After seeing how Sirvydis with 3 years around nba and g league expeirence sucked in 2023 fiba tournament
Why exactly do you think ncaa student that last 3 years played only versus 19-22 average tallent students will help men NT playing versus nba and euroleague tough and very smart dudes ?
Could tell me which top 10 NT is playing ncaa students in 2020s fiba tournaments?
Well, I didn't say Kariniauskas did everything wrong in WC. My point is that we met only one fully prepared elite team in WC and that was Serbia. Greece was trash. Slovenia thin and gassed out. Well, maybe also Latvia was elite and they swept us, but Kariniauskas didn't even played in that game. Their best player was Walkup who had amazing game for himself in terms of shooting and still it didn't effect the game at all, Lithuania swept Greeks without any problems. Greeks as usual bricked the ball and it wasn't really a team, they struggled all tournament wise. It was second rate team basically.
I see that Kariniauskas is not an option that we need as a back up PG, that's it. He can't sustain the intensity of Serbia, USA (A team), Canada, Spain, France and such teams. He's not an answer. The goal is to have a back up PG who can help against such teams. We don't know if 22yo Marciulionis would help, but we we surely know that Kariniauskas won't help. We already have a problem with Jokubaitis defense, why to have even slower and even worse one as a back up? BTW, Dimsa was playing with the ball a lot when Jokubaitis was resting and it didn't look well. BTW Motiejunas is unplayable in such games, literally unplayable, OMG.
Listen, Kerr Kriisa is a stud and he's playing in NCAA. He was putting some numbers in 2022 EB and Estonia is not a trash. As we seen Kriisa killed us with EL players as Grigonis in Estonia (friendly game) and later Estonia killed Ulanovas and Co. in windows. Marciulionis is one of the best PGs on NCAA. He's more ready than people think.
Maybe I'm overreacting on that game versus Serbia, cause Lithuania left too much in the game against USA and was gassed, and Serbia previously struggled with Italy. But the intensity of that game was the best example against what will you go if you want to WIN SOMETHING. It's doesn't matter if it's Serbia, Canada or Germany, but Serbia in that game provided that A intensity of well prepared, smart, fundamentally sound team. That's what you have to match if you want to win on the BIG STAGE. Kariniauskas simoply doesn't have legs and physicality for such task. He's too slow, too unathletic. So my thesis that Kariniaskas is a waste of time.
Sirvydis didn't suck in NT. He didn't shine, but didn't suck. Dude gave NT 5pts per 10min, playing completely off the ball and taking difficult shots of the stagger. What did you want, that he would give you 10pts in 10min? Come on, man...