2024 Lithuanian NT

[Shawshank2]

In all podcast now people were doing rankings of the teams and everybody repeating similiar stuff : team will be good as as good your perimeter players are and ranked teams accordingly.

Todays basketball is mostly about perimeter players levels. in NTs battles were teams have no time to built systems,perimeter player level is even more important


Thats why im repeating LTU NT is not winning medal again untill our backourt is weakeast from all top 8 NTs.


15min euroleague backups is not leading NT to medal playing versus nba perimeter players.

in 2023 everything went LTU NT way super easy draw,good shooting luck,very good team chemistry and still one real opponnets came in 1/4 with perimeter star and LTU had no chance

 

[Straight forward2]

From what I see, we can field the best Olympic roster since 2008. It would be slightly superior, IMO, to 2012 (debatable though), and definitely superior to 2016, 2020. It will still be inferior to 2008, but we have a pretty convincing core. From that perspective, it's a big positive, we are getting better and this growth will have very strong continuation heading to 2028 Olympics where I hope we will have a chance to fight for the top spots realistically. Now what I see with 2024 roster:

Jokubaitis
Brazdeikis, Grigonis
Ulanovas, Butkevicius
Sedekerskis
Sabonis, Valanciunas

That's legitimate all Euroleague level 8 men rotation without any drag up. In my opinion all these pieces are 100% EL material, meaning every player gets the job in EL outside Zalgiris. Even Butkevicius. IMO, he's flat out among top 5 best defenders in EL and likely even top 3. And he's pretty flexible offensively too in his prime. IMO, absolutely any team in EL could use him as short stretches guy.

I see that Grigonis still have it. 17pts vs Oly is real deal. Sedekerskis will be even better, strong start of EL. If Grigonis can come in the shape of 2022 and we have one year better Jokubaitis, Iggy, that's the best backcourt since 2008. IMO, 2024 Rokas, Marius, Iggy > Kaukenas, Pocius, Jasikevicius

Let's compere that with 2012 Olympic roster:

Jasikevicius, Kalnieits
Kaukenas, Pocius
Keiza, Jasaitis
Jankunas
Songaila

Legitimate 8 men rotation, but Jasikevicius, Kaukenas and Songaila really were vets than and it felt, specially going down the stretch of the tournament. Maciulis was coming after injury and was trash in that tournament and Valanciunas sucked too as as still too young. For some reasons Kalnietis also had a pretty bad tournament too. Seibutis also had injury in the summer and even missed qualification in Venezuela, he was meh too. So this team had certain issues and could be even better if all healthy and 100% ready.

I don't really have any big expectations for 2024, NT should go without much of pressure, just as they did in 2023 and it worked (just that this decision to go all the way against USA didn't work for us well in terms of final results, but the tournament was more positive than negative). I would just like NT to get into Olympics, that's the most important and then to play as an underdog in Olympics, which we surely are. When we are underdogs, we usually play very quality basketball. Most important thing that NT is silently and slowly, but obviously improving which is overlooked by cryings for the lack of medals. The overlooked positive also is that we have at least 4 pieces who stand right on the edge of becoming serious players (meaning EL material), that's Tubelis, Rubstavicius, Sirvydis, Marciulionis. They are potential X factors. We didn't have such amount of boderlining talents in 2012, 2016, 2020, and that's just a scratch as even bigger stints of NT material prospects will be knocking into the NT doors in upcoming years. This positive shouldn't be overlooked, and however you watch, we'll have a big step forward in 2024 if we collect those 8 best players ATM. That's the big if (knowing Ulanovas, Grigonis issues), but knowing that it's Olympics, I hope for the best.

In 2012 Kaukenas with 7.8ppg, Pocius, 7.2ppg, Jasikevicius 6.8ppg

In 2024 I see Jokubaitis with 12-14ppg, Iggy 12-14ppg, Grigonis 10-14ppg (my projection is that both Jokubaitis and Brazdeikis will be superior to Grigonis in 2024 summer, more explosive/athletic, while Grigonis will be focusing on shooting and maybe even play a little bit less with the ball than he did in 2022).

2012 had more facilitation with Jasikevicius, Kalnietis, but 2024 guards can way exceed it with scoring. Specially if Jokubaitis and Brazdeikis will make another big stride forward which I expect.

Catch and shoot. That's the main role that I see for Grigonis, just as he has now with PAO. He's elite at that. Grigonis shoots, while Jokubaitis and Iggy primarily goes for strong slashes and disrupting the defenses. If this trio will play well and shoot well (Rokas 55% three in WC and Iggy 52%), then we can expect that Sabonis will have much more freedom too and will give us bigger scoring boost inside as well as great ball movement and chemistry between those pieces. IMO, even Sedekerskis should shoot a little but more. He can do it. He didn't shot the ball much, but 37.5% three for PF is solid. And he's a great cutter. If I'm the coach I like what I can do with those 8 pieces and you have a big like Sabonis who is a glue big. The most important thing is to limit JV's minutes to 12-15mpg. This has to be done.

PS: Please, Shawshank, don't come and reply with "But American guards will..." blah blah. Seriously, don't Post has nothing to do with that shit which you repeated here 20 times in 2 weeks.

 

[Shawshank2]

Dinosour expert


why you comparing always with the past? to win 2020s medal team will need to beat not the past,but present higher level basketball


Compare Jokubaitis/Brazdeikis to Shai,Schroder,Bogdanovich,Mills,Booker,Doncic,Four nier how they matchup vs them


Compare core 8-9 players of LTU 2024 not to 2012,but to 2024 Canada 2024 Serbia 2024 France 2024 Germany and so on


They will need to beat them.Having more tallent than LTU 2012 or LTU 2016 wont help alot because todays competion is clearly better than it was 10 years ago.


You better open your eyes and see what is happening globally,not just what is happening in lithuanian garden otherwise you simply wont get it why better on tallent NT compare to 10 years ago shows worse results.

Opponenst strenght also matters not just your own

 

[Straight forward2]

Dinosour expert


why you comparing always with the past? to win 2020s medal team will need to beat not the past,but present higher level basketball


Compare Jokubaitis/Brazdeikis to Shai,Schroder,Bogdanovich,Mills,Booker,Doncic,Four ni​er how they matchup vs them

LOL, so you just had to come up with the same argument again! Seriously, dude?

I'm comparing current with the past because of simple thing - it's important to move forward, to constantly improve. That's, IMO, should be our primarily goal and orientation. What we can truly control is our own development and improvement. As the small country we should walk extra miles all the time, to put it more job and effort than countries like France, Serbia (now Canada) and so on. You never can control what others have, but it's important to track your own development. As in psychology - compare yourself with your yesterday's self, not with others, if you want to truly grow. There will always be better teams, or almost all the time will be better teams (theoretically it's possible that Lithuania wins WC or Olympics), cause we as small country can't really compete with USA when they bring their A team. If I see that our NT is improving I treat is as positive. If you will take the point of view of wanting to win it all, you will always be disappointed and you won't progress. In my opinion, maybe there have been too much negativity about NT recently and Kuz talked about it. This summer was different and NT fans gave a lot of positive feedback to the team. That's important, that's important to grow and value that growth of our own, cause the worst thing what can happen is linking NT with only stress and negativity. In tournaments when there's too much pressure and only negative feedback from society our results are bad, even worse than our status quo capabilities (2011). In my opinion NT received too much hate in 2016-2021 period. And here my attitude is changing. I also used to say like Kleiza today says - let's not lower the bar, let's demand medals and so on, but no - it's artificial carriage. When you dig deeper into pedagogy and psychology of development, you will find that positive affirmation is always more effective than pressuring or punishing, condemnation. Like with kids in highschool - the best of them have their natural interest and you don't need to push them, you just help them and encourage them. I think this negativity and increased attention and following by media made more harm than good, now players feel those high demands and condemnations much more than previously, they use social media and all them read comments. I have no doubt that the record of absences have a lot to do with that. Why should I risk my body, emotions and time which I can dedicate to my family for just to receive a lot of hate and negativity? I think LTU BB community should make another step forward and become smarter, to enjoy to support NT unconditionally like their own children (not all parents do that unfortunately), to live with wins and losses, to enjoy the growth, not only highest quality success, and to build more positive environment. We (including me) have been very hardcore fans and super demanding, super strict. It's time to be smarter, subtler​ and more matured, we have to learn to value smaller things. It's a must development because bigger countries reached the same level of BB culture that we used to have as an advantage, the competition never was as crazy as now (specially with Canada emerging as a contender). In a global world to control the results is much much harder than previously and medals shouldn't be the only criteria of success anymore. We even witnessing that good BB countries are missing the tournaments and sometimes several ones in a row like Latvia, Croatia, Turkey and so on. That's why it's important to track our own development and to learn how to enjoy NTs little improvements and expect good results without negativity and frustration. It would create much healthier environment, and actually only improve our chances to win something big here and there.

 

[Shawshank2]

Because every basketball expert is reapeating backourt players level is deciding factor in 2020s basketball. And medal podiums of last 5 years support that 100%

Without elite perimeter star nobody won medals recently !


When i see such information and im saying how i see,i dont give shit u like or not.

If team results on medal podium will change I will talk accordingly.Right now for me is clear what is deciding factor in 2020s basketball.



Improvement is done when u judge yourself with the best of your time.Not judging things from diffrent decade as main argument.

Lithuania basketball was higher in 2010s world basketball map compared where Lithuania basketball is in 2020s in world basketball map.


That doesnt mean LTU 2010s was more tallented than 2020s NT.But in that era 2010 players was achieving better results,because for that time that level was good enough.

Tallent from LTU 2010s also unlikely would win medals in 2020s basketball.



Final results depends= 50% of our own level and 50% of your opponents level. Opponents in 2020s in my opinion is clearly better.

I see 9-10 Tony Parkers calibre on perimeter in fiba 2020s compared to only 3-4 Tony Parkers calibre in 2010s decade in fiba tournaments.

 

[Straight forward2]

You don't get it, don't you? I don't disagree that individually strong guards are game changers today. I disagree that repeating 100 times the same trivial point that every school boy understands now is not stupid, do you get it? Stop it, 20 times repeating that in a row is enough. You are debating with ghosts that you create in your head.

In my opinion FIBA basketball became so competitive that even having elite perimeter players can't guarantee you anything. Doncic can't reach medals anymore, he doesn't have good enough team. Larkin couldn't lead pretty talented Turkish team to medals. Serbia with Micic and Bog failed it in 2019 and so on. Simply FIBA competition became super deep. There's like 12-14 teams that can fight for top spots generally. Previously it wasn't the case. There was bigger gap between top contenders and better teams. So now even having elite guards don't guarantee you anything and off course it's even harder to win something without them. That's why I say we have to learn to enjoy smaller things as NT cause even when we'll have elite guards, it will be extremely difficult to win something cause it's a big gamble these days, many teams can beat each other.

The way I see it, FIBA basketball became much deeper, like every team has some NBA players and so on, but when it comes to those top elite players, world class players, I don't think FIBA is better now. Parker, Dragic, Manu, Rubio, Mills > Doncic, SGA, Murray, Schroder, Wiggins, or it's equal at best.

To be honest outside Slovenia (Doncic) and Canada (SGA, Murray, Wiggins) there's no top tier level guards today. So you just need to avoid Canada and USA not to get some sort of guard freak or freaks (Doncic has too crappy team around him and to me now Slovenia doesn't seem too scary). The same Schroder is just a random decent player in the NBA, good bench piece, Bogdanovic basically too. At the beginning of 2000s you get Serbia with Stojakovic, Argentina with Manu, France with Parker, Germany with Dirk (who was playing like 7 feet guard generally), or Spain with Pau (and Pau, IMO, was better fit to FIBA than Jokic and Giannis are). In terms of the deadliest individuals FIBA was superior previously. But today it's deeper, NTs are filled with solid NBA role players and good EL players and that makes the competition super deep. Previously NTs used to be more reliable on one superstar, now there's a bunch of teams who are super deep, but without All- NBA material. That's the difference.

BTW, speaking about Star power, about word class material, Lithuania isn't in the worst situation heading forward. Sabonis is 4th best European in the NBA, and All NBA guy, and we potentially getting another ALL NBA material in Buzelis. So potentially LTU may have 2 All NBA pieces in 2027 WC and 2028 OG. Specially the key is Buzelis who is generally a perimeter player. For example I don't see who is next Spaniard as All NBA guy after Gasol. They don't have such material generally.

In my opinion our chances to have very good team in the future are pretty great, specially looking retrospectively from LTU BB history We have special generation coming in terms of depth. I think it will be crazy deep wave of talent (EL talent primarily). Add Buzelis and Sabonis as star power to that depth and you get potentially very nice picture. If Buzelis doesn't pan out into FIBA star or superstar, we may lack that world class game changer potentially. Some-one who can truly make a difference with exceptional talent, as SGA did in WC 2023.

 

[arturcia2]

I think it's time to change approach to teams selection. It's better to take young and hungry studs rather old useless scrubs. Guys like Kariniauskas, Normantas, Žukauskas, Maldūnas or even Dimša and Bendžius should not be nowhere near NT. Coaches must take 7-8 proven players and add 4-5 young guys. This would make interesting combination of experience and youth.
For example our experienced core can be this:
PG Jokubaitis
SG Grigonis
SF Brazdeikis, Butkevičius
PF Sedekerskis, Kuzminskas
C Sabonis, Valančiūnas

Add young guys like those:
PG Marčiulionis
SG Rubštavičius, Sirvydis
C Tubelis

But there is one big problem. Next summer team will have so little time to prepare for qualifiers, so again there will be bunch of so called "experienced" shity LKL players in NT

 

[Straight forward2]

I think it's time to change approach to teams selection. It's better to take young and hungry studs rather old useless scrubs. Guys like Kariniauskas, Normantas, Žukauskas, Maldūnas or even Dimša and Bendžius should not be nowhere near NT. Coaches must take 7-8 proven players and add 4-5 young guys. This would make interesting combination of experience and youth.
For example our experienced core can be this:
PG Jokubaitis
SG Grigonis
SF Brazdeikis, Butkevičius
PF Sedekerskis, Kuzminskas
C Sabonis, Valančiūnas

Add young guys like those:
PG Marčiulionis
SG Rubštavičius, Sirvydis
C Tubelis

But there is one big problem. Next summer team will have so little time to prepare for qualifiers, so again there will be bunch of so called "experienced" shity LKL players in NT

This Olympic cycle we can generally forget about it. Maksvytis clearly showed that he would rather hire any mediocre scrub, take Cizauskas from 5th or whatever French league if necessary, but won't be an architect of the NT improvement plan. We didn't win anything in 2022, 2023 and wasted 4 positions at least (well, Kariniauskas had one good game against USA I give him some credit for it, but it was one day joy which didn't impact the tournament's outcome). When he won't have any at least semi-serious substitute for Jokubaitis at 1 in 2024 it will be the consequence of this attitude. I just hope that Tubelis joins NT in 2024, at least that would be a step forward. Overall I treat this Olympic cycle as the total waste so far. We had talent that we could develop and draw closer to the NT, but we didn't move a finger. When federation made a move and organized reserve NT camp, Maksvytis simply didn't care even to give Maciulionis a slightest chance. The key game came and Kariniauskas had nice bagel in the statistics...and Serbian perimeter players just were slicing our defense as the bread for breakfast. I don't know how we became a basketball province, but that's what happens when you hire provincials who have no time to even work with the NT. It's on federation too. I have no idea how our basketball management became so tragic. Ever since 2019 when Adomaitis retired it's total chaos and np signs of any real deal personality who can handle this process. It's a big shame. Balciunas made a big mistake when he made NT a bitch of Zalgiris and allowed Maksvytis to skip windows and to care a little fuck (no time anyway, he can barely survive Zalgiris games mentally) about the whole pyramid of LTU basketball. Permanent crisis of LTU coaching continues and like it wouldn't be enough our federation is sucking balls ever since 2019. That's what really frustrating.

 

[Shawshank2]

NT fans and federation should be grateful that euroleague coach agreed to work without holiday,he will say bye after olympic summer

NT team need Maksvytis more than euroleague coach need to work in summers without real holiday.


Next coach will be from LKL and will be simply weaker coach in all areas

In japan working coach with 9th place in 2017 and 2019 9th place finishes did worse job with NT and didnt beat no strong teams


Maksvytis 2022-2023 > Adomaitis 2017-2019


I dont see who federation gonna hire in 2025 that wouldnt become simply worse compared to Maksvytis

Federation head Gedvilas repeated head coach must be lithuanian and bla bla ...that is very old school mindset,but its other conversation.

 

[Straight forward2]

Kurtinaitis was free for example. He potentially could work full time NT coach, or at the very least wouldn't skip FIBA windows.

Kazlauskas was able to operate as the head of the whole pyramid, Adomaitis was at least trying to do that (and he was brilliant in windows). I don't get that feeling from Maksvytis. He never talked about Olympic cycle. He never showed that he cares about the future, always looking how to survive now and tries to do that with mediocre pieces as the end of the bench. And that never works, but our mediocre coaches keep repeating "we can't go with youngsters". Why you can't? We constantly lose with those mediocrities.

Your comparison is artificial cause 2018-2019 NT<<<2022-2003 NT. Maksvytis had much better team. Adomaitis lost only one game that he truly had to win, but it still was more or less 50/50. It's the game against Greece. Maksvytis in 2022 lost to Slovenia who i think wasn't stronger and later it was only obvious (as Bosnia beat them and Poland knocked them out). Maksvytis got some credit for beating USA, that's all. Overall the result is trash.

Another thing. Adomaitis didn't miss a single young player who could be integrated to the NT. There was no prospects, literally at that time. It was slightly too soon for Jokubaitis in 2019. While Maksvytis missed or ignored tons of talents and he didn't care. He ignored Sirvydis in 2022, cut Sedekerskis, in 2023 cut Tubelis, D. Giedraitis, ignored Marciulionis and generally Rubstavicius (who could receive direct ticket to the camp basically). There's tons of talent now around NT now, but Maksvytis is not a person who can properly control this process and foster NT to the most optimal improvement path. Specially it was seen that Maksvytis doesn't understand the issue of NTs when he let go Marciulionis. Not only that we lack true facilitators and creative guys after Jokuvaitis, but Maksvytis didn't understand that without stud guards defensively in perimeter and athletic guys you won't go far these days. I have zero doubt that Kazlauskas could had been testing Marciulionis and Velicka heavily and no doubt we see Marciulionis in the main camp.

The way NT culture is handled recently is something like this: Kazlauskas<Adomaitis<Maksvytis. We getting worse and worse. Now we have a coach who makes a joke of the NT with Cizauskases and Maldunases and literally has no time or wish to control all the processes of the NT. It's a dead end basically. I never thought we would look so amateurish. I believe Maksvytis never mentioned a word Olympic cycle a single time in 2 years since he's a head coach. That says a lot.

 

[Hepcat2]

In my opinion, maybe there have been too much negativity about NT recently and Kuz talked about it. This summer was different and NT fans gave a lot of positive feedback to the team. That's important, that's important to grow and value that growth of our own, cause the worst thing what can happen is linking NT with only stress and negativity. In tournaments when there's too much pressure and only negative feedback from society our results are bad, even worse than our status quo capabilities (2011). In my opinion NT received too much hate in 2016-2021 period. And here my attitude is changing.... I think this negativity and increased attention and following by media made more harm than good, now players feel those high demands and condemnations much more than previously, they use social media and all them read comments. I have no doubt that the record of absences have a lot to do with that. Why should I risk my body, emotions and time which I can dedicate to my family for just to receive a lot of hate and negativity?

Agggghhhh! But with respect to heaping abuse upon (certain) Lithuanian players you yourself have been the single worst offender on this forum for several years!

Now we have a coach who makes a joke of the NT with Cizauskases and Maldunases....

​
And you're still doing it! No better PF/C than Gabrielius Maldūnas was willing to compete for his slot at camp. And no, that youngster who limped into camp with two sprained ankles was most certainly not a better pick.

 

[Hepcat2]

I think it's time to change approach to teams selection. It's better to take young and hungry studs rather old useless scrubs. Guys like Kariniauskas, Normantas, Žukauskas, Maldūnas or even Dimša and Bendžius should not be nowhere near NT. Coaches must take 7-8 proven players and add 4-5 young guys. This would make interesting combination of experience and youth.
For example our experienced core can be this:
PG Jokubaitis
SG Grigonis
SF Brazdeikis, Butkevičius
PF Sedekerskis, Kuzminskas
C Sabonis, Valančiūnas

Add young guys like those:
PG Marčiulionis
SG Rubštavičius, Sirvydis
C Tubelis

But there is one big problem. Next summer team will have so little time to prepare for qualifiers, so again there will be bunch of so called "experienced" shity LKL players in NT

I disagree. The national team is not a training exercise. The best available players regardless of age should be selected.

 

[Hepcat2]

While Maksvytis missed or ignored tons of talents and he didn't care. He ignored Sirvydis in 2022, cut Sedekerskis, in 2023 cut Tubelis, D. Giedraitis, ignored Marciulionis and generally Rubstavicius (who could receive direct ticket to the camp basically).

With the exception of Tadas Sedekerskis not a single one of the players you mentioned above showed enough in 2022-23 to merit inclusion onto Team Lietuva in 2022-23. And Sedekerskis was a lot better in 2023 than he was in 2022. Moreover both Deividas Sirvydis and Dovydas Giedraitis have now stumbled out of the gate in the 2023-24 season. You might want to wait until these and other players put up some good numbers before touting them as bonafide candidates for the national team.

 

[Straight forward2]

Agggghhhh! But with respect to heaping abuse upon (certain) Lithuanian players you yourself have been the single worst offender on this forum for several years!


​
And you're still doing it! No better PF/C than Gabrielius Maldūnas was willing to compete for his slot at camp. And no, that youngster who limped into camp with two sprained ankles was most certainly not a better pick.

This has nothing to do with offending. Who is Maldunas in NT context? Something really really bad, or trash as Americans say. That's true, that has nothing to do with being incorrect. Maldunas is useful player for such club as Liekabelis, but he shouldn't even be close NT. That's national team after all which should dictate certain level and Maksvytis doesn't understand that it seems. Did Maldunas help in WC? No, not even close. He had no chance against Serbia. Zero. My point about NT is that fans should avoid insulting, direct messaging to players (as in Kariniauskas case), to do not spit all the emotions on instagram pages of players and so on. I never do that. If I see Zemaitis in NT, I will say - this is a shitty move, but it will have zero to do with insulting players. I will say JV is horrible p'n'r defender and that has zero to do with anything cause JV knows is perfectly well himself.

 

[Shawshank2]

Dinoosur expert


When im judging NT coach i judge how they worked with top 9 players from nba/euroleague

You judging caoch how they working with 11-18th spot players


Adomaitis lose to Greece in 2017 (who finished 8th) was way bigger collapse/failure than loosing to 2022 Eurobasket gold medal winners and loosing to 2023 Silver medal winners in playoofs.

My opinion Maksvytis > Adomaitis and its not even close



Kurtinaitis is like 63,he is already older now than Kazlauskas was in 2016 and he didnt work with high quality team for 3 years.He is name from past not real modern coach it would be clear downgrade

But yeah something like Zibenas,Kuritinaitis.Seskus lkl coaches will be choosen and they are clearly worse than todays euroleague coach who made top 8 with like 12-14th best euroleague roster.

Even our federation gets it and thats why they allowing euroleague coach not being part in window games .If they will start saying something they simply gonna lose euroleague coach and will get lkl coach instead in main fiba events too.


You simply ignoring reality of coaches levels only because your feeling is hurt because euroelague head coach chooses players that can help in next 2 weeks games more than go with your fantasy rebuilding 3-4 years plans in men NT with raw youngsters


Im told you 2 years ago here when Kazys was hired he is not knowns for using youngsters and happend exactly that

Same will happen in 2024 when there will be no real preparation time.He clearly will go with players from 2022/2023 NT

 

[Straight forward2]

I'm not saying Adomaitis is better coach than Maksvytis. They are more or less on the same tier. But to me it's important NT culture. I don't even feel that we have a head coach. I feel like we are leasing the coach who coaches in big tournaments. To me head coach of NT absolutely must control and project whole LTU BB vision. If he doesn't do that, he's not the head coach. The head coaches were Garastas, Kazlauskas. I believe Saras would do that, he wouldn't ignore talent. Taking Jokubaitis to Barca and give him so much responsibility in year 1 requires guts. Maksvytis doesn't do that and he is not handling the whole process. He's too busy and that's not his style. And that's shitty situation. These 3-4 pieces is not just like what can be useful in this tournament, but it is also what will you have in next 2 tournaments as well. If you shit on your head in 2022, you better be know what's coming in 2023 and 2024 (and now 2025 cause Maksvytis shitted on his head in 2023 as well).

You also ignore 2 things. Maksvytis had much better team, specially 2022. And that Maksvytis lost to Slovenia in 2022 group stage. We had to take that game.

I personally don't understand why to celebrate the fact that slightly better coach as Maksvytis (slightly better than say Adomaitis, Kemzura, Kurtinaitis, Zibenas) coaches NT while we losing. We still losing. Where's the benefits? And the worst thing we have no vision and ignore talent that we could at least prepare for future big wins. But, no, we lose and waste time in terms of adding talent. I don't like this situation. I much rather take any young coach who wants to build long term, who dedicates himself 100% to the NT, who will lose just as Maksvytis did, but he will add pieces that have to be added and work with all the talent pool we have. You say Maksvytis chooses players that can help now, but that's not true. They can't help. Simply can't. I don't understand how people ignore this thing. They say - youngsters can't help. Yes, most likely not. But those who going instead of them definitely can't help and they didn't. It's funny how little people pay attention that those "experienced" scrubs never help with some super super rare exception as Juskevicius in 2014. They simply don't. And that's when coaches look silly with their arguments. It doesn't work. When you invest to talent, you at least really make an investment and soon it will be beneficial. When you take experienced scrubs, you have nothing now, and nothing in the nearest future. Simple logic.

 

[Straight forward2]

Another big problem with Maksvytis and overlooked thing (from today's perspective) that he cut Sedekerskis in 2022. He was legitimate EL combo forward. There's little difference between 2022 and 2023 Sedekerskis. He had to be taken. Be he was benching him on the bench and played his loved Zukauskas in FIBA windows and took Zukauskas to Eurobasket. Good performance by Sedekerskis in 2023 is big rebuke to Maksvytis. We can see that Sedekerskis potentially could be different maker defensively in 2022, just as he was against Montenegro. He could slow down Cancar, or F. Wagner who dropped +30 against us, and specially he could be good fit against Garuba in most important game. When we look at the most important game of WC against Serbia, we have Sedekerskis as the best player with 21eff. He basically looked like the only one ready to match Serbians intensity at both ends. And Maksvytis cut that kind of piece from 2022 roster for scrubs. This is, IMO, intolerable and red flag mistake.

All this makes me think Maksvytis has been a mess with the NT so far. It's interesting that he not even considered retiring. Sabonis couldn't hold out Adomaitis from retiring in similar situation.

​

 

[Shawshank2]

One coach is top 8 euroleague coach,other is top 4 japan league coach. Tiers is not same

Rosters for both Maksvytis and Adomaitis was very similiar.One tournament had 95% of best players,in other tournament had around 50% of best players. Again Kazys not Adomaitis reached top 8 first time since Kazlauskas.

Head coach job is to coach 10 best men lithuanian players .Controling basketball piramid is federation job.

In 90s lithuanian basketball structure wise was in flinstone stage,stop comparing to 2020s times.


Jasikevicius isnt known for using youngsters in real euroleague battles either .Using generation tallent for 15min and using average young tallent is not the same.

Jasikevicius is known for signing 23-26 old not proven players and making from them high quality players,he wasnt using raw 19-22 youngsters in euroleague either like u suggesting always.



Kariniauskas helped more than raw Sirvydis did in 2023. Vysniauskas gave Kariniauskas 7 for the tournament from what was expected. Kariniauskas helped more than Zemaitis,Gustas,Mazutis,Vasiliauskas types of the past backups

You dont understand meaning of word helps for 10-12th players. For deep bench players help is if they manage to do that in atleast one game..Winning muist be done by top 9 players,10-12th must help in some games.Kariniauskas played well in Greece and Usa games.


Maksvytis was a mess? our NT was in games versus best teams and was eiliminated by 2 final teams.

Even with only 50% of best lithuanian players he broken 7 year spell of NT not making top 8. Let alone zalgiris 2023 run.

What Kazys is doing latety he building case for 4th best coach in Lithuania history. Its a mess hapenning in your head not seeing what Kazys did in last few years


He came to NT that missed olympics and couldnt even make top 8

He will leave with NT already made top 8 and maybe making olympics again.If that happens i will rank his job very highly seeing with what average talent he is forced to work on perimeter compared to opponnets coaches.

 

[Straight forward2]

You can't follow this discussion because of 2 things: lacking of analytical skills and you bias, Maksvytis is your ex Neptunas hero.

FOA, again, what's the difference? Maksvytis is working well with Zalgiris, but NT is losing? Where's the benefits of having Maksvytis. Reaching top 8 means little when we had open path for it. He had to beat Montenegro and really really weak Greece who barely survived against NZ and so on. It was B level teams, like Hungary and Bosnia in 2022. That's not an achievement, that's nothing. On the paper 6th spot looks decent for some, but those who watched WC knows we had red carpet for that laid. The only thing that Maksvytis really did in these 2 years is beating USA. USA was not tanking, they played within their 100% capabilities, so that's a real win. Unfortunately it marked with controversy whenever we had to win or to intentionally lose, so even the only positive thing that Maksvytis provided is marked with controversy and disappointment.

Now how in the world you can compare the core of JV, Kuz, Kalnietis 2017 with JV, Sabonis, Grigonis 2022? 2017 was trash compared to 2022 literally. Their 4th best scorer was Adas Juskevicius with 7,2ppg. 2022 team's 4th best scorer was Brazdeikis with 10.7ppg. There's no doubt Maksvytis had absolutely better roster.

You wrong about Jasikevcius. He was always giving chances to youngsters. Like Arlauskas, Uleckas, Jokubaitis in Zalgiris. Then Jokubaitis, Nnaji, Caicedo. I'm not asking consistent playing time, I ask to draw best talent closer to the NT and get their feet wet. Jasikevicius would do that, IMO, and it would give benefits soon.

While when we speak about help it means helping to win NOW. You say that Maksvytis chooses players who he think can help now and that's true. He gave minutes to both Kariniauskas and Maldunas against Serbia and both sucked. Period. Facts. That's so much of helping to win now. It failed. When I speak about helping I look at the most important games and that's knock out stage in this case. He took 2 players who didn't help, that's fact, and we needed their help against Serbia badly. Basketball moving towards 10-11 men rotation in games. The game became so intense and athletic that players can't play 32-36mpg, more like a starter is playing 25-28mpg. Lithuania will benefit so much when we'll have legitimate all EL (at least) level roster of 12 men. Even federations are asking for 14 men rosters now knowing injuries and how intense the game became. So every piece is becoming more and more valuable. What we surely know that Maksvytis took 2 players who were complete zeros against Serbia and helped a shit. I give Kariniauskas credit because of USA, but it's more like USA showed how cocky and funny they are not even scouting their opponents. They would give Kariniauskas what he has the best - slashing to his left and posting up smaller players. But at the end of the day, when we speak about medals and achievements, Karinia and Maldunas were completely empty. Zero help. If we speak about random performances here and there, I don't see how talented youngsters can't provide that. I'm actually almost 100% sure that Tubelis could have showed some real sparkles here and there, and Maldunas was just random guy out there, useless.

2 wasted tournaments, zero credit to the talent which we finally have, no appearance in FIBA window, cut of Sedekerskis in 2022, plenty of lost close games, 1 achievement against USA. That's what I have with Maksvytis. It's been a rough period again and what's the worst we didn't do our home work trying to get out of the hole. That's the saddest part. How federation, BTW, should develop youngsters? They organized reserve NT camp, Marciulionis was clearly the best PG (the most needed position), and Maksvytis didn't even invite him to the camp? Balciunas had to order Maksvytis to invite him? It's on the head coach. He takes responsibility and makes decisions. Maksvytis did it and it ended with being completely toothless against Serbia which was the key game.

 

[Dreamcatcher2]

All this makes me think Maksvytis has been a mess with the NT so far. It's interesting that he not even considered retiring. Sabonis couldn't hold out Adomaitis from retiring in similar situation.
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Adomaitis got big irrational hate in Lithuania including you here. After a while you began to speak about him in a way better way.

During the tournament you wrote yourself that Maksvytis took Karianiauskas for a reason and that you had been wrong about that (probably it was after USA game). And now you changed your mind only because of the game against Serbia where almost everybody sucked? And overall do you often see 11th-12th players delivering in play off games?

And why are you writing about Tubelis at all if he anyway wasn't ready and in spite of that he was kept until the end?