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Lithuanian Point Guards

  • Thread starter Thread starter Straight forward2
  • Start date Start date
Straight forward said:
Well, we don't know all the story. We don't know how Jokubaitis works in practices, is there any issues with confidence. Maybe he a little bit laid back in terms of discipline recently, maybe not. I personally got a sense he never got back to his pre-injury physical shape. He was leaving his opponents behind before that injury, after that he's a little different, like not getting 100% tuned physically. That may be the issue of not working hard enough.

But I think essentially what we are witnessing - Saras is saving his own ass in Barca. He needs wins after last season failure. And now he has no time to develop Jokubaitis. He needs to get as much as he can from Sato, Lapro, Higgins and such. He needs titles. That's the difference. When Jokubaitis plays 3 minutes in EL game, you know it's not about his performance.

Last season it was incredibly, nearly sensationally beneficial for Jokubaitis. He became one of more important players for Barca and was closing many close games for superclub. But this season has been disappointment. I think now no-one would argue that Jokubaitis would be in so much better situation if had a chance to be starting PG of Zalgiris. I'm a bit concerned about next season. Even more frustrated Saras will look how to increase his playing time? Cause I don't see Barca winning the title. Saras improved Barca a bit compared to previous coaches, but he's not able to make it real dominant force. I believe no-one will make Barca as such, it is not the club build for wins. The culture is lazy and it will never change, just as Barcelona city won't change. Saras improved Barca's culture a little bit, but he's not able to completely brake it. Besides, I do think Saras' basketball is outdated. Even if he will skip the teams and will start coaching some, I don't know. Fener or Maccabi, he must make changes in terms of his BB style and even personality.
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Saras will be history next season. He will return to Zalgiris or he wont work.
 
Toruko said:
Saras will be history next season. He will return to Zalgiris or he wont work.
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I think there still would be bunch teams that would want him. Maccabi, Milan (OMG, Davies would drop dead instantly :D), Pana come to my mind. He's definitely not a fraud or something. He just needs to understand that BB changed, Obradovic' coaching and Jasikevicius' playing time is over. EL is different. BB is different. You need shooters, you need pace, you need improvisation, you need passion to win it.
 
I'm not sure both Tubelis and Marciulionis are happy with their NCAA nicknames though :D Zu sounds like Zoo. And Marciulionis nickname is GOOSE...:)

Anyway, here's a nice strong lay-up. I think he moves impressively even with added mass. He will be hard to contain going to the cup. Not as explosive and tremendous as his dad obviously, but he still has an above average physical profile for Euro PG. Shoots 2P% 58,5 which is huge improvement compared to last season, but threes still don't fall though:

https://twitter.com/saintmaryshoops/status/1608651935661559809
 
Jokubaitis 13pts, 10as double-double. I like his facilitation game, getting sharper. But in terms of scoring he's not as sharp and aggressive as last season. Very hard to say the reasons, hopefully it's temporary.

There's what Jasikevicius said after the game. I wished he was more explicit on the situation:

"We have high hopes that Jokubaitis will be the same as last season"

https://twitter.com/RubenBaezR/status/1611838992483483648

https://twitter.com/FCBbasket/statu...jokubaitis-ir-triuskinama-barcos-pergale.html
 
Here's Jokubaitis highs. Passing looks good. I specially like that bullet pass to Kuric. That's elite pass. Hopefully second half will be better for Jokubaitis. In last 2 ACB games he's averaging something like 12pts, 9as.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg09My3B2GU&t=1s&ab_channel=ACB

Marciulionis scores 11pts and drops 3 threes.

Huge night/week for our prospects. All Brazdeikis, Jokubaitis, Murauskas, Rubstavicius, Tubelis, Buzelis, Marciulionis oozing with good performances. The decade gonna be bright.
 
Here's the explicit take on Jokubaitis by Saras:

"Rokas needs these kinds of games. He's trying to get back to what he showed last year. Maybe he's too eager, but he, as a young player, has to go through these difficult times and know how to get up. He's trying and we have a lot of hopes put in him. Today has been a very good party for him", explained on Jokubaitis.
 
Toruko said:
It would be horrible if he couldnt dominate FIBA Europe Cup. Every training game needs more effort.
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If you say so. I have no idea about the level of that league. On other hand a three is a three.
 
Toruko said:
Its a much worse league than LKL. For a young guy its good but for a 23 year old it has nothing to offer tbh.
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Liekabelis made mistake not pursuing Velicka and taking completely useless Stefan Peno instead. Velicka would be pretty good for Lietkabelis this season. Their price kinda similar.
 
Finally Jokubaitis with a good game in EL. 13pts, 4dimes, 18eff. Recently he's showing signs of life.
 
Velicka is second in assists in Bundes Liga Germany with 8,3apg. The leader is J. Lewis with 8,5ppg. Tonight Velicka made 12 dimes. Again, not too shabby for a "combo".
 
Straight forward said:
Velicka is second in assists in Bundes Liga Germany with 8,3apg. The leader is J. Lewis with 8,5ppg. Tonight Velicka made 12 dimes. Again, not too shabby for a "combo".
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What is interesting about Arnas is that we allways talked that he doesn't have a 3pt shot. Surprise surprise this season he made 3 TIMES more 3pt shots then 2 pt.
2 pts: 11/25 for a quite low 44%
3 pts: 33/81 for a very good 40.7%, thats 6.2 attempts per game folks.

Also his assist to TO is 3.6/8.3. He still need to reduce TO to a ~2 per game.

His FT's is 71% which is low for a guard. He needs to change his routine. Now he shoots the ball without bouncing it once to the floor and not really gathering his breath.

Anyway its time for him to join a solid club and learn from better then himself.

His last scouting report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oukQve8Ol_0
 
Jokubaitis has been playing down the stretch last 3 games in EL. And he has been dominant in ACB recently. Finally a good stretch for him. Hopefully getting his confidence back and having more impactful second half of the season.
 
Jokubaitis continues a good streak. 14pts, 6as, 19eff in ACB

Good news at 2 spot as well. Rubstavicius drops 16pts, 20eff just in 15min in the knock out stage.

Finally we have not decent, not solid, but really good guard prospects.

I think there are some chances to see Rubstavicius in 2024WC roster if Grigonis won't be available, but I definitely see him in 2025EB team.
 
Ramibėlė struggles sometimes. He's cool enough, yet doesn't seem to be delivering that well at least in the first half of the season.
 
Despite Jokubaitis inconsistencies these season, there's overall positive take from overseas on his development.

Just as I mentioned before, this year Jokubaitis is concentrating more on facilitation and team's control while he's with the ball. It's more like he's trying to be true floor general while he's very much capable to operate as combo guard too, but that's not where the priority is this season. His assists rates increased, his shooting a bit declined.

I will quote the parts that seems to be most important to me and will give you think link of full article:

"The biggest improvement that Jokubaitis has shown this year is with the ball in his hands. His assist numbers are way up, as well as his usage rate, and with that, you may expect an increase in turnovers, but the Lithuanian guard has nearly cut his turnovers in half from his performance last year in the Euroleague. The Euroleague is the second-best competition in the world and with that comes a higher level of opposition. While Jokubaitis? numbers in the Euroleague are less impressive than his Spanish league output, he is still showing improvements in the important areas that translate to his projection at the next level.

He is running an efficient offense and taking care of the ball in a way that is beneficial for his team. He has a knack for finding open teammates and can make correct reads to get them easy baskets without forcing passes or creating turnovers. The smart style of play that Jokubaitis presents is an easy translation to the NBA. Versatile ball handlers that limit turnovers and can run an offense to slow down the game and create easy looks are always going to have a place in the Association. If Jokubaitis can continue to do that at the next level, he projects to be a solid bench guard in the near future."

https://theknickswall.com/tkw-annual-check-in-rokas-jokubaitis/
 
Jokubaitis with 17pts last night in ACB. He's still 5th most valuable Barca's player in ACB. Knowing that this summer Rokas was 4th most valuable player of LTU NT, we still have very very convincing development arc here despite certain struggles.

In ACB games that he played at least 20min this season, he averages 10.3ppg, 5.8apg.

In EL (at least 20min games) - 11ppg, 3,5appg.

It has a lot to do with the role. This season in Zalgiris he would be playing around 26mpg as the main PG (meaning Evans hadn't been signed) , taking incomparably more shots than he takes in Barca. IMO, he would score more or less as much as Evans (something 13-16ppg) and would dish more assists than him. But he would surely be worse defender.

The biggest question is why that slump happened. Because of so many games he played last season with Barca and long summer with NT? The brake in the summer because of injury? I still think he didn't reach last mid season physical shape. Like he was sharper and more agile, more explosive with his first step. Nevertheless, I found Visniauskas remark that he's not going to be much different player than he is now (unless he will work on individual game in summers) - complete absurd. I have no single Lithuanian podcaster who I can trust. Visniauskas recently saying a lot of nonsenses. He was almost swearing Sabonis departure to Kings won't change anything, no chance and so on. Tends to make huge generalization and lack deeper take. Prime Jokubaitis will be much more dominant player than current, there's no least doubt about it if he will stay healthy.

With that said I think both Jokubaitis, and specially Marciulionis (who is playing alien BB for the type of player that he is), made a mistake leaving Lithuania. Both could play at the very high level, more minutes, and playing BB style that fits NT much better. At least looking from the NT point of view I would prefer both to be in Lithuania.

If not ACB season, which is really solid for Rokas, he's playing 13:47mpg in EL this season.

Marciulionis is playing 16mpg in NCAA . Well, 6 minutes more than Jasikevicius had in his second season, but still, it sucks.
 
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