So Lekšas revealed that Maksvytis didn't hear a single "no" thus far. Meaning all possible pieces are available.
That probably means we'll see Ulanovas again. This is important, specially that we see Butkevicius becoming injury prone unfortunately. Besides, Ulanovas still provides incomparably much more offense.
Meaning all in, 4 position doesn't seem to be problematic anymore, and it definitely looked this way few years ago. FOA, Sedekerskis had the best EL season from all Liths. Second, Kuzminskas rocks offensively. Ulanovas can play the 4 as well and I would consider closing the games with Ulanovas at 4 if his direct opponent is not something like Shengelia. Besides, there's also Tubelis who is pure Forward-Center (there's also Sabonis, but I don't want him to see play PF more than 2-3 minutes).
Jokubaitis, Marciulionis, Lekavicius, Kariniauskas, Jakucionis, Zemaitis
Grigonis, Brazdeikis, D. Giedraitis, Rubstavicius, R. Giedraitis Dimsa, Normantas
Ulanovas, Sirvydis, Butkevicius, Buzelis, Radzevicius
Sedekerskis, Tubelis, Kuzminskas, Bendzius
Sabonis, Valanciunas, D-Mo, Birutis, Edhodas
ATM position 1 is still the weakest, but the good news we don't have any other position that would be considered weak or thin. If I don't have at least 2 legitimate EL level players in the position, it's not sufficient, we need at least 2 these days of very intense basketball. To me legitimate EL players is the one who would get the job outside Zalgiris. So we have only Jokubaitis at 1. IMO, Lekavicius is already not that kind. In his prime he was. ATM we have a problem of who will back up Jokubaitis. It's a huge need of Marciulionis reaching that level.
From 2 there's plenty of players as Grigonis, Brazdeikis, Rubstavicius (I heard Real is interested in him and if he won't get drafter, plenty of EL teams will go after him, IMO) and I think D. Giedraitis already reached that level cause what he showed defensively in EL this season is enough to be on the market of EL teams. R. Giedraitis is still on the map probably, but only Serbian team was interested in him last summer and we do know how trashy he is in NT so he's med and irrelevant, IMO. As we know Dimsa and Normantas wouldn't attract any EL attention. They are Eurocup material essentially.
Maybe I'm dragging Kuzminskas a bit, but after those monster offensive games I wouldn't be surprised some really solid offers would come. He had some EL interest as he said, but didn't want too little role as I understood.
So today I count 16 players who are on EL market (Buzelis would be if he wouldn't be lottery pick material). That's good depth (and that's not including Marciulionis who is said to have interest from very interesting teams and Jakucionis who naturally belongs to Barca and he's the best guard prospect we have, but there's no need to speak about his future explicitly yet, and those 2 will reach EL level rather sooner than later), but main problem remains usual: thin No.1 position and the lack of true stars, not just solid EL role players, specially when we speak about 1-3 positions.
LTU NT is not at the level to ask legitimate medals. Maksvytis shouldn't feel that kind of pressure. Let's face it, current NT is pretty nice, but it didn't reach the level where we been till 2008.
With that said, imagine Jokubaitis, D. Giedraitis, Grigonis, Ulanovas, Sedekerskis closing the game. You have 4 solid defenders, one elite perimeter defender, only one weak defender in the line-up and he is the main engine with the ball. Grigonis is pesky and passive aggressive defender at 3. I don't know, but I think that this line-up could be the best closing lineup since 2010 when we had Javtokas, Kleiza, Maciulis, Pocius, Kalnietis. Why I wouldn't always close the games with Sabonis? Not enough of defense and a bit turnover prone. In NBA much wider court and in FIBA Sabonis sometimes struggle with tighter court. We seen some elbows, some missed lay ups, some bad passes. Sedekerskis is more used to FIBA court and values the ball more and he brings more defense at 5 surely. Unless you have super duper big dude in front of him, but nor PR nor Italy have one. I would go small, I would let Jokubaitis be aggressive, or would give the ball to Ulanovas in the high post from where he can create for others or himself, and all players can knock down a three. Grigonis with the ball in his hands also is not particularly harmless. So I have enough of offensive options and I still have pretty nice defensive coherence with such line-up.
All this makes Maksvytis situation tricky. No-one really thinks LTU NT should exactly win medals (I take Rooney words as just simple wish to encourage guys), specially on Olympic stage where such teams as A USA, Canada, Australia on the map, but, IMO, Maksvytis has sneaky good roster, specially if Jokubaitis can have soft of brake out tournament already. In 2022 Maksvytis majorly screwed with roster, cutting down Sedekerskis and not attracting his golden youth boy Ulanovas (one of the reason why Maksvytis was hired in the first place, he had to attract 1992 players, but Ulanovas said FY to him) and he had no-one at 4 to close the games. Thus Garuba was running all over and grabbing all sorts of rebounds. Off course our D was also trash when you have tons of none defensive players and Kuz at 4. My suggesting closing line-up would be maybe one step less dangerous offensively, but much more flexible defensively. Maksvytis was closing game with Jokubaitis, Grigonis, Brazdeikis, Kuzminskas, Sabonis. No defensive grip at all basically. Butkevicius fouled out and we didn't have anyone to put in front Brown, besides even Butkevicius struggled with more agile Brown in that night.
Now we can throw Giedraitis on the opposing best guard, we can expect Sedekerskis guarding pick and roll well and we still have enough of offensive options in Jokubaitis, Grigonis, Ulanovas. All guys can create a bit.
Does Maksvytis has balls to close the game with Giedraitis (something that Trinchieri has been doing with Zalgiris), Ulanovas at 4 and Sedekerskis at 5? I doubt this. But that's exactly what I would do theoretically. 3 minutes left, I throw this unit on the court.
