Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) 2017-18

[auris1]

Of course they are cheap... I mean what did you expect from a club which almost went bankrupt... But cheap has few meanings in basketball. Depends how you use these money. If last season team really looked cheap, this year I don't see the same picture. Maybe they'll finish last, I don't know, lot of teams are still in building phase, so it's impossible to tell, but baring injuries/finansies crisis, I don't think they'll be that awful like they were in 2016/17, no way. And that's already good news.

Well , I think I know what you mean .
I would say that Siauliai indeed are signing cheap , but at least they are hoping that the players can stay for more than a year ,or sell them for profit , otherwise is just a waste .
Birutis , Sarakauskas and Urbutis for the front line ?
Very , very solid . Probably top 5 as for now in LKL .
Sabeckis and Vaitkus are both 24 , and for them that could be defining season to see if they can make it at this level . They definitely outgrew NKL ,and yet .
As for the imports , it is always like "hail mary" from them 3 . One decent ,one mediocre and one is going to leave after 2 weeks only to be substituted for the same . Because cheap .
But i am not afraid to say that maybe even if they get relegated to NKL after all ,they might be able to come stronger after that . Maybe they should have been as well already ,who knows . Or be it Alytus or Nevezis instead .
I honestly feel if the threat of relegation was real and imposed for that matter of fact , things might have been a bit different . Better .

[Mindozas]

But i am not afraid to say that maybe even if they get relegated to NKL after all ,they might be able to come stronger after that . Maybe they should have been as well already ,who knows . Or be it Alytus or Nevezis instead .
I honestly feel if the threat of relegation was real and imposed for that matter of fact , things might have been a bit different . Better .

I think relegation would more likely kill the club at all. This is how it usually goes in Lithuania. If you got relegated, means that you are already weak, then you might lose the last sponsors, results/league you are playin' are all that matters for them, municipality support will drop too, which is significant for smaller clubs, most of the fans won't come to arena, which is important part of the budget incomes, then you'll have hard time to attract players. Basically it's like avalanche, which you can barely survive. So clubs must try to stay at LKL at any cost, atleast this way they can expect sponsors to show up, fans to come, big clubs to arrive

[LuDux]

So, according to LR website and Kurtinaitis interview, Robert Carter will play C/PF and Marc Carter PG
Gudaitis Carter Lapeta
Peterson Jomantas
Giedraitis Lukauskis
Magden Baron Normantas
Kramer Carter

[LuDux]

Since last club found head coach this week i did some research. Since Alytus club rejoined LKL in 13-14 season, we had 12 different teams, 2 of which played only 1 season. I will ignore them. Other 10 teams had 31 different coaches

7 Lietuvos Rytas
5 Lietkabelis, Juventus
4 Zalgiris, Nevezis
3 Siauliai, Dzukija, Pieno Zvaigzdes
2 Neptunas, Vytautas

[Mindozas]

Some interesting moves lately

Probably the most surprising, atleast to me was - Nevezis signing Valery Likhodey, quite well known Russian player, who used to be Russian NT candidate, played in EL with Unics just couple of seasons ago. Of course wasn't key player there or in any other Russian top club where he played (Khimki, Kuban), but I think he easily could find a place in some lower ranked VTB club, but for some reason chose Kedainiai.

Juventus signed one of the most valuable players in Polish league - PG Anthony Ireland, then wing Jonte Flowers. No idea how he'll look after injury, but he was quite good couple of years ago. Guscikas, Buterlevicius, Siksnius, Samenas notable Lith adds

Pieno Zvaigzdes added best LKL rebounder of previous season - Kazakauskas, also Ukrainian NT candidate Vyacheslav Bobrov, who should make it to final squad and play in upcoming Eurobasket

Neptunas made official addition of Simas Galdikas, now only PG left to choose

Lietkabelis called to try-out Croatian Ante Delas, a guy who even played minor role in Croatian NT during Eurobasket 2013. Versatile player, who can play from PG to SF

Nothing official from Dzukija yet, but according to rumours they should keep Spanish PG Alex Hernandez, who was really fine last season, also Russian C A.Kashirov. Good, but kinda streaky player, who's performance very dependable on emotions. Beside him another C Latvian Selakovs was added, who had some good performances in Latvian league and played for NT couple of years back

Most teams almost completed it rosters, but some vital parts of it still should be added, mostly PGs are needed (Lietkabelis, Neptunas, PZ), bigs (Juventus, Nevezis), Vytautas and Dzukija will add players to different positions. Anyway, I guess it's already safe to say that level of league shouldn't drop and it has all the chances be even higher

[Babajas]

Just goes to show that the league is getting stronger. True Lithuanian basketball fans are rejoicing everywhere.

[Boom_shakalaka]

What do you think will happen with LKL if Euroleague expands and becomes semi-closed league with such numbers of games during regular season that Žalgiris wouldn't be able to take part in LKL competition?

[Mindozas]

What do you think will happen with LKL if Euroleague expands and becomes semi-closed league with such numbers of games during regular season that Žalgiris wouldn't be able to take part in LKL competition?

They'd continue without Zalgiris. But for some reason I don't think it'll happen, not an EL expansion, but Zalgiris leaving LKL. LKL just couldn't afford that, so they'd look for some alternatives. Maybe rounds in regular season would be reduced, maybe Zalgiris youth team would be allowed to join competition, with few players from main team joining them each game, maybe Zalgiris would be allowed to join the league from play-offs or play half of the season, hard to say. But latter option just wouldn't be fair. From Zalgiris side, I'd just give a chances for youngsters in LKL. No disrespect to other clubs, but under current circumstances, there's simply no difference if Zalgiris would finish 1st or some 6th in regular season what so ever

[auris1]

Maybe it is a wrong thread , but does anyone know how badly Miniotas is injured ?
In the first draft of this article https://www.basketnews.lt/news-11275...ezdauskas.html they said that the signings were unrelated to Miniotas injury , because the team did not know anything about severity of the said injury.
Somehow article got edited omitting that part .
Next day after the injury he was in wheelchair with a heavily taped or plastered leg . But no way he looked like he had a surgery the nigh before .
So my question is - would one wait for the surgery for a few days for a broken foot to get it done back in Lithuania ? Or is it a sign of the sprain ?

[LuDux]

According to Prienai/Birstonas news portal injury is "very serious"

[Dreamcatcher]

LKL teams signed some players who look solid in Eurobasket after 4 games have been played. All players (except Juskevicius) are forwards.

Lietkabelis signed Juskevicius and Peiners who looks quote good in his limited minutes in Latvian NT - in about 12 min he averages 4,5 pts (9 pts in 12 min against Serbia).

Pieno Zvaigzdes signed Bobrov who averages about 7 pts (3rd result in Ukrainian NT) in about 20 min. The best game was 13 pts in 29 min against Georgia.

Juventus signed Lindbom from Finland who played one game - 5 pts in 11 min against Greece.

[Straight forward]

Well, I watched a little bit of both games today (Zalgiris vs Dzukija and Rytas vs Pieno Zvaigzdes) and it's too soon to make any conclusions, but it was refreshing to watch Ehodas playing for Rytas (17pts, 5 rebounds) and Valinskas for Zalgiris (16pts). I think finally Rytas made something better than Zalgiris - IMO, Ehodas will be a better player than Masiulis.

[Svajunas]

Yep Echodas looks amazing so far. Valinskas looks good as well.

Talking about LKL itself... wll I was very dissappointed when they annouced 4 year deal with delfi. Oh my god, bad streams for 4 more years? When we should be already watching HD basketball, we will be enjoying 3 cameras lol... So thats kind of sad. I admit that they are moving forward, but at turtle speeds. I dont know if it was my internet or what, but I tried to watch both games at the same time, and they were kind of laging. I usually dont have problems like this.

[Straight forward]

Talking about LKL itself... wll I was very dissappointed when they annouced 4 year deal with delfi. Oh my god, bad streams for 4 more years? When we should be already watching HD basketball, we will be enjoying 3 cameras lol... So thats kind of sad. I admit that they are moving forward, but at turtle speeds. I dont know if it was my internet or what, but I tried to watch both games at the same time, and they were kind of laging. I usually dont have problems like this.

Yes, it was lagging. The visual quality of Zalgiris- Dzukija was good, but it was lagging. LKL and delfi should do something about it, couple of emails to LKL would help here at this point.

[LuDux]

Neptunas signed Malcolm Ray Armstead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtL_dvT6VKo