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Kaunas Zalgiris Thread

  • Thread starter Thread starter Straight forward2
  • Start date Start date
ever since evans got injured brazdeikis has been playing much better and averaging almost 14ppg, last game his playmaking was also very impressive. you can definitely see his progress at reading the situations better, taking smarter shots and just not forcing as much overall. he's also starting to shoot better from 3, since that game against fenerbache he's shooting 52% from 3 (9-17). he reminds me of brandon davies in his first year with zalgiris a little bit. Davies also was underwhelming at the start of the season, looked like a low iq player, but at the end he become a beast and helped zalgiris reach the F4. i feel like brazdeikis will be much better next season if he stays with zalgiris
 
Brazdeikis benefited of Evans' injury. But surely not Zalgiris. And anyway his defense is bad. Yesterday after comeback he allowed Papapetrou to hit almost open three in a situation when the Greek shouldn't have got that opportunity. After that Zalgiris didn't come back. However, it's not Brazdeikis' fault that the team doesn't have a pg and Lekavicius is out of shape. But on the other hand, when there is that good pg and a leader of the team (Evans) Brazdeikis can't show all his potential because he doesn't get enough opportunities to do what he does the best - to play 1 vs 1. I would say the best way to do - is to improve like a player (game reading, team defense, assists) so that he could stick to the system better. Otherwise, he is not so effective player because a main ball handler should be a good pg who makes the team better. Even when some Clyburn does iso too much it's becoming a bit problematic sometimes and he is individually much stronger than Brazdeikis.
 
With every passed week Zalgiris have bigger and bigger problems with PG position

First few weeks emotionaly team survived,now everything looks bad when players must do something 1 vs 1 all the time and no floor general to put everything in right spots.

No wonder Brazdeikis looks better in this atmosphere,but that not zalgiris playing style that brought so manny good wins this season.

They will not win 1vs 1 offensive tallent battles for 40minutes versus euroleague clubs.

Slow the game down and make it physical,not get run over by Madrid tallent teams like tonight.

But for that team need smart floor general to control the tempo.


2 additions Polonara+Taylor so far total nightmares...
 
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One of the craziest Zalgiris' games ever. First half completely open, wild pace game. Second game, a good oldschool EL grind game. 2 key guys in Brazdeikis and specially Ulanovas had a day off basically, but Zalgiris snatched crazy win. Zalgiris' role players carried the team this time.

It's pretty crazy that Zalgiris actually has great chances to make to the playoffs and now has 3 wins in a row. What a season.

Baldwin's crazy all court three, Haye's put back poster, Butkevicius hammer, Iggies dunk in the traffic, Taylor's pirouettes, Nebo's blocks and reverse allay-up lay up in the traffic. Literally I didn't understand what is happening.
 
Brazdeikis recently providing what I was lacking from him. More dunks in the traffic. He can explode like that. From NT point of view Iggy's season is the biggest benefit. He's learning. Tonight made many mistakes defensively and threes didn't fall, but I liked those strong finishes inside with contact. Here's couple of his recent dunks:

https://twitter.com/BasketNews_lt/status/1644025407388131350
https://twitter.com/BasketNews_lt/status/1641863298558615580

On the negative side, Ulanovas has been sucking last 3 games.
 
Most realistic chance is that Olympiacos will beat Baskonia. That's very possible. Off course the win against Bayern is not give, Zalgiris will have to go full force for it.
 
zalgiris and bayern will play after fener and baskonia so they will know if they have a chance before they even play. olympiacos have been looking very shaky lately so i have more faith in fener losing, ive been following their games and they do not look good at all and this zvezda team is much more talented then their record shows but also i feel like they will be very motivated to finish this euroleague season with a win at home
 
zalias said:
zalgiris and bayern will play after fener and baskonia so they will know if they have a chance before they even play. olympiacos have been looking very shaky lately so i have more faith in fener losing, ive been following their games and they do not look good at all and this zvezda team is much more talented then their record shows but also i feel like they will be very motivated to finish this euroleague season with a win at home
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Yeah, it's very slippery, but let's hope for the best. Few more PO games in Kaunas would be huge. But essentially Zalgiris has been having amazing season, all games were sold out. Also I think Zalgrris should earn something from Final 4 (or not?). I'm wondering whenever Zalgiris next season won't bring another strong perimeter piece next to Evans and Brazdeikis. If they can bring back say Grigonis, or to sign R. Giedraitis (less likely), or some good foreigner (I don't think Taylor should stay. Two midgets Taylor and Lekavicius is too much). I have sense that Zalgiris may have big ambitions for next season. Landing another strong perimeter player would increase chances to aim PO spot and even make some noise there.
 
i dont think they get anything from F4, but a game or two in the playoffs at home would bring them a lot of money. it seems like smits is leaving this summer, so i hope they dont overpay polonara, as rumored, but instead sign another high level perimiter player. evans is coming back from a very serious injury and overall i think he was having the best season of his career, i really doubt he's going to shoot 45% from 3 ever again, so they need some security in case he looks significantly worse than he did this year or if he misses a lot of games. this season showed that Evans is not a good playmaker, so ideally they should try to find a player who's capable of creating for others a little bit or someone who's good at playing off ball. im really intrigued by evans and taylor fit on the court together, evans plays around the perimeter while taylor is an extremely sharp player, who's elite at driving to the rim. but obviously he's undersized, injury prone and i cant imagine taylor, evans, iggy sharing the ball.

and also it seems like kulboka to zalgiris is not happening unfortunately
 
Kinda sad to see Maksvytis going with scrub Lukosiunas even when D. Giedraitis delivers. 17 empty minutes for Lukosiunas and only 16 minutes for well playing Giedraitis. That's what I don't understand. Now Giedraitis is healthy, the game is meaningless, play young stud. I do believe that if he will be able to stay healthy he can be very very strong role player for Zalgiris long term. But the worst part I can't understand complete madness which is Lukosiunas. What the hell is this? :) Can someone explain me? The guy is complete trash, complete. It's like random LKL player randomly taken and randomly staying in the team for randomly long years. Literally. There's no reason after that at all :D Dude would be average chucker in Siauliai and sort of teams. I have no single doubt the dude is inferior to Varnas...It's complete insanity. He's the trash man's of Milaknis and even Milaknis had his spot in EL team for rather mysterious reasons, but at least he could consistently hit an open three...At least knew one thing in the court...Lukosiunas is the biggest f...mystery and travesty that Zalgiris ever produced I think. He literally has nothing to offer on the basketball court, zero. He can't even shoot consistently. In most cases he can't even launch his shot properly. The biggest travesty ever. Below average dude staying in EL club for years...

Margiris, Varnas, Jogela, Berucka...Just to name few...way better without a single doubt.
 
Straight forward said:
Milaknis had his spot in EL team for rather mysterious reasons,.
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I wanted to answer smth about Lukosiunas, but the comments like this simply make me wtf...Milaknis was a good piece at Zalgiris. He literally helped to win so many games with his threes. And to consistently hit them (not only open ones - what kind of hating is this?) aren't some mysterious reasons.

P.S. It's good you don't write on the paper if you know what i mean.
 
where is this milaknis hate coming from? he was an elite shooter in euroleague.
 
On the paper I wouldn't write what I allow my self to write here. Here we can be politically incorrect from time to time, specially when it comes to player's abilities. It's not direct personal insults, we just discuss games. In a fashion of American culture, you can call a player trash, or goat. That's common practice.

Well, it's me. I hate that kind of players. Milaknis defence is trash. Saras is a freak of staggers so he liked him, but I hate this stagnant offense of staggers. Sure, use them from time to time, but this is outdated basketball. Milaknis could only survive when all the team is working for his shot attempt, and works heavily often all possession long just to take a shot off. In many games Milaknis would be empty, then deliver something. To me that kind of player is too one dimensional. There is a reason why he never ever got a job in EL outside Zalgiris...Elite EL shooter...

Today basketball is about pace and space, about more natural ways ti split the D, to move the ball. Efes showed it very clearly. Such teams as Warriors, Kings are showing it very clearly. That's the best offense. Even current Zalgiris with Evans was playing pretty open and effective BB. And today it's the best when Taylor and Brazdeikis are being aggressive. Basketball with obsessive staggers is yesterday. Every player should be able to put the ball on the floor, to pass, to make decisions, to be 2-3 dimensions scorers. Butkevicius and specially Lukosiunas look like ball stoppers, and so are Hayes and Birutis. Kings offense is so super smooth cause there's no single ball stopper in the line-up and actually most creativity comes form position 5. All players around Sabonis are 3 ways scorers. Something like that was in Maccabi with Saras with Nikola Vujcic (probably the best EL offensive team ever), something like that was in Efes with Pleis at 5.

This idea that Zalgiris still needs "a shooter" who can do only one thing on the court is really outdated...I hope we won't see this breed in NT ever again cause Gecevicius, Milaknis were trash in the NT.

Lithuania is in good hands with Sabonis and and later Tubelis at 5. Those are not ball stoppers, good passers, they play great within the flow, they themselves are nearly 3 dimensional offensive threat. At this point NT is safe, and we will be playing contemporary basketball. It's JV and lack of more talent in perimeter that were holding us back, but both issues very likely will be solved in next 2-4 years.
 
You may hate whoever you want, but it's only a question of taste.
Butkevicius is a key Zalgiris player. He's a game changer defensively. Very good signing (steal from Rytas).
NT lost in close games. So first of all details mattered (like Saras would say). And Sabonis by the way, was bad in couple of crucial moments.
Efes didn't even get to play off this time. Why? Probably because they lost motivation, passion, team chemistry - all that things that always significantly matters. You are obsessed with some things you like, but it's stupid to put them on a table like some winning recipe or whatever.
 
dreamcatcher said:
i wanted to answer smth about lukosiunas, but the comments like this simply make me wtf...milaknis was a good piece at zalgiris. He literally helped to win so many games with his threes. And to consistently hit them (not only open ones - what kind of hating is this?) aren't some mysterious reasons.

P.s. It's good you don't write on the paper if you know what i mean.
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zalias said:
where is this milaknis hate coming from? he was an elite shooter in euroleague.
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​

not as good as stud giedraitis
 
Dreamcatcher said:
You may hate whoever you want, but it's only a question of taste.
Butkevicius is a key Zalgiris player. He's a game changer defensively. Very good signing (steal from Rytas).
NT lost in close games. So first of all details mattered (like Saras would say). And Sabonis by the way, was bad in couple of crucial moments.
Efes didn't even get to play off this time. Why? Probably because they lost motivation, passion, team chemistry - all that things that always significantly matters. You are obsessed with some things you like, but it's stupid to put them on a table like some winning recipe or whatever.
Click to expand...

Butkevicius has nothing to do with this. He's great as a role player and key defensive player. I only mentioned that for current bball trends you want to have all line-up without ball stoppers basically. Butkevicius in half court offense is still problematic. While Lukosiunas is trash, except maybe one game in a season.

That's why I said it's about me. Some would argue that EL still is and will remain mid-tempo, highly constructed and dependent on sets. I argue that even EL is moving towards natural flow, towards highly skilled line-ups when basically any player can initiate aggression and make a good decision/dime or score himself. Real is playing like that, Efes playing like that. Those been the best teams recently. I simply don't like such limited players as Milaknis and you wouldn't see such players in my teams. That's my point, my opinion.
 
E. Pulkovskis and "Ilgoji Pertrauka" reviewed next season's Zalgiris picture, position by position. I won't spoil it much, those who contribee them will listen themselves (a lot interesting info basically), but paid 2 euros just intrigued by the news about young Zalgiris studs and I couldn't cease my self from sharing this:

Both Murauskas and Krivas wants to play in NCAA. It's like basically done thing. They made the decision. Now they sort of trying to figure out the teams, conditions and such, but Pukovskis says 70% both gone to NCAA.

I'm super on it. Good decision. Murauskas needs freedom. His experience with Lietkabelis is great for 18/19yo in Eurocup, but he needs freedom. Canak wasn't giving him ISO game. He wasn't using his dominant face to the basket game, wasn't allowed. Now it's time to unleash the beast. I'm super intrigued how he will fair in NCAA. Instant contributor without a single doubt. I bet Gonzaga and Wildcats (specially if Tubelis leaves) are strong candidates for taking maybe even both. I think both are somewhat underrated NBA prospects, specially Murauskas and this way they could show themselves completely. Krivas also a bit of enigma. Is his profile fits NBA or not? Anyway, in NCAA he also would be a force, IMO. If he wants to try to go after NBA, NCAA is the best stage most likely. Depends what kind of team and so on, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if 19yo Murauskas would explode with some 15ppg instantly if he's unleashed for big minutes, like 24+.

Off topic, but seems like we'll have plenty of strong Lithuanians in NCAA: Murauskas, Krivas, Lukosius, Marciulionis, A. Brazdeikis and if Tubelis will be coming back he will be No.1 contender for National Player in America.
 
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