 season, the 30-year-old big man averaged 11 points and 4 rebounds per game in the VTB United League, with 10.2 points and 3.6 rebounds in the Latvian-Estonian league.

Rytas had earlier secured the services of Chris McCullough, a first-round pick by the Brooklyn Nets in the 2015 NBA draft, but parted ways with the 25-year-old power forward in mid-November.

McCullough posted 22 points and 9 rebounds in the BCL opener against Peristeri but had a testimonial presence in his second game in the league with Rytas, against Strasbourg.

Rytas had previously penned  Andrew Goudelock,  the former Laker  who was famously nicknamed 'Mini Mamba' by the late Kobe Bryant, and first came over to Europe in 2013-2014 to play for Unics Kazan.

Goudelock earned both the EuroCup and VTB United League MVP awards that season, after averaging 18.8 and 19.8 points per game, respectively and went on to play for powerhouses Fenerbahce, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Olimpia Milano. He struggled with injuries in the 2019-20 season and only made three fleeting appearances with Venezia in the EuroCup.

Rytas had previously secured the services of 25-year-old Gytis Radzevicius, who is coming off an excellent campaign with Juventus Utena.

The Lithuanian winger averaged 11.7 points and 5.5 rebounds per game in the 2019-20 LKL league.

The Vilnius club also added a familiar face by repatriating  Saulius Kulvietis. The 29-year-old power forward who played for France's JDA Dijon last season started off his pro career at Perlas Vilnius, the Rytas affiliate team.

Kulvietis averaged 7.3 points and 2.5 rebounds per game in the 2019-20 BCL.

The 'Vilniečiai' have also signed Lithuanian center Rokas Gustys who is coming off a break-out season with Siauliai.

Gustys averaged 11.3 points and 6.5 rebounds per game in the shortened, due to the coronavirus pandemic, 2019-20 domestic LKL league.

Rytas also penned up-and-coming shooting guard Lukas Uleckas, a product of the youth system of arch-rivals  Zalgiris Kaunas.

The 21-year-old Uleckas averaged 9.7 points and 4 boards per game for Prienai in the 2019-20 LKL season, his first after exiting the Zalgiris youth teams.