That last loss was really ugly and I can't justify that. We could take 5th spot and to have just Germany, Serbia, Canada, USA in front of us, but instead we got swept by Latvia. To me 2 sweeps in the tournament is something really bad and unjustifiable. The last time it happened was 2016. One could say the game was nearly meaningless, but it's official game of major tournament, and it still matters in terms of prestige and FIBA rankings (looking to OQT 2024),
Maksvytis and NT performance was ambivalent and controversial. Consistent group stage, wins against Greece and specially USA, but then 2 sweeps...
Maksvytis should finish this bloody Olympic cycle, hopefully the last Olympic cycle where we suck balls (and that goes since 2008), but I sick and tired with Maksvytis not being able to prepare NT for key knock out stage (or Adomaitis, Maskoliunas). The way we lost against Serbia is unjustifiable. The way we lost against Latvia too. Maksvytis could just retire and I wouldn't blink one time. But we know that no-one will take NT at this stage. No-one is stupid enough, unless some unproven f...as Maskoliunas (he deserves that after the shit he did with NT and how he acted).
Regarding individuals - Jokubaitis is the best player of this team. Period. Gecevicius nailed it, and I 100% agree with him. Brazdeikis is getting better slowely, but I will always see him as a strong role player. Maybe even as strong as Kleiza was in 2007/2008, but that's his role pretty much, IMO. I don't see Brazdeikis as an answer at 2 or 3 as a starter. He should be coming off the bench and play that instant offense guy's role. Pretty good tournament for him. Sedekerskis as we already talked fills that 4 position as a grinder and I would like to see him more at 5, just as Maskvytis threw him on Vucevic, but really forgot that idea too much later. I give props to Kuz for being good vet tooSirvydis showed some glimpses of becoming useful role player, but he still should put up a lot of work in upcoming 2 years to become such.
Negative - JV makes any team worse with his 100% defensive collapse each and every game and old school offense. Kariniauskas didn't deliver in both key games (Greece, Serbia), so this project was a collapse pretty much despite good game against USA scoring wise. I expected more from Dimsa after good EL season. Normantas was meh as expected. Too slow against top true guards. Maksvytis made a mistake taking both of these cause they can't stay with true agile guards. Motiejunas disappointed, specially in second half of tournament. He shouldn't be near NT ever again. Bendzius was too inconsistent and soft defensively. Maldunas is just misunderstanding which is somehow common for Maksvytis.
At the end of the day the tournament was a disappointment. And Maksvytis remains unable to win key games and continues with questionable roster selection. That's how I see things.
