No grip. The team is really loose defensively. I think our 5s at D will be the main issue in WC. With Sabonis we at least had somewhat bearable defense and played faster. Now we look really bad defensively even against somewhat mediocre PR. Can NT still improve? I think only slightly. Our bigs will get ridiculed inevitably. Some players as Dimsa, Brazdeikis will get in better shape and probably there still be a bit more communication, but that will help only slightly.
Offensively we lack sharpness from perimeter and creativity. So far only Jokubaitis looks well. Again, Brazdeikis and Dimsa will get a bit better and will be more aggressive (specially Iggy, and hopefully with bearable decisions), but they will mostly provide scoring treat, not ability to create for others (Normantas the same story and I don't even talk about Kariniauskas). Realistically we'll be really good offensively when we will barely look at JV and he will get his points only from p'n'r and offensive rebounds. Now entry pass and see what JV can do really looks awful. Sort of anti-basketball, or 90s basketball.
Getting to Olympics directly would be fantastic result, but I think we will be heading to qualification. Seeing how much sharper Jokubaitis is with his facilitation culture I think we could have a very good ball movement with Sabonis, Ulanovas, Grigonis, Jokubaitis on the court next symmer. Elite ball movement and enough of aggression. You can spice this mix up with either more offense (Brazdeikis) or defensive glue guy (Butkevicius) and you have very strong unit. I think whatever the outcome - next summer we'll have strong chance to qualify to Olympics. Stronger than in 2021 qualification. I expect all to show up injuries aside except probably Ulanovas (but even he may want to play for the last time).
From this team I just expect sincere fight. There's no objective arguments to ask success. We had some surprising tournaments in the past, always a possibility, but from objective point of view I don't see success.
