Lithuanian National Team 2014!

[Mindozas]

LKF officials tried to contact him last year, talked with his father and he said that Nik wants to represent Canada. Fully understandable choice, good luck to him there

[Hepcat]

Evidently Leo Rautins and Steve Nash had both been courting Nik Stauskas for years before the LKF became aware of Nik Stauskas' potential. The possibility of playing for Lietuva was nonetheless given some consideration in the Stauskas' household which is active in the Lithuanian community here in Toronto. Nik played for Lithuanian club Aušra when he was younger and he and the other Stauskas kids do speak Lithuanian. Rumour has it that the kids also have been known to socialize with a Lithuanian basketball player or two of note. Nonetheless, Canada was just too obvious a choice.

A longer discussion of the question was here:

http://www.interbasket.net/forums/showthread.php?6797-Lithuanian-talents/page20&highlight=Stauskas

[G&B]

It is necessary to respect Nik Stauskas choice.
While it must be recognized that, and how much would a talented young Canadian team, with Lithuanian team opportunities in the international arena to reach many more, of course here and competition for places in the team would be more acute.

[GuTO]

Lithuania will play against Brazil in a friendly tournament. The game list you guys can find in Brazil NT Thread.

[macleopard13]

Lithuania reserve team played against Lithuania U-20 today. Juskevicius was head and shoulders above the rest. He made a lot of smart plays today, and I think he's the most promising out of all the other lesser-known guards that Kazlauskas invited to the camp. I liked Janavicius' game too. He made some great drive-and-dish plays, scored some buckets and played good defense. Unfortunately, we already have Seibutis, who can do a little bit of everything, just like Janavicius, but does those things better, so unless Seibutis (God forbid) gets injured, I don't think Janavicius has a real chance to make the team. Cizauskas continues to disappoint me; he cracks like an egg under defensive pressure, hesitates too much and makes terrible passes. He looked MUCH better last year in my opinion. What happened to him? Did Zalgiris' bench really hurt him so badly?

Other honorable mentions: Jogela (he does a lot of the dirty work on the team and gets most of his points after grabbing rebounds. Very commendable performance from him) and Ulanovas (a versatile player who did a nice job stopping Dimsa/Grigonis). The commentator also talked about Kupsas' prospects in the main camp, but I really doubt he'll be invited. He's too sloppy/lazy/nice on defense to be a serious candidate. When you, the tallest guy on the court, only manage to grab two rebounds the entire game, that really says a lot about you.

[Mindozas]

Like it's been written for a few times about Cizauskas, his main problems are work ethics, for this reason he wasn't invited to main NT camps immidiately and secondly he was benefiting a lot of bein' physically stronger than others in youth tournaments, but it's different in senior bball. Pretty much the same situation was with Janavicius. With latter it was even more obvious, so I had no hopes with him, especially since he also was lazy in practising, loved to party too much, but with Cizauskas I hoped that he might achieve atleast little bit more, but so far looks like if he will, it'll be in wasted talent category
Btw, as much as I've heard, for such cases good example would be Grigonis, guy lived in not the best district, could easily went to similar path like those two, but guy works hard and has set his goals in a a right way

[Straight forward]

Javtokas is out. Wants to heal his wounds. Bad news, but not a tragedy. Plenty of bigs, Javtokas and Kavaliauskas as reserves compared to last year. Javtokas might still be best defensive big we have though.

[macleopard13]

Pretty much the same situation was with Janavicius. With latter it was even more obvious, so I had no hopes with him, especially since he also was lazy in practising, loved to party too much, but with Cizauskas

Well, if that was the case, then from what I saw today, he is a different man. He looks like a pretty reliable point guard. Granted, he was playing a bunch of 20 year olds. But still, compared to other reserve team point guards, he looked like the best one out there. I really want to see how he plays in the friendlies against real men.

Since Javtokas is out, Kupsas might be invited to the main camp, but I still think he lacks speed and good rebound positioning to be a serious candidate. I also expect Juskevicius to be invited. I am fairly certain Kariniauskas, Dambrauskas, Dimsa and Vasiliauskas will be crossed off the list. Their game just didn't impress me much.

I look forward to Kazlauskas' announcement regarding the roster tomorrow!

[Mindozas]

Well, if that was the case, then from what I saw today, he is a different man. He looks like a pretty reliable point guard. Granted, he was playing a bunch of 20 year olds. But still, compared to other reserve team point guards, he looked like the best one out there. I really want to see how he plays in the friendlies against real men.

He is different now of course, since he's already 25yo, grew up, but sadly he lost his best years of development, so he didn't improve that much during those years. I remember him some 4-5 years ago when he was rocking with Atletas (Aisciai then) and now he's pretty similar. PG with poor shooting, especially free-throws, it's like some center is shooting them instead, not guard, also can dribble good with only one hand. These two things were surely improvabale, especially since it's really important ones for PG. It's not some court vision, feel of the game, leadership, which mostly comes with a birth, so called talent, which brings player to new level. Sadly he failed. Better shooting and dribble wouldn't make a star out of him, but I'm sure he would be really reliable 2nd PG now.

Regarding list, I didn't see those 4 friendlies, but I read that Juskevicius was used more of SG, so Janavicius might get a chance, but it's up to coach, I don't know how he sees it, but anyway he sees it much better than us.
Kupsas might get a chance with Javtokas out, but my memories from last season are still vivid and those u20 guys had no center basically, so it was too easy for 218cm guy make a stats. If Darjus and Kavaliauskas will be there, Kupsas won't make it IMO.
Anyway, it's hard to tell now, since we don't know if any other players didn't withdraw like Javtokas did. Kazlas doesn't like to work with wide group of players, so it surely will affect his decision on those B team guys

Edit: both Brothers will be in camp, so I guess Kupsas is chanceless

[Mindozas]

So list in on. New missing is Linas Kleiza, but it was more or less expected

PG: Kalnietis, Juskevicius, Janavicius, Vasiliauskas
SG: Pocius, Seibutis
SF: Maciulis, Jasaitis, Kuzminskas, Gailius
PF: Motiejunas, K.Lavrinovic, Jankunas, Gudaitis
C: Valanciunas, D.Lavrinovic, Kavaliauskas

IMO choices are obvious: 2 PGs will be cut atleast (Janavicius, Vasia my calls) as Juskevicius can cover both PG/SG, one SF (Maciulis is safe, previously Jasaits would be too, but now I don't know), Gudaitis, Kavaliauskas

[Giorgos Alexopoulos]

kleiza why is out?

[Mindozas]

kleiza why is out?

Official reason is that he wants to take care of his injuries, which haunts him since that unsuccesful knee surgery in 2011. Also he got married recently. My personal opinion is that he also needs some time off basketball after poor season, lacks motivation.

Anyway, it wasn't some breaking news. Already last year he said that he is goin' to take summer off and give other guys a chance

[Giorgos Alexopoulos]

another big skip from the tournament.i cannot understand the reason that the w/c still exist,but anyway

[INTEGRAL]

Why Gecevicius and Javtokas out?

[Mindozas]

Why Gecevicius and Javtokas out?

Javtokas wants to dedicate this summer to his health. He recently had two surgeries (back and palm), will have another one most probably. Had looong season, he is already 34yo, so understandable.
Gecevicius was just cut, he was on preliminary list, but didin't make this one. Coach said he doesn't see him in his schemes. I agree. Weak defense, can't play off the bench, need all the gameplan to be set around him, to be a leader, otherwise he is kinda lost, but NT can't offer him such possibilities, on SG Seibutis and Pocius suits Kazlauskas' plans much more