Zalgiris Kaunas head coach Andrea Trinchieri confirmed that newcomer Lonnie Walker IV is ready to make his debut against FC Bayern Munich on Thursday.

“He had one practice with the team. Of course, everything is new, everything is different, but he’s in decent shape,” Trinchieri said. “I believe it wouldn’t be fair to have high expectations.”

“He’s a very mature person and deep in a way he thinks. He understands the team has its own identity, and he will try to help us. How? Every day is a new day and an opportunity to see how he might help us.

Yesterday, he did some things. Some other [things] are totally new, especially our defensive system. There are a lot of questions and answers. I want to build his performance day by day, minute by minute, and situation by situation.

I cannot fill him with all the information that is coming from playing for 3.5 months together. Zalgiris also is still a work in progress. There are still some things we try to improve and develop. He’s an excellent talent.

His talents are speed, playing 1-on-1. The thing is I don’t want to put too much pressure on him, and I don’t want to put him under the spotlight because eventually this is going to happen because he’s a good player. But I don’t want to force things,” Trinchieri explained.

Trinchieri also gave updates on Alen Smailagic and Bryant Dunston, who suffered injuries in Round 7 against AS Monaco.

“We are evaluating them day by day. Smailagic is ruled out for this [Bayern] game, and Dunston will be a game-time decision,” said the Italian coach.

Smailagic has been averaging 7.4 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 7.9 PIR per game in 7 appearances so far.

Meanwhile, Dunston averages 3.3 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 3.6 PIR per game. The 38-year-old made a buzzer-beater in Round 6 against Crvena Zvezda.

Zalgiris will face Bayern on Thursday at 20:45 CET in Munich.