Real Madrid reached an agreement with center and reigning EuroLeague Best Defender Trophy winner Walter "Edy" Tavares on a multi-year contract extension. The new deal will keep Tavares (2.21 meters, 27 years old) with Los Blancos until the end of the 2023-24 season. He comes off a career-best season in which he averaged 7.4 points on 79.4% two-point shooting, 6.2 rebounds and 1.7 blocks in 34 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague games. Tavares was chosen by EuroLeague head coaches as the competition's top defender and also named to the All-EuroLeague Second Team. He was the EuroLeague MVP for October, too. In his two seasons with Madrid, Tavares has helped Madrid win the 2018 EuroLeague as well as back-to-back Spanish League crowns. He is also the best two-point shooter in EuroLeague history at 74.3% and only needed 63 career games to reach the 100-block mark.

Born in Cape Verde, Tavares started his professional career with Herbalife Gran Canaria, the club that discovered him in his country. After playing on loan for Gran Canaria's Spanish fourth division team and La Palma in the country's second division, he returned to Gran Canaria and was chosen to the All-EuroCup First Team in the 2014-15 season, during which he led his team to the EuroCup Finals. Tavares has also played for Atlanta and Cleveland in the NBA as well as for Austin, Canton, Bakersfield and Missisagua of the G-League.