This summer Marciulionis looked better than Kariniauskas as PG, as facilitator. In front of everyone's eyes. The only reason Kariniauskas was taken is "experience". That's utterly horrid mistake. He would look like complete trash at this level even if he was 50yo. When a player is simply from lower tier that NT requires, forget about the age. He will suck balls no matter if he's 17 or 42.
As for Jasikevicius discussion...Butkevicius had a monster season in LKL 2019. IMO, it's his best LKL season. But in the NT he needed time. He was only decent in 2019. But in 2022 he was really solid already. Club experience matters and is the core of player's career, but NT experience is different animal and you have to go through this even if you're experienced player. It's good that Jasikevicius, Kalnietis, Jokubaitis (and even Lekavicius) got NT experience early. All this gave great benefits to Lithuanian BB long term. It's a rarity that player would come and play well instantly. Sometimes it happens, but that's more like exception (Adas Juskevicius...but he felt zero pressure). We seen lately with Butkevicius, R. Giedraitis. Or even take Ulanovas, in 2017 he was 25yo, his debut was only decent, but in 2019 he was solid already. It takes time at this level, at NT level. It's different animal.
What Maksvytis did in 22 and 23 he wasted those spots which he could dedicate for long term NT solving main issues and, even more, I truly believe that either of Marciulionis/D.Giedraitis/Jogela would be better NOW than Kariniauskas. Maybe only slightly better, but all 3 are better players than Kariniauskas already, no question. Maksvytis blew it and really disrupted the processes that had to be done to assure the progress. Maksvytis already hurt 2024, 2025 and even 2027 tournaments to certain extent. That's how it works, if one coach is sleeping today, the other will be cleaning his shit and take the consequences...Kazlauskas once made a huge work and Sireika just took fruits in 2003-2004. Maksvytis is the anti-thesis of Kazlauskas...It's obvious he doesn't care about NT long term, all he thinks about how to cover his ass now. It's obvious we need legitimate PG back-up, that all this Kariniauskas shit is a joke. Nothing but the joke. But he does nothing.
Now imagine in 2025 new coach coming. He takes Marciulionis as a back up. Will he instantly provide as his first season in the NT? No, most likely not. Even Jasikevicius as 23yo pretty much sucked with NT. If Maksvytis was smart, he would know that some playing time for Marciulionis now would make a player from him sooner than later. These moves had to be done, specially when he looked that good in reserve NT. I partially understand that out of shape post injury Tubelis is being cut, but Marciulionis was ready. So this necessary move wasn't done and next coach will suffer because of that cause Maksvytis has been paralysing the natural processes.
People say those 11-12th spots doesn't matter...False. It matter highly. Those players will take important roles in upcoming tournaments, sometimes key roles. So if you care about the next tournaments (and why would you care about them less than current ones?) then you take those 11-12th spots extremely seriously. Otherwise you just say "I will shit on this table and who ever will coach in three upcoming tournaments will clean it". That's what Maksvytis has been doing. Totally wasting 4 freakin' spots.