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Lithuanian Point Guards

  • Thread starter Thread starter Straight forward2
  • Start date Start date
Shawshank said:
when I was saying 1 year ago that Velicka is combo guard

one expert here was telling me how dare i ... Velicka is pure pg because in u-16 kids tournament he dominated the ball :)

One more season for Velicka one game per week
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I would hardly even call him combo guard. He has some pick and roll upside but he is a mainly shooting guard. He has talent but really too wild and it doesnt seem that hell change soon.
 
Promising first take in ACB for Jokubaitis. Played as much as 25 minutes. With Satoranski being rusty and adjusting, Jokubaitis minutes should be above 20 in EL in first months likely too (last season played 16ppg, that should increase at least a bit). Good production overall, 9pts, 6as, 6rbs, 3stl only 1to, 16eff. Barsa struggling though.
 
Watched couple of Barsa's games recently, including last stint against Baskonia. One thing is new - Barsa is pushing to transition. Saras tolerates Jokubaitis super quick decisions and transition bb. I think that's the main adjustment of Saras recently. He wants Barsa to play faster. And new rule of ACB is perfect for it. And it's perfect for Jokubaitis too. Against Baskonia I saw the most aggressive and explosive version of Jokubaitis I've seen yet. He reached another level of aggressive attacking and cheeky, quick facilitation. He added yet another step forward. In 2 years he will be absolute force in Europe, will totally dominate offensively, I think more than players like Jasikevicius, Spanoulis, Teodosic. Maybe he will be one tiny bit less of a magician in terms of passing, but his energy, smoothness and scoring ability will even exceed these guys, IMO. He's still 21yo and he's one of the best players in stacked Barsa team. He should grab another Rising Star of EL award this year, becoming 4th player to do that, and "de facto" first one to snatch 3 seasons in a raw. What I like about Rokas that his development is insanely steady. Each season you can see obvious progression and each season he's different player:

https://twitter.com/SPGhighlights/status/1576678385967038465
 
Jokubaitis leads Barsa team in efficiency after 3 games in ACB. 16eff in 19min. Plenty of Barsa's players are struggling, including Sato, Lapro, Sanli, Kuric and they are missing Mirotic. But even so, really strong start of the season for 21yo:

https://www.acb.com/club/estadisticas/id/2
 
Jokubaitis continues to be MVP of Barsa in ACB. He's 11th by efficiency in The League. 9th in assists (5apg). And he shoots 85,7% threes ATM:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKDyrFxtiGQ&ab_channel=BasketNews․LT

Good indication on Marciulionis too. Can't wait to see how he'll deal with NCAA season. Don't expect massive scoring outbursts, but he should be increasing his role and continue to develop:

The level of contact Augustas Marciulionis plays with is impressive, as his frame is deceptively strong, just wish more of it came closer to the rim at a higher frequency. Hoping to see him in an increased role at Saint Mary’s now that Tommy Kuhse is gone.

https://twitter.com/report_court/status/1580293037980147715
 
Velicka shows indication of improved shooting. In Bundesliga 41.2%, in FIBA Europe Cup 45.5%. And he takes a bunch of it. I think his career is standing on this mater. If can be a big combo guard who can shoot threes he can can dominate such leagues as Eurocup and even have some decent seasons in EL. But if not, he will be more of a Eurocup material, the guy who plays a lot of ISO and so on. Good start of the season anyway.
 
Straight forward said:
What's better in Neptunas 4 these days?
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One of them is Tomas Zelenskij. 12pt 7.8rb 6as 1.5to in 22 minutes. I posted his highlights 1+ year ago

Straight forward said:
I like what I see. Good length, 195cm and he's still 15yo (I think he might grow to some 200-2004cm), rather bulked and physically standing out. Can put the ball on the floor (not excellently, but decently) with either hand, goes right and left, seem to be terrific passer, quick decision maker. Seems to have a high IQ as he reads situation well rather than forcing his ways physically. Shooting mechanics pretty raw (reminds me Brazdeikis'), but can shoot of the dribble, make mid range jumpers and threes. Interesting player.
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Marciulionis started and utilized his minutes well, but played only 14min cause rookie Aidan Mahaney had huge game with 25pts. Mahaney is a great scorer. He will make a huge competition for Marciulionis. Augustas is more of a facilitator. Will be interesting to see how things will develop, but Marciulionis is more ready to utilize his minutes and compete. Overall I think Marciulionis decision to go to NCAA is extremely questionable. IMO, NCAA basketball fits scorers better than facilitators. For Iggy it was good environment, for Marciulionis it takes away his best asset offensively.

https://twitter.com/saintmaryshoops/status/1589826061159698434
 
So, Velicka's performance against France perfectly reflected his recent improvements and spots that he still has to work on. 5 TOs surely screwed Velicka's impact a bit, and he still is too careless with the ball and has some decision making issues. Some of those TOs were the cause of the lack of chemistry between players BTW, but he still goes up and down in terms of the decision making. Couple of brilliant passes, but then forced passes leading to turnover. TOs is the problem in both Bundesliga 4,3, and Fiba EuroCup Challenge 3,3.

Nevertheless, I think I've seen most confident Velicka in the NT thus far. His three looks better. He never will be a good shooter probably, but today I can see that it can be his tool at PROs. He's 42.3% in Bundesliga, 40.7% in FIBA EuroCup Challenge. And then his assists rates are going off the charts basically this season - 8 assists in 26min Bundesliga and 6.5as in 26min FECC. So the fact that he was dishing the ball off the p'n'r is not a surprise at all. 7 dimes and it could be more as we struggled to score inside and else were.

Velicka is progressing. He's not a natural point guard and not a natural decision maker, but he has a sense for passing, he has good size, athleticism and improving three. Dominant slashing was already there always with him. So if he can cut his TOs rate a little bit (I think will remain a bit wild as say Kaukenas was all his career basically), and to continue to sharpen up his finishing game, he can be very interesting secondary guard option for the NT and likely very useful piece for the Windows as they will remain to be important. I can see Velicka sticking in EC or CL for upcoming 2-3 seasons, and then around 25-26 he might be playing even in EL. Meaning in upcoming years he will be good option for the windows.

Regarding senior NT, I could see him as that third string PG/COMBO potential option. In my book, there will be 2 obvious pure PGs - Jokubaitis and Marciulionis. Their package are at another level. But I can see Velicka competing with D. Giedraitis for third string PG spot. The latter has better package (even if Dovydas is more of 2 and Arnas more of a 1, but generally both are COMBOs), but knowing Dovydas' injury issues and some other circumstances, I can see tournaments where Velicka will be needed going deep off the bench.
 
Another solid game for A. Marciulionis. 22min, 9pts, 4assits. His minutes slightly increased compared to last season, playing 18mpg, he does shoot twos well, around 60%, he's a good slasher and finisher closer to the basket. Threes remain a problem. One thing that you want to see is steady improvement and seems like Marciulionis is more ready to contribute this season.
 
Marciulionis delivers after scoreless night! 14pts, 2/3 threes, 4 assists in 24min. He needs more games where who would go off offensively. Rooting for the fellow cause he's such down to Earth hard working fellow who gets so many pressure duo to his name. It's really hard to wear those jerseys. Gaels remains undefeated thus far:

https://twitter.com/saintmaryshoops/status/1594157605856768001
 
Finally some decent highlights! Look at those floaters with left and right hand. The thing of beauty. And his three is not as bad as numbers show. Not with that fluent mechanics. I think it's primarily psychological. Will remain streaky with his three most likely, but he ain't Calathes/Simmons. He can shoot three, the form and touch is there:

https://twitter.com/CBB_Europe/status/1594276867929829379
 
Numbers can tell a lot. NCAA'22 18,3% u20 19.2% NCAA'23 20.0%. Very constant improvement, very impressive stability
 
LuDux said:
Numbers can tell a lot. NCAA'22 18,3% u20 19.2% NCAA'23 20.0%. Very constant improvement, very impressive stability
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Yes, and no. You can have from A to Z narratives regarding numbers, specially early while a player is not a finished product. I wouldn't emphasize numbers at this age and would look at shooting form in the first place. He has good mechanics. It's definitely not Calathes or Simmons bricks. I don't think he will ever be good shooter, but decent one is still an option, IMO (32-34% range would be my guess). But if we look at numbers he shot 33,9% in LKL and 31.8% in NKL before that (some contrast stretches of making everything and missing everything which seems to be the case thus far with his career, even in those small tournaments as U20 EB).

But we shouldn't make too many decisions from numbers. At some point Walkup looked like a guy who can't shoot at all in Zalgiris. Thus Jasikevicius pushes him to 1 and that worked. Later it turned out that Walkup can even shoot some. And what is he now? 34% shooter in EL. And it's even more difficult to figure out his NCAA career. Like good shooter his first 2 years and then crappy one in last 2? That's what I meant with from A to Z. There are some wild things in numbers. Like R. Giedraitis is a good shooter in EL and he can't shoot a shit (literally) in the NT.

To sum up, god knows how Marciulionis will shoot as a finished product.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/thomas-walkup-1.html
 
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