Lithuanian NT 2017

[Straight forward]

Gudaitis looks better than last season, but again, he played in 2nd string competition (Eurocup), so it's hard to say how much he improved, too little games against top opposition, even the same Khimki has poor C rotation, while in LKL, in games against Zalgiris he was pretty much non-factor too. I don't know what to expect from him in NT. F.e. I know what Kavaliauskas could offer, he has experience under his belt too. But he is having totally different role than he had in Rytas, it's his first EL season, so it's also a bit hard to measure did he stay on the same level or not. So probably only NT camp and friendlies will answer. But if we'd take this Eurobasket with a look to the future, I'd pick Gudaitis no matter what

That's true. But we should also have in mind Rytas has atrocious PGs. They don't have a single creative guard (in comparison any of Leo, Pangos, Lukas would be considered creative here). On an eye test Gudaitis looks improved and with PG who can play pick and roll (Kalnietis and even Lekavicius) Gudaitis can be a force in some stretches. You right, we'll have to wait till friendly games at least.

[Straight forward]

I always knew that Brothers were the special thing in our basketball. Moreover, i do think that out of injuries and being in good shape they are the best Lithuanian bigs after JV at their 37.

I can understand what you are trying to say, but they are not. Jankunas, D-Mo, Sabonis are surely better. Gudaitis and Kavaliauskas are also better. Brothers got way slower and softer. They still crafty as hell for bigs, but they couldn't guard anyone in Euroleague, let alone NBA games or most physical knock out NT games. Gudaitis and Gordon will be climbing over their heads as soon as the next game if Rytas' scrub guards would at least use 60% of their abilities.

[Dreamcatcher]

I can understand what you are trying to say, but they are not. Jankunas, D-Mo, Sabonis are surely better. Gudaitis and Kavaliauskas are also better. Brothers got way slower and softer. They still crafty as hell for bigs, but they couldn't guard anyone in Euroleague, let alone NBA games or most physical knock out NT games. Gudaitis and Gordon will be climbing over their heads as soon as the next game if Rytas' scrub guards would at least use 60% of their abilities.

Brothers never were good defenders, as well as many top players. Barnani (also an example how good can be a big player who shoots so well) played in NBA so much time and earned huge money. Let alone Teodosic, Navarro, Spanoulis, Planicic...(yes, i know they are guards)...You rarely see such offensively talented bigs like Brothers. Especially comparing with Gudaitis, who can use only strength and needs pg. Without pg you can see him against Lietkabelis. I don't want to argue who is better (i have my opinion), but if i could choose whom i would like to see coming from the bench for 5-15 min, then i know the answer.

[Mindozas]

Brothers never were good defenders, as well as many top players. Barnani played in NBA so much time and earned huge money. Let alone Teodosic, Navarro, Spanoulis, Planicic...You rarely see such offensively talented bigs like Brothers. Especially comparing with Gudaitis, who can use only strength and needs pg. I don't want to argue who is better (i have my opinion), but if i could choose whom i would like to see coming from the bench for 5-15 min, then i know the answer.

Well, you say in good shape and not injured, then we could apply the same criterias, let's say to Motiejunas and we'll have the answer who is the best big after JV or even not worse. Anyway, I get what you're sayin', Bros are great option for short stretches, cause they don't need time to adjust to game rhythm, they can contribute right away, so we have such stats like 20pts in 15min or similar. No wonder Kazlauskas tried to persuade Darjus to play every year lately. I believe bein' in good condition, they still could be useful as offensive weapon and I would take any of them instead of some Gudaitis or Kavaliauskas anyday. But as 5th option after JV, D-Mo, Sabas and Jankunas

[Babajas]

Well, you say in good shape and not injured, then we could apply the same criterias, let's say to Motiejunas and we'll have the answer who is the best big after JV or even not worse. Anyway, I get what you're sayin', Bros are great option for short stretches, cause they don't need time to adjust to game rhythm, they can contribute right away, so we have such stats like 20pts in 15min or similar. No wonder Kazlauskas tried to persuade Darjus to play every year lately. I believe bein' in good condition, they still could be useful as offensive weapon and I would take any of them instead of some Gudaitis or Kavaliauskas anyday. But as 5th option after JV, D-Mo, Sabas and Jankunas

Agree with you here, the 5th guy needs to be an efficient player, and Darjus has always been an efficient big man. Gudaitis gives Rytas a solid presence in the paint in terms of rebounds and layups, but he's a poor free throw shooter and a liability on defense. I wouldn't trust him against more mobile or more experienced big men that he would be facing in EuroBasket. Darjus, although a liability on defense, is a more universal center. He's a pretty good shooter from anywhere on the floor, and is a good enough passer to not make that many turnovers. Kavaliauskas doesn't have Darjus's arsenal and is a liability on defense, so for me he's pretty much out of the equation. Then again, there's Mockevicius, who, judging from highlight vids, moves pretty fast and has a sixth sense for rebounds. But he hasn't played European ball in a while, so we'll have to see whether he'd be a good fit. Anyhow, it's no wonder Kazlauskas loved Darjus - we have few players who can be so efficient in so little time.

[Shawshank]

Brothers will be 2months before their 38 birthday when next eurobasket will be played.Too old,they are even older than Javtokas .Darjus is almost done played good like 4games all season long.Ksistof is more healthier but still he couldnt bring much 3years ago in nt.Yes they can play still good when you play 2 games in a week or have flashback games,but not be real players in nt competion when you play 10games in 2weeks.

But said that i believe young brothers was way better options for nt team in fiba competions than player we have right now in pf-c positions.I agree with dreamcather brothers were special thing in nt .Their playing style was nighmare to opponents coaches all those years.Now when those coaches see Valanciunas,Sabonis,Kavaliauskas,Javtokas,Gudaitis ,Motiejunas they say ok they cant shoot consistency,we can risk on them.Playing brothers you couldnt even think about that,they were shooting like best guards were.Thats was huge when 2m10 players is shooting like that.

[Babajas]

Brothers will be 2months before their 38 birthday when next eurobasket will be played.Too old,they are even older than Javtokas .Darjus is almost done played good like 4games all season long.Ksistof is more healthier but still he couldnt bring much 3years ago in nt.Yes they can play still good when you play 2 games in a week or have flashback games,but not be real players in nt competion when you play 10games in 2weeks.

But said that i believe young brothers was way better options for nt team in fiba competions than player we have right now in pf-c positions.I agree with dreamcather brothers were special thing in nt .Their playing style was nighmare to opponents coaches all those years.Now when those coaches see Valanciunas,Sabonis,Kavaliauskas,Javtokas,Gudaitis ,Motiejunas they say ok they cant shoot consistency,we can risk on them.Playing brothers you couldnt even think about that,they were shooting like best guards were.Thats was huge when 2m10 players is shooting like that.

Exactly. As for this summer, I think Adomaitis will look for the most offensively-inclined center, whoever that may be, since we already have Valanciunas and Sabonis who consistently crash the boards. I think the choice will be between Gudaitis and Kavaliauskas. Mockevicius from the stat line and a couple of highlight vids seems limited offensively (I could be wrong though), and Birutis has a similar playing style to Gudaitis, just less experience. I have no opinion about the other two candidates (Kairys and Sajus), but they haven't really been exposed to high-level basketball, and that's always an obstacle to making the NT.

[Shawshank]

History and numbers say we will have bad tournament this september.Why? every 8 years we get fiasco tournament.

1993-2001-2009 and 2017???

Hopefully numbers will lie this time,but history likes to repeat itself for some reasons

[auris1]

Seriously ? Why are brothers still being mentioned on this topic ?
I think Jasikevicius coming back from retirement would do more good for the team than them two .
We are loaded with players in that position who are in their prime or just before or past it .
Brother will be used and useful for qualifiers , no doubt about it . But that is another topic .

[Straight forward]

Well, you say in good shape and not injured, then we could apply the same criterias, let's say to Motiejunas and we'll have the answer who is the best big after JV or even not worse. Anyway, I get what you're sayin', Bros are great option for short stretches, cause they don't need time to adjust to game rhythm, they can contribute right away, so we have such stats like 20pts in 15min or similar. No wonder Kazlauskas tried to persuade Darjus to play every year lately. I believe bein' in good condition, they still could be useful as offensive weapon and I would take any of them instead of some Gudaitis or Kavaliauskas anyday. But as 5th option after JV, D-Mo, Sabas and Jankunas

This. With all due respect to brothers, I don't see any of them doing the stuff which D-Mo was doing before the injury in NBA. Be it 6-7months stretch, but he was impressive, dancing in the post, shot 37% threes, played solid D at both 4 and 5 positions, could run for 40 minutes if needed at the very highest level. Brothers were talented, but not at that level. We just wasn't lucky to see the best of D-Mo in the NT (at least yet...).

Now back to the thesis that Lavrinovic bros were shooting threes like guards for NT. It only counts for Darjus. Here's Ksistof:
2003 - 0%, 2004 - 50%, 2004 - 18,2%, 2006 - 30,2%, 2007 - 52,9%, 2008 - 27,6%, 2009 - 21,7%, 2011 - 36,4%, 2013 - 33,3%, 2014 - 28,6%
So only 2 great shooting tournaments and in 2007 he shot only 17 threes which is not a lot.

Here's Darjus:
2005 - 45,5% (only 11 shots), 2006 - 61% (18 shots), 2007 - 46,2% (13 shots), 2009 - 20%, 2013 - 41,2%, 2014 - 57,1%

Darjus was phenomenal in 2013 and 2014, boosting NT in a very limited minutes. Other than that his role wasn't that big, except 2005 and 2006 when stars didn't show up. He also missed some tournaments like 2008 (basically), 2010, 2011, 2012. Kemzura made a mistake for not inviting him in 2011 and 2012.

[Babajas]

History and numbers say we will have bad tournament this september.Why? every 8 years we get fiasco tournament.

1993-2001-2009 and 2017???

Hopefully numbers will lie this time,but history likes to repeat itself for some reasons

Haha, just like cyclical recessions in the States another one's due any day now.

So I think we're all on the same page about Darjus being a potential big man sent to represent us in the qualifiers. What's the issue now? There's nearly zero percent chance he'll make the EuroBasket team because he's not even listed as a candidate, so we can safely rule that possibility out. Should we make another thread for the qualifier NT so there's no confusion about which team we're talking about?

[Shawshank]

This. With all due respect to brothers, I don't see any of them doing the stuff which D-Mo was doing before the injury in NBA. Be it 6-7months stretch, but he was impressive, dancing in the post, shot 37% threes, played solid D at both 4 and 5 positions, could run for 40 minutes if needed at the very highest level. Brothers were talented, but not at that level. We just wasn't lucky to see the best of D-Mo in the NT (at least yet...).

Now back to the thesis that Lavrinovic bros were shooting threes like guards for NT. It only counts for Darjus. Here's Ksistof:
2003 - 0%, 2004 - 50%, 2004 - 18,2%, 2006 - 30,2%, 2007 - 52,9%, 2008 - 27,6%, 2009 - 21,7%, 2011 - 36,4%, 2013 - 33,3%, 2014 - 28,6%
So only 2 great shooting tournaments and in 2007 he shot only 17 threes which is not a lot.

Here's Darjus:
2005 - 45,5% (only 11 shots), 2006 - 61% (18 shots), 2007 - 46,2% (13 shots), 2009 - 20%, 2013 - 41,2%, 2014 - 57,1%

Darjus was phenomenal in 2013 and 2014, boosting NT in a very limited minutes. Other than that his role wasn't that big, except 2005 and 2006 when stars didn't show up. He also missed some tournaments like 2008 (basically), 2010, 2011, 2012. Kemzura made a mistake for not inviting him in 2011 and 2012.

Ok and now say what Motiejunas did for National team? what his percentages were? How Motiejunas looked in 2013-2014 and How Darjus 2013-2014 its like compare eurocup and nba players.Motiejunas played like eurocup player...Darjus like nba player.

Motiejunas performance for nt team: He agreed to play 2 summers in 5 possible he could ( i dont count 2010 and 2011 when he was cut by coach)

2013 4,8pts with 28% shooting from 3.
2014 7,4pts with 20% shooting from 3. In last 5 playoof type games he average 4points with bad shooting... (he did his statistic looked average againts blowout versus korea with 18points)

Motiejunas ahievements in national team is very minimum,Brothers helped way more and played better thats a fact.Hopefully Motiejunas didnt ruin his career tottaly with his stuborness,but how he looked this season,i see not better performance like those 2 he shown.Ofcourse if he gonna play...

The only real playoof type game were he really helped our nationla team was vesus Italy 2013 all other seriuos-playoof games he was dissapointment.

You still stuck in time and think Motiejunas is same as 2015 season,no he isnt and its obviuos.Those 7 months was highlight of his career,other than that he is known more for strange desicions and stubbornes,not his play on the court.Lithuanian Kanter version

[Straight forward]

Shawshank, you consciously ignore the points of replies for the sake of discussion? I really hope this is the case I can only quote myself from my previous post - "We just weren't lucky to see the best of D-Mo in the NT (at least yet...)". My of other point was that Brothers could not play as good in NBA as D-Mo played just before injury, not taking away anything from Bros in NT.

[Mindozas]

Darjus was phenomenal in 2013 and 2014, boosting NT in a very limited minutes. Other than that his role wasn't that big, except 2005 and 2006 when stars didn't show up. He also missed some tournaments like 2008 (basically), 2010, 2011, 2012. Kemzura made a mistake for not inviting him in 2011 and 2012.

In 2011 he was injured. In 2012 it was a mistake, basically cause when Javtokas got injured in qualifiers, Motiejunas rejected the offer to come to Olympics, we had no chance to call any of Bros, cause none of them was in preliminar roster

[Dreamcatcher]

Not playing (or possibly) good in NBA doesn't mean anything. Our best guards Saras and Macijauskas couldn't do it. Or Spanoulis. But some Vujacic who was i believe a worse player could. Maybe instead of better i should have said "more unique" because of being bigs with great shot and offensive versality.