2023 Lithuanian NT

[Straight forward2]

Kulboka is persona non grata. Kemzura obviously wanted to repeat the mantra on why he's not invited.

Maldunas such a huge baller that we invite him instead of NBA prospect Murauskas, something.

Kairys is there...while Blazevic chillin'.

Kinda sad roster. From all the roster I see 2 relevant players - Rubstavicius and maybe Velicka. That's it. No others will ever leave a mark in real NT history.

If Kemzura gets trashed by France again it will look pretty funny. So much sweat and unnecessary provincialism just to get humiliated. If there won't be 2 wins now I'll take it as a fiasko cause Kemzura failed to integrate Kulboka, Murauskas, Blazevic. 3 players that might become NT material.

 

[LuDux2]

yeah, I don't think we will stop Le Unicorn without SF with 4,0 PIR

 

[Straight forward2]

yeah, I don't think we will stop Le Unicorn without SG with 4,8 PIR

SG who?

 

[Hepcat2]

[TABLE="width: 344"]
[TR]
[TD]Evaldas Kairys[/TD]
[TD]Vilniaus ?Rytas?[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Martinas Geben[/TD]
[TD]Manresos BAXI (Ispanija)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Gabrielius Maldūnas[/TD]
[TD]Panevė?io ?7bet-Lietkabelis?[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Gytis Masiulis[/TD]
[TD]Vilniaus ?Rytas?[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Eigirdas ?ukauskas[/TD]
[TD]Alytaus ?Wolves?[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Eimantas Bend?ius[/TD]
[TD]Sasario ?Dinamo? (Italija)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Mindaugas Kuzminskas[/TD]
[TD]Izmiro ?Pinar Kar?iyaka? (Turkija)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Gytis Radzevičius[/TD]
[TD]Vilniaus ?Rytas?[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Mantas Rub?tavičius[/TD]
[TD]Panevė?io ?7bet-Lietkabelis?[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Matas Jogėla[/TD]
[TD]Klaipėdos ?Neptūnas?[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Margiris Normantas[/TD]
[TD]Vilniaus ?Rytas?[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Arnas Velička[/TD]
[TD]Chemnico ?Niners? (Vokietija)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Kristupas ?emaitis[/TD]
[TD]Alytaus ?Wolves?[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Vaidas Kariniauskas[/TD]
[TD]Bukare?to ?Rapid? (Rumunija)[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

What on earth? Is Martynas Echodas injured? He's been playing far better this year than either Evaldas Kairys or Gytis Masiulis.

 

[Hepcat2]

Kulboka is persona non grata. Kemzura obviously wanted to repeat the mantra on why he's not invited.

What did Coach Kemzūra say?

Maldunas such a huge baller that we invite him instead of NBA prospect Murauskas....

Murauskas isn't at Maldūnas' level right now.

So much sweat and unnecessary provincialism just to get humiliated.

Huh? Where is the provincialism? And how would inviting Kulboka, Murauskas or Bla?evič lessen the sweat involved? Hopefully the LKF hadn't already bought them tickets to camp.

 

[Shawshank2]

NT coaches job is to win basketball game tommorow and chooses players accordingly what gives best chances


For this 2 not meaningfull games coaches could invite more younger players ? yes

But in all other 99% cases thats not the point of men NT.


Thats coaches even in this window refuses invite alot of youngsters shows what they think about chance winning games playing bunch of raw tallented kids


I will laugh when Nt 2023 youngest player will be 23 old Jokubaitis and dinosour expert again gonna shout and scream here and still will not be able to get why?


Why coaches take useless Dimsa over tallent like D.Giedraitis

why Echodas/Gudaitis is in and such world class tallent like Tubeli isnt.


and call our euroleague coaches useless amateurs that cant even see or understand what real basketball tallents is )

 

[Straight forward2]

In main tournaments, 11 players should be ready, maybe even 12, unless you have some true generational talent as Arvydas Sabonis or Matas Buzelis.

But these 2 wins will reflect FIBA rankings too little that one wouldn't go for more youngsters and work for the future. But it's on federation. They couldn't pay or convince Maksvytis to work only with the NT. Now Kemzura just wants to raise his market stock going desperately after meaningless wins.

I don't care what age players will play in WC, I want those who can help the most. From youngsters Tubelis should be tested heavily. D. Giedraitis unfortunately again struggled with health and had too many brakes. If he had started the season with team and seen consistent games/minutes, he would be different today.

 

[Shawshank2]

Every single LTU NT coach did same thing what Kemzura did this week that u cant realise that is your blindness nothing more


Kids and 10-12th players gets attention from coach in first week,after that all attention is on top 9 playoofs players.

If kid is such overhelming tallent like 19 old Valanciunas,19 old Sabonis,20 old Jokubaitis or 20 old Kleiza nobody will close their doors,they will make the team


But if tallent is only so so big chance he gonna lose competion

 

[Straight forward2]

Not true. Adomaitis went much more liberal in last FIBA window when we already had the ticked, just like now. He took 20yo Masiulis, 21yo Kulboka, 21 Echodas, 23 Valinskas, 24 Echodas. Adomaitis actually used some of those even previously when the games mattered.

Now Kemzura just took 20yo Rubstavicius and relatively young Jogela. Just to be fair, Blazevic opted out himself though. No biggie, I'm just saying, we can utilize this situations better. At least invite Murauskas, he's very important piece for us long term.

Regarding elite talents, most importantly that they are coming again. We can see that we benefited little from elite centers. JV's generation is marked with losses and darkest period of Lithuanian basketball. I believe if it had been mobile forward (as Kleiza) or some elite guard, it would have been much better. The good news that elite perimeter players are coming again (Jokubaitis, Buzelis). It's exactly the best what could happen for Lithuania.

The last elite true perimeter player was Macijauskas. He was born in 1980. Next elite true perimeter players was born only in 2000 and that's Jokubaitis. 20 years gab is too brutal. But thanks god it's over. We have Jokubaitis at 2000, we have Buzelis at 2004, we have Indrusaitis at 2006.

 

[Hepcat2]

Now Kemzura just wants to raise his market stock going desperately after meaningless wins.

Oh come on!

Granted you have a point when you suggest selecting promising youngsters for "meaningless" games, but all you accomplish with your harsh denunciations of Kemzūra and other national team coaches is undermining your own point. Both the LKF and most Lithuanian basketball fans want, in fact, demand that Kemzūra assemble a team that will win its games. That's the bottom line.

 

[Straight forward2]

Oh come on!

Granted you have a point when you suggest selecting promising youngsters for "meaningless" games, but all you accomplish with your harsh denunciations of Kemzūra and other national team coaches is undermining your own point. Both the LKF and most Lithuanian basketball fans want, in fact, demand that Kemzūra assemble a team that will win its games. That's the bottom line.

OK, It's just my assumption. Kemzura doesn't have a club, so for him it's a good chance to show himself. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe he doesn't care about it, IDK. But Kemzura already did what was asked, he could easily experiment with youngsters more. Any, let's move on. Maybe this time we'll be competitive against France.

 

[Shawshank2]

Coaches of NT thinks: what kinda players we should invite that would be usefull for 2023 summer NT camp and would give us best chance to win window games in february

Dinosour expert thinks: coaches must invited raw tallents 2023 for 2 window games who maybe will play help NT win games in 2027.


No wonder they dont see eye to eye

 

[Straight forward2]

Coaches of NT thinks: what kinda players we should invite that would be usefull for 2023 summer NT camp and would give us best chance to win window games in february

Dinosour expert thinks: coaches must invited raw tallents 2023 for 2 window games who maybe will play help NT win games in 2027.


No wonder they dont see eye to eye

Useful for 2023 summer? Really? You're having a long weekend already don't you? 70-80% of the roster's players have zero chances to be useful in summer.

And, no, even Kemzura took a bit of a long term look, taking Rubstavicius. He greeted him for his job in his previous camp and long term he's a top SG prospect for us.

And lastly look at France roster f.e. Begarin 20, Hugo Benitez 21, Cazalon 21, Kamagate 22, Makoundou 22, Wemby 19. Except Wemby none of these have chances to make France WC roster. Simply France goes with much younger team cause it's a good opportunity to test young players.

BTW, R. Giedraitis expressed doubts about participating in WC 23. I didn't read the exact formulation why, but obviously he has doubts.

 

[Hepcat2]

So I decided to have a look at the updated stats Wikipedia entry for "Lithuanian Men's National Basketball Team". Someone has been "helpful" enough to update the current Depth Chart for the team:

Depth Chart​

[table="width: 850, class: grid, align: center"]
[tr]
[td]Position[/td]
[td]Starting 5[/td]
[td]Bench 1[/td]
[td]Bench 2[/td]
[td]Bench 3[/td]
[td]Bench 4[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]C[/td]
[td]Domantas Sabonis[/td]
[td]Jonas Valančiūnas[/td]
[td]Donatas Motiejūnas[/td]
[td]Artūras Gudaitis[/td]
[td]Laurynas Birutis[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]PF[/td]
[td]Mindaugas Kuzminskas[/td]
[td]Tadas Sedekerskis[/td]
[td]Arnoldas Kulboka[/td]
[td]Ą?uolas Tubelis[/td]
[td]Eigirdas ?ukauskas[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]SF[/td]
[td]Edgaras Ulanovas[/td]
[td]Ignas Brazdeikis[/td]
[td]Arnas Butkevičius[/td]
[td]Matas Buzelis[/td]
[td]Eimantas Bend?ius[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]SG[/td]
[td]Rokas Giedraitis[/td]
[td]Marius Grigonis[/td]
[td]Tomas Dim?a[/td]
[td]Deividas Sirvydis[/td]
[td]Paulius Valinskas[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]PG[/td]
[td]Rokas Jokubaitis[/td]
[td]Lukas Lekavičius[/td]
[td]Dovydas Giedraitis[/td]
[td]Arnas Velička[/td]
[td]Kristupas ?emaitis[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

I have to conclude that a few player agents may have been involved in the latest update because there's a lot of, to put it kindly, wishful thinking.

CENTER: Not much problem there although if I were betting I'd have my money on Valančiūnas taking the floor at C for the opening tip-off this summer.

PF: Admittedly there's now a very serious problem at PF if Kuzminskas heads up the depth chart at this position. Bend?ius though should be somewhere on the list as should Gytis Masiulis. Kulboka can't be any higher than fifth. Tubelis shouldn't be on the list at all right now because he has yet to play professionally and depth charts are by definition a reflection of right now as opposed to three to five years from now.

SF: Ulanovas and Kuzminskas should perhaps switch positions. Ulanovas has more of a power game than Kuzminskas. Buzelis is right out of high school and has no business on a current depth chart. Bend?ius plays PF.

SG: Valinskas? Didn't his very brief moment in the limelight end several years ago? And Sirvydis should be no higher than fifth.

PG: Giedraitis third on the depth chart? He's gone from being an occasionally effective sixth man for Lietkabelis last year to being simply lousy with ?algiris this year. Only in his mother's and press agent's minds can he be anywhere on the PG depth chart right now. Who should be occupying the third to fifth place slots on the depth chart then? Well Velička, ?emaitis, Margiris Normantas and Vaidas Kariniauskas have all been picked by Coach Kemzūra for the upcoming February window. We'll see who's picked to start and how effectively they all play.

Replacements for the dropped prospects can come from Gytis Radzevičius, Mantas Rubstavičius, Matas Jogėla, Masiulis, Normantas and Kariniauskas. Why these names? Because they're Coach Kemzūra's choices for the upcoming window so clearly they're on the LKF's depth chart.

Incidentally, did you have anything to do with these Wiki entries, Straight Forward? Given the inclusion of many of the prospects you've been heavily touting, e.g. Arnoldas Kulboka, Ą?uolas Tubelis, Matas Buzelis, Dovydas Giedraitis, it makes me wonder.

 

[Straight forward2]

It's not my depth chart.

 

[Hepcat2]

I'm surprised that everyone including Coach Kemzūra is still ignoring Martynas Varna and Edvinas Šeškus given the seasons they're having with Šiauliai and Jonava respectively.

 

[LuDux2]

Incidentally, did you have anything to do with these Wiki entries, Straight Forward? Given the inclusion of many of the prospects you've been heavily touting, e.g. Arnoldas Kulboka, Ą?uolas Tubelis, Matas Buzelis, Dovydas Giedraitis, it makes me wonder.

Definitely not SF, I know because Sirvydis is not 2nd amongst PFs

Also Normantas more SG/SF this year

 

[Straight forward2]

Definitely not SF, I know because Sirvydis is not 2nd amongst PFs

Finally you pulled it off. This one was funny.

 

[Shawshank2]

Arnas and Ule is their total peak right now and will be here 1-2 years and athletic decline will start

Such maturity,such toughness both mental and physical,such basketball iq and fantastic anticipation in plays that will happen.

Every time Cbet was making run those 2 were making critical plays again and again on both sides.

When playoofs games comes i trust in those 2 more than in way more tallented Brazdeikis/Grigonis at this moment in time

They not always scores alot,but i cant recall games where they was hurting their team with their presence overall.

Knowing that they always are assigned to defend opponents leaders that says alot.



ps. Cbet wont die huge respect for them irreveleant how game will finish

 

[Straight forward2]

This kind of Ulanovas would be very meaningful piece for NT. He would help a lot. You can visually see that he's in his best shape physically and BB shape wise too. The problem is that his motivation to play for the NT has been weak basically always and it's a question how long he can sustain this (some minor injury can disrupt all this). But if he will be in such shape in WC, that's really good news.