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2025 Lithuanian NT

  • Thread starter Thread starter Straight forward2
  • Start date Start date
I disagree that Domas didn't play hard for Lithuania. He was giving his best effort, it's just that it's tough for him to quickly adjust to FIBA and he was forced to play off his position many times. He's a good guy, played tons for Youth NTs, shows dedication to the NT. Let's no forget Jasikevicius skipped NT 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010. It's not like many players playing in each tournament like Valanciunas. I actually think Domas was starting to get it at the end of EB 2022. He needs time to mesh. Even in NBA he starts slower and becoming a beast in the mid season. I hope he gives his best in 2027 and 2028.

Why Jakucionis is out? When asked about NT he said he gonna think about it after the season. It's not even clear yet if he's going to NBA or coming back to NCAA (it would be crazy, but who knows). Balciunas said there's no bad news from either, but nuances that should be settled. Domas I think 95% out, but there was no any indications towards KJ. JV came to NT after being selected 5, Sabonis came after being selected 11. Matas didn't come after being selected 11. It can go either way. Not every lottery guy chooses to skip NT. NBA can only suggest to skip, but can't force players.

Buzelis dedication won't be as Valanciunas and Kalnietis. But it's super rare anyway. Look at Jokic. He's born in Serbia, played all Youth teams and still he is a big question mark each summer. Cause he's a superstar. Or take Giannis. Buzelis has an upside of superstar and that's not always the best for the NT. Sometimes better to have Paty Mills who been just solid NBA player, but a star in FIBA, instead of NBA superstar who shows up only here and there. But to have prime Buzelis (with him I think it's 23-32yo) in some 4-5 tournaments would be nice enough. We would have a very good chances to fight for top spots.

Depends what you mean. If you mean Jokubaitis will leave the deepest footprint from all LTU players in 20s then maybe. Rokas played in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and now about to play in 2025 if healthy. And likely he will continue like that, maybe will skip 2029, but there's a good chance he will play in each and every tournament. But he won't be the best player of Lithuania in 20s. It's much like Kleiza vs Kalnietis situation in 10's. Kleiza was clearly the best individual to play in 10's (maybe competing with JV, but I have Kleiza an edge). Dominating in 2010 and making big things in 2012, 2013. But Kalnietis was playing in all tournaments except 2014 when got injured. But Jokubaitis will surely not be the key player. Even now Buzelis already passed him in terms of individual level. Buzelis reached a starters level basically. His explosiveness, athleticism, all around abilities is on other level. Today no-one would start Jokubaitis and if he given Matas current minutes, he wouldn't be able to put up Buzelis' numbers, his points, rebounds, blocks, assists and defense. Rokas will play bigger role in NT 2025 because of position and will have an edge because of experience playing FIBA, but Buzelis is already better player.

Rokas is good and I'm very happy to have him as NT fan, but he'll never be world class. I see him more as complimentary piece next Buzelis, Jakucionis, Sabonis. He will be among top 4 most important pieces, he has been even since 2023. Jakucionis will surpass him in 1-2 years. But I kinda see them closing games together in 2027 and 2028 very likely. 2 true ball handlers, true guards who can score and facilitate, that's how I want NT to close games and there's still Buzelis next them at the wing.

One thing what I don't like is that constant talk from Kurtinaitis and Balciunas about the medals. What medals? Who will drop 20 or 24 points per game in this team? Will Jokubaitis drop 24ppg? Will Buzelis? No. Buzelis will be ready to give 20pts in 2028, but not now instantly. Federation really doesn't get what it takes today to contend for medals.
 
Sabonis didnt give me the feeling that he is out of motivation either. He is just a mix of unlucky, clumsy and too one dimensional especially at the end of games. Being an all star player does not necessarily mean that you are a game winner. Lets take Giannis for example. He is an hall of fame player but also a winner? No, he is not.

Depending on foreign products is always risky. If LTU wants to be a power in Europe again, it must be able to raise world class player material in Rytas or in Zalgiris. Though, the best are going to play abroad in Spain or elsewhere. I think the main reason is that the Lithuanian League is too weak.
 
Toruko said:
Sabonis didnt give me the feeling that he is out of motivation either. He is just a mix of unlucky, clumsy and too one dimensional especially at the end of games. Being an all star player does not necessarily mean that you are a game winner. Lets take Giannis for example. He is an hall of fame player but also a winner? No, he is not.

Depending on foreign products is always risky. If LTU wants to be a power in Europe again, it must be able to raise world class player material in Rytas or in Zalgiris. Though, the best are going to play abroad in Spain or elsewhere. I think the main reason is that the Lithuanian League is too weak.
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Indeed having an all star or even all nba guy doesn't guarantee you anything, specially if that's a center (Vucevic meh, Sabonis meh, Marc Gasol in most cases meh and so on). Other positions increases the chances of success. Specially if you have a true guard or all around forward with handles.

No, I don't think it's about LKL. Let's not forget Jasikevicius left to NCAA early, Kaukenas too. And Jasikevicius was the key for the NT. I think it's simple. You either have talent or not. We are blessed with Jakucionis, Buzelis, Jokubaitis, Indrusaitis. We finally have legitimate backcourt talent. Guys who can do things with the ball. Jakucionis is not a product of Spain. He's Vilnius guy. Yeah, left Vilnius early, but he was already BB prodigy playing here in the capital of Lithuania.
 
Straight forward said:
Indeed having an all star or even all nba guy doesn't guarantee you anything, specially if that's a center (Vucevic meh, Sabonis meh, Marc Gasol in most cases meh and so on). Other positions increases the chances of success. Specially if you have a true guard or all around forward with handles.

No, I don't think it's about LKL. Let's not forget Jasikevicius left to NCAA early, Kaukenas too. And Jasikevicius was the key for the NT. I think it's simple. You either have talent or not. We are blessed with Jakucionis, Buzelis, Jokubaitis, Indrusaitis. We finally have legitimate backcourt talent. Guys who can do things with the ball. Jakucionis is not a product of Spain. He's Vilnius guy. Yeah, left Vilnius early, but he was already BB prodigy playing here in the capital of Lithuania.
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Its not about quality but chemistry. A guard who can create for himself at high level is crucial thats right.
 
Toruko said:
Its not about quality but chemistry. A guard who can create for himself at high level is crucial thats right.
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Didn't exactly get what you mean saying it's about chemistry. Whatever the chemistry, Sabonis will never be Pau in FIBA. Different skillset, different profile and Pau is simply better player.
 
Giannis is a winner 100% i my book. His 1 ring is worth more than 2 Durant rings with Warriors.

He brough championship to small market team that no Usa all stars wants to play in Milwaukee.

After Giannis gonna leave Milwaukee that litlle Bucks will be forgotten team again for like 30 years untill they gonna draft one more all timer..Because no seriuos superstar will sign with them.

That Giannis have average rosters both in Fiba and Nba doesnt make him not a winner. Stars who fails multiple times with loaded teams is real not a winners.




I dont trust those foreign products because i dont believe they will be invested like real lithuanians to help every summer.

Lithuania is 2,5 million tiny country its becoming unrelistic to have world class 12men team. When 10 times bigger countries invested seriuos money in their academies in last 20+ years and have 5-10 time bigger pool to choose kids from.

Its unrelistic to be always on top 5 in 2020s levels for tiny country anymore. All sports went way further compared to 1990s amateur sport levels.

LTU NT can have again good team for 5-6 years streach when good generation group will show up.But that such tiny country will be top 5 team for like for 20 years those days wont comeback like 1992-2012 was.

Competion become way deeper than it ever was. Now words that everybody knows how to play is real thing.
 
Straight forward said:
Didn't exactly get what you mean saying it's about chemistry. Whatever the chemistry, Sabonis will never be Pau in FIBA. Different skillset, different profile and Pau is simply better player.
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Its about the inside - outside balance. How players work together etc. Even two solid pick and roll partners might make a significant difference. For example you have a great chase down blocker and a fast guard who can make great decisions in transition or a very solid rolling big who can set great screens and a great passer out of p&r action. Its all about breaking down defenses.
 
Lithuania is 2.8mil population to be precise :) And I disagree about this idea that from now on we are surely out from fiba top 5 long term. Yes, other countries increased their attention to basketball and whatever, but France, Germany and other countries didn't became BB countries. Our advantage is exactly this. We would be out of top 10 FIBA rankings for years if not this fact. Talent comes pretty randomly. Look at Spain. They have the best BB school in Europe and amazing tradition. But currently they are lacking world class guards and world class talent overall. Their best player is Aldama. Nice player, but not Pau, far from that. So it's not really about population. Turkey has 80mill, but their chances to win something is N times smaller than Lithuania's and that's for centuries literally.

For upcoming 10-14 years we have talent to come back to FIBA top 5, after that no-one knows, but my gut feeling is that we will have another 16-20 elite years since 2027. Like we had 1992-2008. Why? Look who's our best ballers now. Sabonis, Buzelis, Jokubaitis, Sirvydis, D. Giedraitis, A. Marciulionis, Rubstavicius...get where I'm going? Yes, they all are kids our past greats. Ignas Sttombergas gonna be a beast. We hear good things about Jasikevicius son who is balling in Turkey. Very high chance that he is next elite PG after Jakucionis. In other words, our BB is now fed by the genes of our greats. Not all countries have that. In other countries, sons of BB greats can easily choose football or what not, but in Lithuania Kleiza's sons will be hooping and they are. We will remain top 5 European basketball farms for sure. The only important thing is to get couple of world class gems at perimeter. For now we got them - Buzelis and KJ. We'll see what's coming after them.
 
Straight forward said:
Lithuania is 2.8mil population to be precise :) And I disagree about this idea that from now on we are surely out from fiba top 5 long term. Yes, other countries increased their attention to basketball and whatever, but France, Germany and other countries didn't became BB countries. Our advantage is exactly this. We would be out of top 10 FIBA rankings for years if not this fact. Talent comes pretty randomly. Look at Spain. They have the best BB school in Europe and amazing tradition. But currently they are lacking world class guards and world class talent overall. Their best player is Aldama. Nice player, but not Pau, far from that. So it's not really about population. Turkey has 80mill, but their chances to win something is N times smaller than Lithuania's and that's for centuries literally.

For upcoming 10-14 years we have talent to come back to FIBA top 5, after that no-one knows, but my gut feeling is that we will have another 16-20 elite years since 2027. Like we had 1992-2008. Why? Look who's our best ballers now. Sabonis, Buzelis, Jokubaitis, Sirvydis, D. Giedraitis, A. Marciulionis, Rubstavicius...get where I'm going? Yes, they all are kids our past greats. Ignas Sttombergas gonna be a beast. We hear good things about Jasikevicius son who is balling in Turkey. Very high chance that he is next elite PG after Jakucionis. In other words, our BB is now fed by the genes of our greats. Not all countries have that. In other countries, sons of BB greats can easily choose football or what not, but in Lithuania Kleiza's sons will be hooping and they are. We will remain top 5 European basketball farms for sure. The only important thing is to get couple of world class gems at perimeter. For now we got them - Buzelis and KJ. We'll see what's coming after them.
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Well, let some of them show something at the highest then we can talk about the future. Guys like Rubstavicius or Sirvydis can be found in any basketball investing country. Your expectations about their development in the future might be too presumptuous. Talent alone will not be enough to establish yourself as the best or second best player in an NBA or EL contending team.
 
Big countries dont need to become basketball countries.Their kids pools still will be atlleast 5 times bigger

Ofcourse its only about population,but damm sure if you have created seriuos academies in your 5 time bigger pools their are finding more and more nba tallent diamonds. Thats what happends in last 15 years


Look what happend with Canada.Its literally impossible to compete with them tallent wise :) Such hockey country dont even care about basketball and have like 15 very good nba players and best worlds perimeter player.

Big country dont need to care,when you have such millions real diamonds come up way more often than from tiny pool.


In 1980s or 1990s was jungle level trainining in poor countries ofcourse no kids came from such trainings..Now you can train proffesionally according to best methods being somewhere in Nigeria because information is easily gettable in 2020s.


Thats why unrelistic its for tiny countries to have elite world class team for long period of time in 20s and gofing further. Like it was in 1980 or 1990s when poor countries had no high quality training possibilities and has no basketball knowledge.

If everybody can get good training information your populationn damm sure is making diffrence !


in 2020s some Sudan can come to fiba with 3 nba players and jumpy athletes and dont play like brianless amateurs anymore like 1990s Angola types did in olympics :)
 
Nah, dude, it doesn't work like this. If that would be the case, UK, Poland, Ukraine would be powerhouses in Europe. But nothing changed, we see the same countries among top 10 FIBA teams. Canada actually has pretty deep BB tradition with legend Steve Nash and such players as Rick Fox and Bill Wennington. Sure, Canada needed Vince Carter to start BB revolution and NBA clubs, but it was decades of work, now they built a culture and harvesting. Romania, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Portugal and so on have no basketball even though they are 3-4 times bigger than Lithuania. It's not just like you say that you build couple of BB schools and boom you have a team :D It takes a lot f work, passion, time, tradition, knowledge. Canada didn't becme basketball force in 10 years. They were building their basketball for 30 years to get there, starting with establishing Raptors and Grizzlies in 1995.
 
Let alone fucking raping and killing paradise Russia :D They have tons of drunk degenerate and zero basketball team among 143mill population :D
 
Im not saying its all about population,ofcourse tradition,possibilites of training matters. But dont need picture that big countries wont take advantage of their population when basketball is getting more and more proffesional in more and more countries compared to jungle training times from 1990s


So if Canada started built their basketball in 1995 with nba teams. So going further they will be bigger and bigger basketball power. They can reach atleast 30-40 nba players at same time in nba.

Those days when Canada sended 0 nba players + like 1 euroleague player and 11 no name players to 2010 fiba world cup wont return.


Opponnets tallents is clearly increasing faster in 2020s and not because they training better or have deeper tradicion



Those Canada,Australia,France,Germany is big and educated countries.Their already builted decent basketball culture and academical systems for kids in last 20 years and number of good players will only increase going further from 2020s too


Even for tradicional powerhouse Serbia and Spain it become seriuos chalenge to compete with them.


What tiny Lithuania can do in this giants battle with limited resources ? Only hope be lucky getting superstar ale Doncic or new Arvydas Sabonis Anything less wont compensate tallent diffrence


LTU NT 2010s didnt need to play NTs with 4-8 nba players on roster like teams from 2024 olympics had . It wasnt a fluke that LTU made top 8 once in last 2 olympic cycles.​

LTU lost last 10 years not because we have weaker NT compared to 2010s, no its because multiple big countries made giant steps forward in last 10-15 years and what they built in last 20 years its not stopping
 
In new podcast with Urbonas Pocius and Kalnietis asked why NT cant win anything anymore for a decade said similair thigs like i did in my last posts.

Basketball level in last 10 years dramatically increased and Kalnietis mentioned even same Sudan example like i did and they arent even top 10 NTs but they can play on very decent level and have multiple nba jumpy athletes. Even Serbia with Jokic had to play for real all 40minutes to eventually beat them

Sudan almost beat Usa A team in friendly game. Such things was unthinkable even 10 years ago.


How things looks right now for any small country it will be real chalenge to stay in top 10 going forward.

I wouldnt suprised when we gonna wake up in some 2032 LTU NT will be like 15-20th in fiba rankings competion is increasing dramatically when best trainings and basketball knowledge is avalaible to anybody.


Without atleast real 3-4 nba players on roster to win medal in fiba going forward its becoming a pipe dream or blindly hope for happy underdog one tournament story that happens once per 5 years to somebody
 
Couple of interesting thoughts indeed. I specially caught that moment that Kalnietis said he wouldn't make such career today as BB became much more switchable. But most interesting that he said JV was the reason why people didn't switch much against LTU cause you would just throw the ball to JV inside and he would punish the opponents. I think later teams would risk with that much more, like Slovenia in Kaunas. They were switching and double teaming bigs and didn't really cared, the court suddenly. But essentially I think using Motiejus Krivas could be interesting for Lithuania going forward. 218cm dude with some obvious skills and mobility can really be a tool there. OK, switch on him, but he will push his defender deeper inside and KJ will surely can make all kind of passes with his size and boom instantly Krivas has an advantage. If his in the paint area you won't stop him.

Another thing, yes, switching kills or slows down a lot of things, specially p'n'r and we have to have switchable line-ups. I believe we will be able to switch with Stombergas. He moves nicely and he's elite shot blocker. Knowing that we also have Buzelis at the wing as uber elite shot blocker, I"m very optimistic about our defensive future line-ups. I actually think that with Buzelis, Stmbergas line-up we will have most rim protecting dominant line-up ever.

Another thing, people speak how ISO dominated BB today is, but it's only 10% of offense at most in NBA. Boston uses the most ISO in NBA and it's only 10.3%. Tons of teams using just 3-4% of ISO BB. Mainly points come from transition, spot up shooting and pick and roll. People who think today p'n'r is dead are wrong. More ISO happens only with superstars as Harden, SGA, Tatum, Edwards and such, but there's not many ISO freaks in BB today. The same with EL I think, the offense is very complex. I found terrific article where you can see a diagram f NBA teams offenses. There's 9 components of offense: cut, hand-ff, iso, off screen, p'n'r handler, p'n'r roller, post up, spot up, transition. In hand-offs Kings is the leader in NBA and that's because of Domas. He is most dominant hand off big and best screener. In p'n'r handler Hornets is by far the best in NBA because of Lamelo Ball. Dude's just running everything and I want Jakucionis be in this situation. KJ is als special with screens and I hope he finds the team where he can go 100% with it.

Now interesting thing that when switching slowed down the offense, teams did one thing - elbow offense. And good news we have Domas who is one of the best at elbow with Jokic in the world. We have to utilize that. Sabonis at the elbow finding cutting Buzelis and shooters, KJ running pick and roll and has multiple decision making options as a tall guard. Basically we have everything, just need more consistent shooting.

Here's that thing:

Yet the boom in offense has been driven by faster pace, if you ask any coach in the league. Switching slowed pace down. So what did teams do to speed it up?

They moved to elbow actions. From the elbow, teams can run a handoff, a pick, a post-up, an isolation. The ball-handler can see defenders coming from any angle while he waits for off-ball actions to develop and so probably won’t be forced into a turnover. Elbow operators like Nikola Jokic are simply too talented to have that many options and not score. When loads of actions chain together — say, a cross screen on the elbows for a post entry, combined with a double stagger on the weakside, followed by that cutter receiving a handoff from the post to attack the empty side of the floor — defenses can’t do much other than hope. (Or concede an open three-pointer by helping across long distances.)

https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2024/1...ion-pick-and-rolls-stats-adjustments-counters

And here's that perfect article where you can find how the offense of each NBA team looks:

https://www.basketballpoetry.com/p/how-differently-do-nba-teams-play
​
 
i wonder what lithuania's starting 5 will look this summer, assuming buzelis plays and sabonis does not.

3 players who should be locks are jv, buzelis jokubatis, the only question is probably who would take the last 2 starter spots between iggy, sirvydis and sedekerskis. i could see buzelis potentially struggling in his first ever fiba event but he can definitely figure it out unless old head kurtinaitis benches him after 1 bad game. despite his age he's already lithuania's second/third best player and for sure the best among non centers. no other lithuanian player, currently playing in europe, would average 13ppg on a semi competitive nba team for 2 months straight.

very interested to see how buzelis adapts to fiba basketball and how lithuania's coaching staff ends up using him. a big part of his success currently comes from having a good 3p shooting center and nba rules like 3s in the paint and wider court. im hoping he gets used more on ball with lithuania as i cant imagine there's plenty of guys out there who can guard a 209cm ball handler who's also a better athlete than 95% of the competition.
 
So Kleiza basically didn't say much. He at least admitted that Pacesas words made only harm. About Buzelis it's something like both NT and NBA will try to make some kind compromise that both sides would be happy, so I assume Matas will have individual program and also play in the NT. Even though nothing is given yet.

The same with Jakucionis. From Kleiza's comment I take it that KJ already has a decision to be in the draft (no surprise). And after the draft all situation will be monitored and decisions made.

Well, I'm fairly optimistic that Matas will come, but it's far from safe bet.

zalias, yes, Matas is second best player in the country today. But in NT it's not always direct transition. Buzelis will need to learn to play in tighter space and he will struggle a bit physically as FIBA games are way more physical than NBA games (specially than regular season games). No-one should expect very big things yet from Matas, but it would be nice to see him getting his feet vet. If Matas and KJ play this summer, I would say our chances to contend in 2027 increases 30-40%. In 2027 both will be beasts already, IMO, specially Matas, but it's really something new to taste FIBA whatever your age is. So unless you are Durant, you don't dominate from the scratch. Even Lebron needed time to figure out FIBA.
 
Usually very confident Kleiza came back and with head down saying: Pacesas remarks didnt helped lithuania basketball

He clearly got couple harsh words comming from nba lithuanians and that remark it didnt helped news is not good.



Buzelis and Jakucionis he is talking how young they are and talented as possible future leaders but not a single word about playing in 2025 Eurobasket.

Kleiza talking how important for Bulls future Buzelis is that sounds more "no" than yes for 2025 if read between lines.


He still believe they will figured and lithuanians from usa will play. This is empty remarks saying nothing,its seems just hiding real answers.

​

How i see situation today from Kleiza remarks only Valanciunas maybe will come from those 4 but even he is angry at federation and their newly hired coaches.



That Pakenas didnt ask direct question about participation in 2025.It shows most likely before podcast Kleiza asked do not ask this question because Kleiza didnt get no answers or those answers is not possitive.
 
Kleiza says he thinks there's more chances to see Buzelis than contrary. I kinda find this summer nearly a key cause it's chance for Matas to build some kind of connection with LTU, not only paying respect to his parents. JV's presence will already be questionable in 27/28. So this summer with JV, getting to know with Iggy, Jokubaitis, Sirvydis with whom he should mesh pretty easily would be perfect. Also KJ would be nice coming after draft cause obviously they look like a twins in this perspective. With each day Buzelis status will be heavier and heavier, contract is bigger and bigger. We need to build some natural connection. If Buzelis will like to play for the NT only because of JV and saying thanks to his parents this way, it's gonna be tough to expect him. So I really hope he show up this summer and understand how fun is to play for the NT.
 
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