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Mindozas6
Moderator
I'm not that strict regarding foreign headcoach like I'm against naturalized players, moreover we had some assistants like Imbroda, Donnie Nelson, but still head-coach is different, I'd like to avoid that until it's possible. I'm kinda worried how foreign coach, who has totally nothing in common with Lithuania, would adapt to all that LT bball kitchen. I mean Lithuanian bball is like a brand already, with own identity, style, culture, bball school, mentality, passion regarding the game, devoted fans. Not everyone understands what bball means here, what kind of responsibility coach will carry on his shoulders. Coach should know players, their mentality, know how to say the right words in tough moments, how to motivate after a loss. When it comes to NTs it's kinda specific thing. Tournaments are short, psychology means a lot. Kazlauskas, Kemzura, especially Sireika used some psychological tricks (historical, patriotic) a lot and it worked. With foreign coach it wouldn't have such effect.
Maybe it's easier for some Bosnian NT to hire Montenegrin Ivanovic or Croatian Petrovic, all of them are from Balkans, similar culture, bball school. But would it work out here? Maybe I'm digging to deep, but I really have my doubts. Sometimes different mentality/bball schools simply can't match. Only foreign coach I know, who has experience on NT level, is close to our country, knows our mentality, even worked here, it's Bagatskis. He reached some decent results with Latvian NT, even bein' without some top players, and I believe has bright future ahead of him, no surprise that Blatt called him up to be his assistant. But it's still not the same like having a Lith on the bench.
Another thing is money. If Lith coaches can work for the sake of idea/country, decent foreign coach would cost big money. Can we afford that? I mean for whole cycle? Especially since it wouldn't guarantee us nothing. Don't know. I think we need some time for things to settle down and then decide
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madmax2
Guest
well, he seemed to flourish when a certain Rockets PF was playing alongside him in some past tournaments...
Of course, we need to assume first that a certain Rockets PF will ever play for the national team again - he didn't show much enthusiasm up to this point it has to be said
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CoachZ2
Guest
Actually this was a question that Serbia has faced as well recently, around 2008, when we missed the Beijing Olympics. The problem was a little bit different, we do have a lot of high quality coaches but none of them wanted to take over the team due to the fact that the environment of that team was TOXIC (mostly due to the administrative and political people around the basketball federation) and the team was supremely talented but very, very young. So the results were not a guarantee. In many ways, there are similarities to Lith. You are not under imperative to win gold all the time, you are making steps towards making team younger and growing. Serbia has debated to hire a foreign coach and it was very close to happen. The only reason that it didn't is because Ivkovic decided to take it over with kids. Bosnia, Slovenia, Macedonia etc. don't have a problem with a coach from other Balkan countries since they don't have many coaches, but it would never fly in Serbia or Croatia, just no chance.
I think that if you are lacking true caliber coach or those coaches don't want the NT job, then having a foreign coach is not a bad idea. You would lose much more with a low caliber coach, than that "patriotic" or local effect you get from the Lith coaches. I think that Lith passion for basketball is fantastic and this will attract more coaches that see it as a challenge. The only issue with foreign coaches is that it's tough to get them to commit to a long term deal and cycles.
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Hepcat2
Guest
But that Rockets PF has a three point shot which was Shawshank's point.
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Straight forward2
Guest
I'm not worried or disappointed at all. Kazlauskas did very well, but the change of coaches are positive outcome most of the times. Also, even Kazlauskas is not perfect and he was walking on the thin line in all tournaments. Sometimes new coach finds new reserves and new alternatives, f.e. our backourt really couldn't get any worse trying out Gecevičius as 4th, 5th guard, he could be at least tried again. Also, what if new identity and not this slow, academic basketball fits better for NT? 4 years passed, it's time for a new coach and I would go with Kurtinaitis or Jasikevičius.
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LuDux2
Guest
1+1 apparently and club owner appears to be in legal trouble
I guess one of current assistants should coach next summer and permanent coach starting with 2019 WC qualifications
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Hepcat2
Guest
What about Bob Cousy and John Havlicek? Where would you say they fir among the greats?
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Hepcat2
Guest
Fail? Looking at the minutes of playing time, Coach Kazlauskas didn't give Juškevičius the opportunity at the Olympics to even take the test!
Mindozas6
Moderator
You would go, but the main question is - will they go??? From what I know neither of them is willing to now... So it's easy to kick one out, but quite hard to find a decent replecement who would agree to take his place. That's exactly what is worryin'
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LuDux2
Guest
Lesser new coaches usually do well first year, much worse next, and are replaced next year. So, medal in '17, no medal in '18 and new coach in '19
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Modis2
Guest
You know what everything is all about money at the end of the day, also i am quite confident Sabas will talk him in.
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auris12
Guest
It doesn't have to be 4 year contract ,though .
Federation could sign Kurtinaitis just for one tournament (2017 ) ,maybe with an option to extend if he does well and both parties are willing.
After the tournament is over , with a new qualifying system in place we can go from there .
In this scenario ,Kurtis gets to be a head coach of our NT for at least one tournament (that's he deserves ,for sure, plus that tournament does not mean anything ,really ) , and then federation can make a decision regarding the future without that much of the pressure.
Also -
do you realize that Kurtinaitis in only 6 years younger than Kazlauskas ?
He is not going to get that many opportunities in the future .
Federation could sign Kurtinaitis just for one tournament (2017 ) ,maybe with an option to extend if he does well and both parties are willing.
After the tournament is over , with a new qualifying system in place we can go from there .
In this scenario ,Kurtis gets to be a head coach of our NT for at least one tournament (that's he deserves ,for sure, plus that tournament does not mean anything ,really ) , and then federation can make a decision regarding the future without that much of the pressure.
Also -
do you realize that Kurtinaitis in only 6 years younger than Kazlauskas ?
He is not going to get that many opportunities in the future .
Mindozas6
Moderator
No, not when we talk about NT coach job. Butautas was getting 57k LTL per year, Kemzura 60k per year (5k a month), Kazlauskas signed a deal in 2012 for just little bit over 4k LTL per month. Some LKL bench players gets more
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Hepcat2
Guest
I really enjoyed the fast-paced basketball Team Lietuva once played such as at the 2010 World Championships.
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Hepcat2
Guest
Coach Kazlauskas yesterday was quoted as saying that for the first time in four years Team Lietuva just wasn't physically prepared and that was the team's main problem.
I don't understand. What does he mean? How could the team not have been physically prepared? And whose fault could that have been other than that of the coaching staff? Thoughts?
I don't understand. What does he mean? How could the team not have been physically prepared? And whose fault could that have been other than that of the coaching staff? Thoughts?
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LuDux2
Guest
Coach Kazlauskas yesterday was quoted as saying that for the first time in four years Team Lietuva just wasn't physically prepared and that was the team's main problem.
I don't understand. What does he mean? How could the team not have been physically prepared? And whose fault could that have been other than that of the coaching staff? Thoughts?
They thought they can archieve everything by talent alone
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remigijus2
Guest
Coach Kazlauskas yesterday was quoted as saying that for the first time in four years Team Lietuva just wasn't physically prepared and that was the team's main problem.
I don't understand. What does he mean? How could the team not have been physically prepared? And whose fault could that have been other than that of the coaching staff? Thoughts?
yea it was strange to hear that from kazlauskas you are going in most important tournament with no physicall preparation no suprise that team in the last games was like dead already....
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Straight forward2
Guest
Kazlauskas simply meant that there was no time for proper physical preparation because Olympics starts at August and not September. Some players came to the NT at the time when preparation games already started. But this argument is pretty lame because all the teams had the same conditions, some even worse (qualifying teams). Yeah, preparation wasn't optimal, but so remember how Pau looked at preparation stage? I think NT overdid with preparation this time - too many games, too many camps, team kinda peaked too soon and didn't have enough reserves for second phase of Olympic tournament. Another, I feel this team didn't have that wild hunger as in previous tournaments. Third, JV sucked and no-one expected that. We like it or not, he is the key for NT success and he played horrible. A loss of D-Mo now looks even more vital.
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Shawshank2
Guest
For me why this teams totaly cracked was mainly because Spain ripped our hearts out in that game...And we didnt recover.Game versus Argentina was best Lithuanias 40min game in Olympics if we would have played like that we would have give ourself atleast a chance in 1/4 game surely...But after we got our hearts ripped off by spaniards,all other minuses went together bad preparation scheduale, ridiculous week in Argentina,horrible JV play and so on .
about physicall preparation i believe coaching staff believed that we will have hard time in group ( and risking take 4-5 th place in that group),so they gambled and put best players form at the start,this gamble let us to get good draw for the playoofs,but our form was getting worse and worse,when others were improving game by game.If we would have been in other group,you could see before Olympics we will win against china and venesuala in any form and we could go not with optimal form from the start,but in group B there were no easy game and you cant do what Serbia did. The only Spaniards was improving in group B ,but they were risking not even making 1/4.Other B teams were declining game by game.For getting in better shape game by game group A was alot better situation.Ofcourse now its only an excuses,but when you needed to do a plan before Olympics and what form you will have to be in,coaches couldnt ignore that.
But again main reason that everything fallen apart was game versus Spain and how we lost, from that point everything looked very bad.
about physicall preparation i believe coaching staff believed that we will have hard time in group ( and risking take 4-5 th place in that group),so they gambled and put best players form at the start,this gamble let us to get good draw for the playoofs,but our form was getting worse and worse,when others were improving game by game.If we would have been in other group,you could see before Olympics we will win against china and venesuala in any form and we could go not with optimal form from the start,but in group B there were no easy game and you cant do what Serbia did. The only Spaniards was improving in group B ,but they were risking not even making 1/4.Other B teams were declining game by game.For getting in better shape game by game group A was alot better situation.Ofcourse now its only an excuses,but when you needed to do a plan before Olympics and what form you will have to be in,coaches couldnt ignore that.
But again main reason that everything fallen apart was game versus Spain and how we lost, from that point everything looked very bad.
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