Kaunas Zalgiris Thread

[edvinas92]

There are rumors that Zalgiris is trying to sign extensions with Walkup, Hayes, and Rubit, but the source isn't the most reliable one. Does anyone know about the situation? Is the new shareholder already pumping cash in Zalgiris' budget as it doesn't make sense to pay such big contracts even for old players as we're in ~ 3M debts.

 

[Mindozas6]

There are rumors that Zalgiris is trying to sign extensions with Walkup, Hayes, and Rubit, but the source isn't the most reliable one. Does anyone know about the situation? Is the new shareholder already pumping cash in Zalgiris' budget as it doesn't make sense to pay such big contracts even for old players as we're in ~ 3M debts.

With Hayes yes, rumors about it floating for few weeks, the same like with Lauvergne was and it happened, so I tend to believe that at least offer is on table. As much as I understood new shareholder still didn't join, there had to be some meetings in January to discuss details, but still no news, I guess it would've been announced if deal would've been signed as Zalgiris usually does it, or at worst you could see the name in sponsors list on official site, but nothing yet, anyway lot of positive feedback about company. These 3M debts you mean lost money for tickets? I guess it shouldn't be in debts column, I think some precaution measures surely were taken and club won't fall into debts again. For the sake of it we didn't sign new player to replace Garino and Vasturia. Talking about Garino, probably won't be back this month as it was expected at best case scenario. He should start practicing only in couple of weeks with a team. Better not rush things again

 

[Shawshank2]

Zalgiris 2 most important foreigners is Walkup and Hayes entire zagiris defence is holding on those 2 players.

One is taking best perimeter guard,other takes best SF-PF opponnets player and makes their live miserable .

I would rather see zalgiris would put bag money to those 2 instead of Lauvergne.

 

[Mindozas6]

Zalgiris 2 most important foreigners is Walkup and Hayes entire zagiris defence is holding on those 2 players.

One is taking best perimeter guard,other takes best SF-PF opponnets player and makes their live miserable .

I would rather see zalgiris would put bag money to those 2 instead of Lauvergne.

Zalgiris are working on new deals, exploring the market 24/7. If Lauvergne re-signed first, doesn't mean he received extension offer first. Might be, might be not. All that we know from rumors that there're offers for Hayes, I'd bet that for Walkup too. But some players might want to explore the market, maybe some feels that they reached the ceiling in Zalgiris and now it's the right time to leave for some top club or get some lucrative deal. Zalgiris can offer players exactly great organisation and chance to raise their value, but not to earn bag of money or win EL. Not to pay one or couple of leaders much bigger money than the rest important guys earns, there're always such ceilings/limits which can't be broken. That's philosophy of P-Mo, which I don't completely agree with, I think there are moments when you can and have to make exceptions

 

[auris12]

Zalgiris are working on new deals, exploring the market 24/7. If Lauvergne re-signed first, doesn't mean he received extension offer first. Might be, might be not. All that we know from rumors that there're offers for Hayes, I'd bet that for Walkup too. But some players might want to explore the market, maybe some feels that they reached the ceiling in Zalgiris and now it's the right time to leave for some top club or get some lucrative deal. Zalgiris can offer players exactly great organisation and chance to raise their value, but not to earn bag of money or win EL. Not to pay one or couple of leaders much bigger money than the rest important guys earns, there're always such ceilings/limits which can't be broken. That's philosophy of P-Mo, which I don't completely agree with, I think there are moments when you can and have to make exceptions

Let me just widen the question - would you people be happy with the same roster for the next year?
I mean , with Garino finally making appearance ?
Personally i would have to question Jankunas' agility .Or if Milaknis can be still have more useful games than not. Who can replace Grigonis.
Plus , Vasturia.

 

[auris12]

Shaw, Auris,

I see your point, Petrauskas is emotional commentator, good narrator, articulates well, has sense of humour, but that's not enough. In recent years I watched many NBA games, I read a lot of basketball American BB articles and that's the roots and fundamentals of BB language. The problem is that Petrauskas doesn't have it and he makes ridiculous comments. Like Kazlauskas says "oh, Zalgiris can live with Shengelia's threes", then Grigonis takes his usual floater off the p'n'r (and misses), one of his lenthal weapons and Petrauskas says "CSKA can live with such Grigonis shots". I mean, duuude. In NBA, no matter how cool the commentator is, he's PREPARED. He understands the game and he never will say complete BS. Petrauskas in the last game missed at least 2 clear moments when Zalgiris players where fouled in active shooting, like it's even cringy, "oh, that won't be in an active shooting", when Grigonis clearly made 2 and 1 and ref didn't hesitate a single second to show it. He makes tons of misreads of actual game, he's super non PRO. Ordinary or not people love him, that's just ridiculous, Kazlauskas is forced to correct him all the time. And his mistakes are super annoying. Commentators should be the sharpest watchers of the game, he just spoils it.

Petrauskas used to be my favorite back in 00s, now it's very hard to listen to him, I gave up after few games. It's not hard to spot that he simply doesn't have the same passion for the game anymore, his thoughts are floating somewhere, at times he is simply unprepared, makes silly mistakes. Team can lead by 20, it can be close game or we can be losing big - it's still the same careless, joyful voice, talking about smth, at times not even related to what's happening on court, like Edvinas said - cheering for some fantasy league players and so on. He is simply not into the game. It's surely not the same Petrauskas I used to like back in the days. He has great voice/timbre to be commentator, I don't need all that tactical details to hear too, but that attitude simply kills it all. Now I prefer to watch the game with Vysniauskas and Leksas

I guess its down to personal choice , who likes who.
Although i disagree with remark about NBA commentary. I find it tad boring , especially if you follow same team (Pacers) . And thank god i don't have to listen to them Raptor guys anymore. Same old shtick game after game from same old guys .
Just yesterday on reddit someone mentioned how NFL was so much better commentary wise where people there talking about plays , tactics etc as oppose general whining about old times , bad refereeing etc that goes in NBA.
Overall , i got used even to bad ones on Euroleague (english language ). They are getting better, most of them anyways .
That guy in the studio during Euroleague games , Jesus , compared to Tiskevicius and his arrogance , man , he is a saint.
And yeah , i started to listen to Basketnews podcast . Slow times nowadays , nothing much to do . Miklovas is a smart guy , i do like him a lot . Lekstas is getting better , but he needs time to be a bit faster in organising his thoughts .I like Tiskevicius too , they compliment each other very well. But you know , where are some people who are in love with their voices and they will say anything just to hear that just for a bit longer ? That's him .
Sorry if out of the topic

 

[Mindozas6]

Let me just widen the question - would you people be happy with the same roster for the next year?
I mean , with Garino finally making appearance ?
Personally i would have to question Jankunas' agility .Or if Milaknis can be still have more useful games than not. Who can replace Grigonis.
Plus , Vasturia.

More or less happy. There are some corrections which I'd do, that's adding creative PG, moving Walkup to more defensive duties rather than being main PG and main creator. Especially we'll need that if Grigonis will leave. Vasturia should be loaned. Unless he will show some notable improvement in the remaining months. Maybe with Garino back, he will finally start to play in SG/PG where he feels himself more comfortable and will surprise us. Milaknis might stay for one more season to complete his contract, limited role, which he play quite ok. Jankunas, that's hard to tell, so far he is doing better than I thought he will, he shook off all that injuries and is really valuable, but the remaining schedule is crazy with 2-3 games per week, so hard to tell how his body will cope with that. If he'll feel ok and can have another season at similar level, then why not, if not then just move him to office. Now I think it's perfect time to finally give that playing time for Lukosiunas, Blazevic in LKL, let them play 20+mins and show what they can offer.

I guess its down to personal choice , who likes who.
Although i disagree with remark about NBA commentary. I find it tad boring , especially if you follow same team (Pacers) . And thank god i don't have to listen to them Raptor guys anymore. Same old shtick game after game from same old guys .
Just yesterday on reddit someone mentioned how NFL was so much better commentary wise where people there talking about plays , tactics etc as oppose general whining about old times , bad refereeing etc that goes in NBA.
Overall , i got used even to bad ones on Euroleague (english language ). They are getting better, most of them anyways .
That guy in the studio during Euroleague games , Jesus , compared to Tiskevicius and his arrogance , man , he is a saint.
And yeah , i started to listen to Basketnews podcast . Slow times nowadays , nothing much to do . Miklovas is a smart guy , i do like him a lot . Lekstas is getting better , but he needs time to be a bit faster in organising his thoughts .I like Tiskevicius too , they compliment each other very well. But you know , where are some people who are in love with their voices and they will say anything just to hear that just for a bit longer ? That's him .
Sorry if out of the topic

Commentators is exactly a personal choice, depends on what you need from them - analysis, emotions or anything else, then the timbre, style you might like or might be annoyed by. Let's say I simply can't stand Aleksandravicius who works in LKL and EL games. Thnx god not in Zalgiris. His syllable surnames screaming in almost each possession, even if he sees a player just moving a towel on bench, is just god damn annoying. It's like he has nothing to say or doesn't know how to comment the situation, so he just takes some 10 seconds to pronounce the name loudly Rokas Jooooo-kuuuuu-baiiiii-tiiiiiis. Even writing this gave me shivers That's just beyond bad. It never happened that I'd prefer internet stream over TV cause of annoying commentator, even when I watch UAE/Qatar football with unknown language and non-stop screaming, but that's the case with Aleksandravicius

 

[auris12]

My new favourite commentary happened during Saturday's game - Jankūnas is so old his bones carry the smell of graveyard.

 

[Straight forward2]

I'm getting higher on Mantas Rubstavicius. I see how his body is panning out. That was my main concern with him. But he's getting stronger nicely, seem to be rather fearless in those stretches with Zalgiris in LKL, has a nice wingspan, can put the ball on the flour. With his 198cm he might end up having more athletic and sturdier body than Grigonis. Not saying that his upside is necessary as high as Grigonis, but I like his upside. Seems to have perfect, serious personality and working ethics. Starting to treat him as another legitimate pearl of Lithuanian basketball. As an 18yo he puts a quick 12pts in 20min in NKL. Have a feeling that his long term upside is pretty great. Our 2002 generation is pretty nasty.

From Gronskis answer I've got an impression that Murauskas working ethics isn't great (even if he says that only between the lines ), but also probably not absolutely miserable. I have a lot of doubts regarding his personality and expected a bit more game wise, but we'll see, he is surely a talent and those freakishly long hands...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=503&v=ACXt1wu5eVg&feature=emb_logo

 

[auris12]

I'm getting higher on Mantas Rubstavicius. I see how his body is panning out. That was my main concern with him. But he's getting stronger nicely, seem to be rather fearless in those stretches with Zalgiris in LKL, has a nice wingspan, can put the ball on the flour. With his 198cm he might end up having more athletic and sturdier body than Grigonis. Not saying that his upside is necessary as high as Grigonis, but I like his upside. Seems to have perfect, serious personality and working ethics. Starting to treat him as another legitimate pearl of Lithuanian basketball. As an 18yo he puts a quick 12pts in 20min in NKL. Have a feeling that his long term upside is pretty great. Our 2002 generation is pretty nasty.

From Gronskis answer I've got an impression that Murauskas working ethics isn't great (even if he says that only between the lines ), but also probably not absolutely miserable. I have a lot of doubts regarding his personality and expected a bit more game wise, but we'll see, he is surely a talent and those freakishly long hands...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=503&v=ACXt1wu5eVg&feature=emb_logo

Chances are ,none of them boys will ever reach Zalgiris main team level.
Ludux will have numbers , Mindozas will have some inside info.
Hepcat will find out some stats from 1891 , unrelated to anything , Straight forward , he will mention low IQ , maybe mine . Madmax will go with Valanciunas anyway.
Shawshank will go with some long list of some random players , Svajunas will edit it , with the same players in different positions. And there is someone always from Turkey with very insightful opinion.WTF.
Love you boys

 

[edvinas92]

Am I the only one who's pissed off by Euroleague's decision to reschedule the exhibition against Zvezda on Tuesday? Neither of the team played domestic games on the weekend so why wouldn't they reschedule it for Monday? Zenit played on Monday and on Thursday, they've got three days gap between the games. Zvezda played on Tuesday against us and will be playing today as it is three days gap once again. Although, we had less than 2 days to prepare for Madrid and we were lacking energy very badly on this one.

 

[Mindozas6]

Didn't even think about it, but now when you say it indeed looks strange. I don't remember the exact times when LKL re-scheduled game vs Pasvalys we should've had on Saturday, was it before or after EL decision, maybe it could've had some impact, no idea. Anyway, the level of energy seems to be low for few weeks now, it would be great to have some small camp we used to, to reboost physically, but this schedule is simply killing it

 

[Straight forward2]

Still suffering from Petrauskas live games observations "Geben shoots three" when it's obvious mid jumper, "Jokubaitis had to shoot with his right" while it was impossible to shoot with the right. Jeez
Jokubaitis moves tonight!

 

[Straight forward2]

Z needs that kind of Lekavicius. He should get into physical shape and be aggressive.

 

[Mindozas6]

These couple easy lay-ups were right in time, but overall performance of him was poor, I don't remember any really solid game from him for a long time now

 

[Dreamcatcher2]

I didn't like a commentator Petrauskas yesterday. He was yelling that Zalgiris missed many lay-ups meaning (i suppose) it's the easiest thing that should be scored from the game, but the thing is that most of those lay-ups were guarded and it's a question if an open three point shot is harder to make or not. Especially he was pissed after Jokubaitis's miss who got rebound and didn't score, but it's not what a pg should do when a tall rival is near him. I would better give some criticism to him that he missed 3 free throws of 6. That's too bad when few pts mattered in the game.

Also few more words about Jokubaitis. He's good for his age, but now he's just not good enough to be a main pg in the team that fights for play offs. Zalgiris is 9th now and lost to the 6 of 8 first teams and all of those teams has a strong foreign pg or st least a guard who takes a ball to his hands. Barca - Calathes, CSKA - James, Milano - Rodrigez, Bayern - Baldwin, Efes - Micic, Fener - De Colo, Real - Campazzo who left and it became worse, Zenit - Pangos. Zalgiris has Jokubaitis and it's too bad in comparison with mentioned teams. Imagine that it's not Jokubaitis but a foreign main pg (like it usually is) who averages less than 7 pts and scores only 3 in the important game like yesterday's. I have a feeling that all the passion won't be enough for Zalgiris to make top8 simply because some roster pieces like the mentioned one are not good enough

 

[Shawshank2]

Rokas is playing more SG in this season in Zalgiris. He gives zalgiris energy with his penetrations,but he isnt as main playmaking.

Schiller likes to use 3 guards lineups starting game with Walkup,Jokubaitis,Grigonis and finished game with Walkup,Lekavicius,Grigonis.

In 1 querter armani was attacking Jokubaitis in 4 querter they attacked Lukas.

Coaches chooses do not attack Walkup,Grigonis,Hayes they always tries to get Lukas/Jokubaitis in switches.Even Clutch armani shot was with Lukas guarding him and couldnt even chalenge when athletic usa 1m95 guard just shoot midge ranger and closed the game.

Lukas played well offensively,but thats the main reason why never averages more than 18min per game in any season.

We can argue how good or bad their defences are,but what euroleague coaches does in round 28 obviuosly they doing that because they have reasons.

 

[Straight forward2]

Zalgiris main PG is off course Walkup, not Jokubaitis. Rokas should be ready in 2 years if not soon. Zalgiris badly needs aggressive Lekavicius and off course NT will need him as well. Hopefully he will pull it off again as he did in WC.

 

[Hepcat2]

...in the team that fights for play offs. Zalgiris is 9th now and lost to the 6 of 8 first teams....

Yes, I've noticed that too. Žalgiris just isn't beating any team that's really good. Combining that with cringe inducing losses to Khimki which has beaten hardly anyone else and in Tel Aviv where the dance team would have put up more of a fight and Žalgiris doesn't appear destined to make the playoffs.

 

[madmax2]

Zalgiris fans shouldn't really feel disheartened or ashamed of their beloved club - there's no realistic chance to compete with much more talented european teams, who have elite players in every position and sometimes on the bench too...I still think this is a great season for you guys and Schiller is a very smart coach who gets the most out of the material he has to work with - there's only so much you can do watching Jankunas blow open layups instead of having former NBA player like Mirotic leading you lol