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2023 Lithuanian NT

  • Thread starter Thread starter Straight forward2
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Straight forward2

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So we reached the new bottom, 15th place in EB. Previously the worst record was 12th spot in Eurobasket 2001. It may not mean much, but also quite frustrating momentum.

Despite that, I think Maksvytis deserves another chance. The team performance wasn't hopeless. We should see if he's growing as a coach after all this. If we will come up with loose defence and lack of identity and ideas down the stretch again, he should be gonner. But next year we have to rust Maksvytis for another shot.

Season will open some questions, but there's my early take on how 2023 roster would likely shape. FOA, I'm not a big fan getting back Benzius, he wouldn't be an upgrade to Kuzminskas. Ulanovas probably would be welcomed and he adds defence, but offensively he would be horrible fit to JV/Domas, another player who stops the ball. We already have Butkevicius, so 2 similar defensive players in one position seems to be like a recipe for clogging. I would welcome Gudaitis instead of Echodas if he's healthy and willing to join.

At forwards I remain fairly sceptical about Sedekerskis and Kulboka. I think neither of them would improve our NT much. Maybe Kulboka can prove that he can be a stretch 4 that we need, but so far he has been failing in the NT any time he shows up. Sedekerskis is generally overrated, IMO. I think it's their last season to prove doubters wrong, but these 2 Youth NT stand-puts seem to be on the way to have mediocre careers.


Now short stint about possible new comers. BB community so far is silent on Tubelis, but I think he might storm NT with force and I project that at some point everyone will be talking about him in the camp. Pikenrolas mentioned D. Giedraitis and it should be no brainer if he's healthy. The third player who is a bit overlooked and Maksvytis voluntarily excluded him from the test is Sirvydis. He had a very strong Summer League and we seen how well ex Summer League stud Brazdeikis looked in the NT. Sirvydis off course would bring the same problem that current NT possesses - he's not a good defender. But he's not a horrible one either and he has very good size for SF. One thing that he can improve is three point shooting and he's a good passer. Offensively, IMO, he's better fit to JV/Domas than Butkevicius/Ulanovas. Today I would reserve my projection to these three names as most likely new comers - D. Giedraitis, Tubelis, Sirvydis. . ISpecially first two. I could see Giedraitis stealing some minutes from Lekavicius (due to his defence and lack of facilitation) and R. Giedraitis who overall again was disappointing. I expect Tubelis braking into rotation and playing some defensive stretches. Kuzminskas provides scoring, but he really hurts NT defensively.

The most important stint of our improvement depends on Jokubaitis and Brazdeikis. They should both grow a lot next season. Brazdeikis will have all possible minutes in Zalgiris most likely. Likely both will come to 2023 much more ready than this season which was pretty successful. Interesting how Domas will grow too. People treat him as disappointment, but he dropped 15pts, 20ef in the knock out stage. It's just that he tends to be a bit loose in terms of his act in crunch time (it's like he can't get over the syndrome which hurt Kleiza in the NT at he beginning), but overall slowly Domas adjusting to FIBA, IMO, and hopefully in his prime he will be more turstworthy piece for us. These players are basically the core around which we will be slowly adding talent.

Obviously this Olympic cycle we will have to live with the fact we won't have a great defensive team. Now I think it's more about adjusting, how to make the defence as reliable as we can we such unit and how to make quite impressive offensive upside to function more effectively. We were not far away from being great offensive team, but something was lacking and I hope that with the growth of Jokubaitis, Brazdeikis, Domas we will continue to improve.

In broader perspective we desperately need to improve our overall defence and specially perimeter. Luckily I already see quite good chances there. If I would have to mention names that can really change our defensive profile I would mention D. Giedraitis, A. Marciulionis, L. Lelevicius, Tubelis, Krivas in the first place. I'm almost sure that once/if these will be in the NT, our defense will be much improved. To a lesser extent - Rubstavicius, Murauskas, Buzelis can add defensively as well (I'm not gonna involve golden U16 team (2006), but they have some very interesting defensive and offensive guards and 2 ways in some cases).

To sum up, 2023 suggests minor improvement, likely few new comers, but few key players (Rokas and Iggy) can grow a lot and empower our position 1 and 2. Eurobasket 2022 showed that good pieces always is welcomed. Both Jokubaitis and Brazdeikis stormed into NT and they got the guts to play well in the knock out stage. We should continue to be pro-active integrating new talent. F.e. D. Giedraitis has pretty cold nerves when it comes to crunch time too. He's definitely not Zemaitis who looked lost even against Hungary when everything is done already. Patience and gradual improvement of the roster should lead us to success this decade, sooner or later.
 
Sabonis playing in NT since 2015 slowly is growing? :)

Kleiza was leader at 25 in NT,all tournament team player in 2010. Sabonis is already 26.

He is nba all star what growing dude are you talking? He was projected to be leader in 2022 how NT was playing friendly games and failed to deliver and coaches switch to plan B in middle of the tournament.

his 2 stupid fouls in last 20seconds cost us games againts Germany and Spain. If not that offensive faul against Spain guard that Brazdeikis tip would be game winner,not send game to overtime.

Player was projected to be leader of NT be only 3rd by pts and by eff in NT is failure. His well praised switch defence also didnt work in game endings.

Nba all star cant average 10-12pts per game when fans see other nba players who is bench players in nba leading their NT with 20pts+.

Thats will not fly well with lithuanian fans.

Objectively its better to have lesser nba tallent like Markannen or Kleiza who are deadly shooters. Shooting is most important skill to have in fiba games right now.
 
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LTU top 9 players in eurobasket 2022


Valanciunas 28min 16,2pts+10,5reb with 56,7% +5,3 (plus/minus)

Grigonis 27min 14,5pts+3,3asist with 52% +2,2

Sabonis 29min 12,5pts+7,3reb with 56% +5,5


Jokubaitis
27min 9,2pts+4asist with 41,3 % +9,5

Brazdeikis 22min 10,7pts+3,7reb with 38,7% -1,1

Butkevicius 21min 4pts+1,8reb with 44% +3,3

Kuzminskas 18min 10pts+2,5reb with 46% -2.2

Lekavicius 15min 7,7pts+2asist with 68% -3,8

Giedraitis 15min 3pts+1,8reb with 36,8% +1,1


Our NT again were in bottom 6 by % of shooting long shots.
 
Sabonis playing in NT since 2015 slowly is growing? :)

Kleiza was leader at 25 in NT,all tournament team player in 2010. Sabonis is already 26.

He is nba all star what growing dude are you talking? He was projected to be leader in 2022 how NT was playing friendly games and failed to deliver and coaches switch to plan B in middle of the tournament.

his 2 stupid fouls in last 20seconds cost us games againts Germany and Spain. If not that offensive faul against Spain guard that Brazdeikis tip would be game winner,not send game to overtime.

Player was projected to be leader of NT be only 3rd by pts and by eff in NT is failure. His well praised switch defence also didnt work in game endings.

Nba all star cant average 10-12pts per game when fans see other nba players who is bench players in nba leading their NT with 20pts+.

Thats will not fly well with lithuanian fans.

Objectively its better to have lesser nba tallent like Markannen or Kleiza who are deadly shooters. Shooting is most important skill to have in fiba games right now.

Well, at least he showed up in most crucial game :D

Yes, to some extent he definitely disappointed, but not entirely. His production was going up during the tournament. That horrible screen cost us a lot. That's worrysome, it's not the first time. Kleiza also had that problem, he couldn't finish games in 2007-2008 stretch (stupid UM foul against Spain in semis and so on). For Sabonis this problem became chronic.

You missed my point however. Sabonis is getting better. He was better than in 2019 despite being forced to play with JV which is uncomfortable for both of them, but specially Domas who is forced to play off his position. His numbers slowly increasing. That doesn't mean that we played as well as he could, but that means there's a good chance that he will continue to look better and better and maybe there will be a tournament when he will be 18/9/4. Something what I would expect from prime All Star center. My point is that with each FIBA tournament he adjust to it better. And overall 26yo player still can add some to his overall level, definitely, even if he's pretty much finished product.

BTW, Sabonis is second most efficient player.

Kleiza was much better fit for FIBA. Sabonis can utilize his size and toughness in broad NBA court much more where his p'n'r game is basically unstoppable. In FIBA court there's much less space for p'n'r action and that limits his production.

Nevertheless, my point was that 26yo Domas, 23yo Brazdeikis and 21yo Jokubaitis is the long term core now, around which we will slowly add new talent. JV is not a long term piece anymore, he has left like 2-3 elite tournaments in him probably. Even Grigonis is more like limited term option now knowing this age. That's why Domas, Rokas, Ignas is the main core long term now.

We have to admit that both Valanciunas and Grigonis choked in the playoff game. I treated both as most reliable players before the game against Spain, but they slipped.
 
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I agree with these guys (and T.Purlys also said that p'n'r D is the first thing that we should fix heading to WC) that the main mistake of Maskvytis in the tournament was that stupid flat defence. He overused that against France and then at the end of the game when with it against Spain which was all USA dude Brown needed. He was tearing apart that D with joy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr6C24WFojQ&t=2s&ab_channel=Krepsinis.net
 
I didn't have an opinion about Balciunas, but i'm starting not to like him a bit. I didn't know he is so old-fashioned. He openly said that this federation won't consider a foreign coach whatever happens, because it would be a surrender of Lithuanian basketball history, traditions and future. It's very strange because why history should always be the same? Why future should be like past? Also i would like to remind that we had an American coach assistant Nelson who helped a lot especially in the gold 2003 EC because Sireika wasn't a good defensive coach.

At least journalists asked about a possible foreign coach. But Balciunas said that we have enough coaches who could bring us highest achievements. Well, it's bullshit. We don't have them. We have maybe few coaches who can be good in the nearest future, but also maybe not. What we got from the LKL coaches since Kazlauskas left? If Maksvytis fails one more time, then we will have another mediocre local coach. That's how this ''strategy'' works.

Balciunas also called changes in youth basketball (like the ones in Spain more or less) made by the previous federation ''shamanism''. A bit later U16 team (one of the first results of that ''shamanism'') won EC gold...He admits that he's old-fashioned (he's only 45 btw even if he looks older) and it's not bad to be old-fashioned generally, but when all the decisions are based on it, then it's nothing good.

Anyway, not even considering a foreign coach i see as the biggest NT flaw now.

P.S. Imagine, that you have a possibility to choose any coach (a foreign one included) for NT. Saras is not available. Who is the first name in your head? My guy is Xavi Pascual.
 
My bold projection at the moment of disappointment! :D LTU NT will snatch Eurobasket 2029 title with this roster:

Jokubaitis, Marciulionis, Laurencikas
Indrusaitis, Brazdeikis, Rubstavicius
Buzelis, Lelevicius,
Murauskas, Sirvydis
Tubelis , Krivas (+add Sabonis as a vet if he's still interested)
 
I didn't have an opinion about Balciunas, but i'm starting not to like him a bit. I didn't know he is so old-fashioned. He openly said that this federation won't consider a foreign coach whatever happens, because it would be a surrender of Lithuanian basketball history, traditions and future. It's very strange because why history should always be the same? Why future should be like past? Also i would like to remind that we had an American coach assistant Nelson who helped a lot especially in the gold 2003 EC because Sireika wasn't a good defensive coach.

At least journalists asked about a possible foreign coach. But Balciunas said that we have enough coaches who could bring us highest achievements. Well, it's bullshit. We don't have them. We have maybe few coaches who can be good in the nearest future, but also maybe not. What we got from the LKL coaches since Kazlauskas left? If Maksvytis fails one more time, then we will have another mediocre local coach. That's how this ''strategy'' works.

Balciunas also called changes in youth basketball (like the ones in Spain more or less) made by the previous federation ''shamanism''. A bit later U16 team (one of the first results of that ''shamanism'') won EC gold...He admits that he's old-fashioned (he's only 45 btw even if he looks older) and it's not bad to be old-fashioned generally, but when all the decisions are based on it, then it's nothing good.

Anyway, not even considering a foreign coach i see as the biggest NT flaw now.

P.S. Imagine, that you have a possibility to choose any coach (a foreign one included) for NT. Saras is not available. Who is the first name in your head? My guy is Xavi Pascual.

Yes, to some degree he's a redneck and conservative provincial. But on other hand he's pro active and tough work on manager. I personally think foreigner coach would be excessive for such NT proud country as Lithuania, but I would more than OK to have an assistant coach from abroad. As you said, we already had it.

Even if we had decided to hire foreigner head coach, we would not be able to do it. Pascual or Trinchieri would be desperate to coach NT for peanuts? No. We would have to throw some amazing money which we don't have for this position and it's really hard to find truly elite coach. IMO, sooner or later that will come if we will continue to lack elite coaches because the discussion is already here. Ten years ago we didn't even have explicit discussion, now it's coming. We definitely can't go with some pretty good foreigner. It should be absolute star as Pascual or Scariola or something like that, but even then majority of fans (older ones) would be disappointed.

I have no strong opinion about all these screening rules. IMO, 2006 generation happened to be good generally, screens or not. The best player grew up in the States after all. Marciulionis, Siskauskas, Kleiza, Karnisovas ripped without any special tricks. I don't really care much. If talent will be born, he will find ways to be great. Most important is to produce tons of prospects cause I hear many young kids now chooses football where we suck so bad.
 
Another thought...how many elite coaches out there coaching NT?

OK, Scariolo and Itoudis. That's all. Pesic sort of was good in some ancient times. And, no, Ataman to me is not an elite coach, I'm sorry. He just had a good roster in EL. If Ataman is an elite coach, Sireika is elite as well :D That's about it, right? Slovenia's coach is trash...France coach maybe solid, but not elite.

In other words, many NTs goes with mediocre coaches unfortunately. It's a huge privilege to have an elite coach.
 
Yes, to some degree he's a redneck and conservative provincial. But on other hand he's pro active and tough work on manager. I personally think foreigner coach would be excessive for such NT proud country as Lithuania, but I would more than OK to have an assistant coach from abroad. As you said, we already had it.

Even if we had decided to hire foreigner head coach, we would not be able to do it. Pascual or Trinchieri would be desperate to coach NT for peanuts? No. We would have to throw some amazing money which we don't have for this position and it's really hard to find truly elite coach. IMO, sooner or later that will come if we will continue to lack elite coaches because the discussion is already here. Ten years ago we didn't even have explicit discussion, now it's coming. We definitely can't go with some pretty good foreigner. It should be absolute star as Pascual or Scariola or something like that, but even then majority of fans (older ones) would be disappointed.

I have no strong opinion about all these screening rules. IMO, 2006 generation happened to be good generally, screens or not. The best player grew up in the States after all. Marciulionis, Siskauskas, Kleiza, Karnisovas ripped without any special tricks. I don't really care much. If talent will be born, he will find ways to be great. Most important is to produce tons of prospects cause I hear many young kids now chooses football where we suck so bad.
I'm not a big fun of having a foreign coach generally, but the thing that we don't have really good ones in Lithuanian. If you don't find smth you need (doesn't matter what exactly) in the usual place, won't you look for it in other places? Only because of that i'm holding the idea of a foreign coach even if i understand that it won't happen in the nearest future. Federation has money so i think it would be a reasonable investment. Local assistants would learn as well. Now there are three decent coaches in the stuff, but all of them are mediocre. It wouldn't be easy to find such a coach from abroad of course, but it's possible. It would be an issue because he would probably work in a club as well, but so does Maksvytis.

It doesn't really matter but i think the best player was Laurencikas. Not including him in top5 of the champ was a robbery. He should have been there instead of Indrusaitis or French guy, because France disappointed. Indrusaitis lacked IQ not to go for a bad matchups and bad shots. But if it's only about pure pure individual skills then he can be called the best there, yes.
 
It doesn't really matter but i think the best player was Laurencikas. Not including him in top5 of the champ was a robbery. He should have been there instead of Indrusaitis or French guy, because France disappointed. Indrusaitis lacked IQ not to go for a bad matchups and bad shots. But if it's only about pure pure individual skills then he can be called the best there, yes.

I love Laurencikas! I think you right. He was true leader, but let's give Indrusaitis props for being consistent scoring except the last game (Laurencikas was cold at the start of the tournament). But when it comes to UPSIDE...Nojus Indrusaitis is at complete other level. His size, athleticism, extreme fluidity/smoothness, acceleration, high arcing realease/shot, three ways scoring. He's at the very least borderline NBA prospect. We generally agree, you call it individual skill, I call it upside. If Nojus will put everything together he can be a beast. I don't think he lacks IQ, just different BB culture. In USA it's no issue to take crazy shots at this age. Love both, but look at these highlights, extreme plasticity, ability to change directions:

https://twitter.com/rforan23/status/1561389045896433664

I actually had a hard time to decide who will end up being better PG - Marciulionis, Laurencikas, Jakucionis. I picked Marciulionis and Laurencikas for my long term projection which you can see in my signature, but it was a tough call. Besides, I couldn't find place for one of my favorites D. Giedraitis and I had to push out Sabonis, more because that's about that next generation, not that 33yo Sabonis wouldn't be able to crack the roster.
 
Should Rokas Giedraitis be ever again invited to NT? Under Adomaitis he was glued to the bench and looked lost, under Maskoliunas he was bleak, under Maksvytis...when it seems it's the best coach for him he was...trash. His defence was crap, he couldn't shoot anything, 16.7% threes.

To me this tournament for him was make it or brake it. IMO, we should split ways.
 
1.One defender in entire roster this can't be the case again.We missed Ulanovas type player alot.

2.All 4 guards are wild offensive minded players, one good moment was changed with tournaver or low iq play on the next play.Thats why we lost all 4 game endings no smart guard that would control team in crusial moments.

3.Shooting teams wins today take Germany,Slovenia,Italy or even Finland examples.We can't be bottom 5 shooting tournament team .

4.Stop playing 2 non shooting bigs together.


This is main 4 areas we need to rethink how to improve our NT
 
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We didn't miss Ulanovas type of player. Butkevicius is exactly what Ulanovas brings defensively. We missed defensive guard and big. Regarding defensive guards - D. Giedraitis and A. Marciulionis are close NT so we can expect things soon, especially Giedraitis is close. From defensive bigs it's either Tubelis, Sedekerskis ATM. But both are not good fit offensively, specially Sedekerskis who doesn't look at the basket at all. So that's the issue. Nevertheless, Tubelis would still be a nice addition, IMO. Our situation is so slippery at 4, that I wouldn't exclude the possibility to see 19yo Murauskas in the camp if he will make noise in Eurocup. The way things turning out, I believe both Tubelis and Murauskas have decent chance to make the pre- Olympic roster in 2024 cause we badly need real talents at 4. We are butt naked, cause Kuz is a tissue defensively.

Regarding shooting, we had three players who shot the ball well in EB. Grigonis, Kuzminskas, Brazdeikis (Lukas too, but he shot only few shots). I do believe Jokubaitis will be better in the future. Plus, D. Giedraitis and Sirvydis should be strong candidates to join the team. Ulanovas in FIBA 2019 was 0/7 from three, so his addition is not very promising. He stops the ball offensively and can shoot little. Maybe after a solid season in Europe Kulboka can convince? Theoretically he's a good fit, but usually looks bleak in the camp.

In my opinion we should split ways with R. Giedraitis and to start looking for integration of D. Giedraitis, Sirvydis (and to track Rubstavicius' progress). Rokas Giedraitis already wasted 3 tournaments and basically gave zero to the NT, we have to move on and build with more reliable talent.

Pikenrokas with Kleiza and Balciunas has to be listened. Kleiza's criticism is spot on.

Generally, Kleiza and Pacesas are right. After this result the coach would have to resign naturally. But Pacesas is a bit inconsistent saying that Adomaitis, Maskoliunas took responsibility after failure. Adomaitis took it only after second bad tournament.
 
Another moment. Kleiza is correct that we shouldn't overemphasize ISO lacking in the crunch. Except 90's we never had such presence, but we were able to win. Why? Because those teams were more fundamentally sound - having better defence, coherence and discipline offensively, everyone knew it's role and so on. Usually we were winning and losing with team's effort. I don't even remember Siskauskas and Jasikevicius nailing a lot of game winners. One thing is overlooked. Against Germany we created absolutely open three to win the game - Butkevicius missed it (after great kick out of Jokubaitis). Against Spain, Grigonis created decent look for Jokubaitis, but he also missed that three (and then Iggy tipped in). IDK. If you have an open three, it's hard to ask for much more. It is still a right way to attack generally.
 
Our opponnets was literally 4 semifinal teams ( i believe France and Slovenia will win tonight).Thats 15th place is number bullshit. Poland is in top 8 who exactly did they beat to deserve that Ukraine ? :)

NT lost 4 close games because all guards are wild mustangs and made so manny mental mistakes in game endings.But we were leading more time than 4 best team leaded against us .

Needed level is there. Kleiza is overreacting,this time i agree with balciunas.What the point to go to every tournament with new coach?

Keep the team,keep coaching staff. Hope Jokubaitis,Brazdeikis,Grigonis will play better game endings next summer after this painfull experience for them when they where outplayed in every ending.


We are bottom NT in shooting last thing we need Tubelis and Marciulionis bricks. Tubelis can take Echodas place and try to learn something first few years as our biggest project,but not as top 9 rotation player. Step by step.

Yeah Butkevicius got 5th faul early in 4 querter and Brown started his concert againts everybody 18 pts in 8+5 overtime minutes.. Thats why i repeat we need multiple good defenders not just one. Butkevicius cant defend everybody.

Ulanovas and D.Giedraitis is needed. Zemaitis,Echodas,Zukauskas is all replacable pieces.

Kuz was very good in his 15min role as backup big.He gave diffrent , modern basketball style look to NT.
 
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Jokic is much better defender than Valanciunas, but even Jokic faces certain issues as big heavy center. That's why we have no future with Valanciunas. He can only be a role player. Good p'n'r team, and he's out. Even in ISO situations Willy destroyed him down low, both in Gran Canaria and Berlin. This was generally the last golden chance for JV to prove doubters wrong (and the path to medals was great generally), but he screwed. We already have 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022 as failures when the team is built around JV. We should cut that crap how big of a force our NBA bigs are and to move on. Valanciunas couldn't even deliver as a decent role player in the playoff game.

Grigonis also failed. He had quite terrific tournament till the playoffs, but in playoffs he choked.

All my hope is new generation - starting with Jokubaitis, Brazdeikis as spot on pieces and so on. Sabonis will remain a useful peace, but it would be huge mistake to go with the same narrative as JV has been receiving for the decade (the biggest travesty in Lihuanian bb history, redneck's end provincials pity illusion), Sabonis is not gonna be the guy who would make a true difference for us. We should simply be pro-active building a spot on pieces to gather a spot on team and if some-one wants wet dreams and new superhero (something which JV was falsely labeled by provincial fans) it should be Buzelis. At leas the guy has legitimate tools to apply for special players competition.

When I created my fantasy team, which I named (just for fun, don't take it too seriously) champs of 2029 EB, I've got Tubelis at 5. Good luck to some-one winning the tournaments with 7 feet slow lumberjack. And we were building on it for a decade...wow...
 
To some degree off course our endings were messy, no doubts, but again - we had open looks against Germany, Spain. Can't ask much than that. We can control the games tighter not to get into the lottery crunch time each time against strong teams. That's how 00's teams were winning. We managed to prove our advantage avoiding do or die shots.

Yes, Kuz was great offensively. And, yes, Ulanovas wouldn't hurt. I'm just saying he won't give us what we need offensively either.

Marciulionis bricks is not needed. But that bully defence would be pretty nice for 10 minutes and he can move the ball, play p'n'r, provide spot on kick outs after slashing. Not seeing him making 2023 roster, but his defensive effort defensively in U20 this summer was most impressive defensive performance by a Lithuanian guard maybe ever. He was literally making difference with his on ball pressure, toughness, steals. He changed some games dynamics with this.
 
The "Discuss Lithuanian legend Arvydas Sabonis, club teams Žalgiris and Lietuvos Rytas, Šarūnas Jasikevičius, Kleiza, Žydrūnas, Donatas Motiejūnas, and Lithuania basketball" thingie could use updating
 
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