QF: Australia - Lithuania

[mojo132]

That is a HUGE "if".

To me a lot rests on the shoulders of Thon Maker unless the Aussies come up with another legit big man prospect before then, which is very possible.

Is is questionable whether Thon Maker will ever play for Australia - he has never committed to them. He could easily declare for the USA or maybe even Canada (I think it is highly doubtful he would ever qualify for citizenship in Canada, but some of my countrymen seem to think so).

 

[LDK2]

Lebron and Kobe can.

Also Sergio Lull can. That's why I like him

 

[Silent Killer2]

Not a good comparison at all. Canada's team was a mess in the Qualifier. The supporting cast was very poor (most of our NBA players wern't there), a way worse supporting cast than Australia. The starting SF for Canada played in the Finnish league! Many of the starters were below ok role players forced into roles well over their head. Brady Heslip, one of the best 3pt shooters in the world, I think shot in the single digit percentages. Tristan Thompson, a role player in Cleveland, thought he was a reincarnation of Kobe Bryant jacking up fade-away mid-range jumpers. I am not sure he ever hit a shot outside the key in the NBA. With so many guys missing guys get forced out of their normal roles, it can get ugly. Australia has most of their team intact - their guys know their roles and are comfortable in them. Canada was missing at least 8 of their best players, had no prep time, no cohesion, poor coaching and still almost beat France. It is tough to get all your best playing but missing 8 of your best 12?

The guys dissing Canada and Australia are just behind the times. Australia, Canada, Brazil (Croatia and Turkey too) are producing better and better players and we are starting to see the results with the Aussies. Countries like Spain, Lithuania, Argentina and Greece are fading fast.

Canada in Rio with most of its best players would be a medal contender as well (but they aren't because shit happens sometimes. You should all thank Venezuela for that).

If all Canadian NBA players like wiggins, olynyk played in OQT they have a good chance of beating the french team given with good preparation.

 

[Oly_fan2]

Not a good comparison at all. Canada's team was a mess in the Qualifier. The supporting cast was very poor (most of our NBA players wern't there), a way worse supporting cast than Australia. The starting SF for Canada played in the Finnish league! Many of the starters were below ok role players forced into roles well over their head. Brady Heslip, one of the best 3pt shooters in the world, I think shot in the single digit percentages. Tristan Thompson, a role player in Cleveland, thought he was a reincarnation of Kobe Bryant jacking up fade-away mid-range jumpers. I am not sure he ever hit a shot outside the key in the NBA. With so many guys missing guys get forced out of their normal roles, it can get ugly. Australia has most of their team intact - their guys know their roles and are comfortable in them. Canada was missing at least 8 of their best players, had no prep time, no cohesion, poor coaching and still almost beat France. It is tough to get all your best playing but missing 8 of your best 12?

The guys dissing Canada and Australia are just behind the times. Australia, Canada, Brazil (Croatia and Turkey too) are producing better and better players and we are starting to see the results with the Aussies. Countries like Spain, Lithuania, Argentina and Greece are fading fast.

Canada in Rio with most of its best players would be a medal contender as well (but they aren't because shit happens sometimes. You should all thank Venezuela for that).

Greece was also missing players in the qualifiers and has given the reigns to a 22 year-old but it's 'fading fast'.

I think all of us whose countries failed to even be there should just sit back and watch the games instead of talking about what our national teams would be doing 'if'.

 

[Ashtrusis_dantis2]

Countries like Spain, Lithuania, Argentina and Greece are fading fast.

How many times I hear that... Let's see - first time it was 1996 when Sabonis generation left and we didn't win anything for 3 years (1997-1999), when these talks appeared (not so loudly) in year 2001 when we played so bad, we didn't qualifie for WC2002... These talks started with new strength again in year 2009 when Jasikevicius generation left and we had such terrible EC that in WC2010 we apeared because of wild card... Now Kalnietis/Kleiza generation is leaving and what do we have now? The same talks... It is obvious such people know nothing about our results in youth competitions, what young players are growing and so on, and so on... And after some time there will be the same questions - "how do they win?"
If EC 2017 means nothing we should rest our veterans and send young players.

 

[Ashtrusis_dantis2]

Wake up people. The way we played last 3 games had nothing to do with talent or lack of it if you prefer. We had even less talent in EC2015 or WC2014, but we were wining. I talked with a lot of people in our basketball community and all confirmed my observations that some serious mistakes were made during preparation period with physical conditioning. We reached our peak too early and a hole we felt after that was too deep. Last two years we were killing everyone with our movement on defense, now it looked like we have a bag full of stones on our shoulders, we were not moving, late on changes, late on shots, late on everything. And every shooter knows why open shots were not falling - when you have tired legs it happens.

 

[Levenspiel2]

I wonder if that is just being nostalgic, in the same way older people always find the youth disappointing. Because I feel not only Lithuania, but also Serbia, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Russia, etc etc are also not even close to what they once were. Spain is an exception for now, but when Gasol, Navarro etc retire, i.e. very soon, we will probably feel the same.

Lithuania has showed recently that they will always be medal contenders in Europe, no matter what squad they have. I guess Spain and Serbia are also very similar countries.

 

[Hepcat2]

Wake up people. The way we played last 3 games had nothing to do with talent or lack of it if you prefer. We had even less talent in EC2015 or WC2014, but we were wining. I talked with a lot of people in our basketball community and all confirmed my observations that some serious mistakes were made during preparation period with physical conditioning. We reached our peak too early and a hole we felt after that was too deep. Last two years we were killing everyone with our movement on defense, now it looked like we have a bag full of stones on our shoulders, we were not moving, late on changes, late on shots, late on everything. And every shooter knows why open shots were not falling - when you have tired legs it happens.

But what tired the team out then? Did training camp start too early? Serbia, France and Croatia had even longer training camps.

 

[Ashtrusis_dantis2]

But what tired the team out then? Did training camp start too early? Serbia, France and Croatia had even longer training camps.

Few differences - some players came very late at our camp, so had no time for full preparation. Maciulis for example had only 10 days rest after finals in ACB, Kuzminskas almost the same, we played biggest number of friendlies if I remember correct.
It is not the length of training camp, but how do you organise it. Sometimes it is better to have longer, but not so intense camp.

 

[Victorious2]

The guys dissing Canada and Australia are just behind the times. Australia, Canada, Brazil (Croatia and Turkey too) are producing better and better players and we are starting to see the results with the Aussies. Countries like Spain, Lithuania, Argentina and Greece are fading fast.

Greece is already playing with a new young squad (Antetokoumpo, Papapetrou, Charalampopoulos, Calathes, Koufos. And even though they had some absentees (Papanikolaou, Printezis, Sloukas, Papagiannis, Pappas), they looked pretty good and they will only get better. To claim they are fading is quite ignorant.

Spain is not fading any time soon either. It just looks that way. They keep producing many players and Marc Gasol has some years in him. They actually made a transition in recent years. Calderon is not a key player, Garbajosa is gone. So is Cabezas. Navarro is not a key player either. They are making a slow transition. Claver, Hernangomez, Abrinez are excellent players. In a few words, Spain can largely replace Pau Gasol, Navarro, Reyes and Calderon and remain a top team.

Canada will not be better than the above two teams. Not any time soon.

Lithuania is somewhat down compared to what they used to be, and they will not be at the same level any time soon, but they will always remain a team to count on. Only Argentina is fading.

 

[mojo132]

Greece was also missing players in the qualifiers and has given the reigns to a 22 year-old but it's 'fading fast'.

I think all of us whose countries failed to even be there should just sit back and watch the games instead of talking about what our national teams would be doing 'if'.

Point taken, but this is one of the reasons I don't like the Olympics. 12 teams aren't enough, especially when two teams arn't nearly competitive. Thus the WCs are so much more intriguing. It is a shame the Olympics are such higher profile (at least in North America) than the WCs as it is less meaningful and exciting tournament to most bball fans. I would have really enjoyed seeing the full contingents of Greece, Italy, NZ, Philippines, Czech, Latvia,Turkey and others playing this summer (and of course Canada).

 

[Modis2]

If EC 2017 means nothing we should rest our veterans and send young players.

I agree with this alot a new generation has to come in guys like M.Varnas T.Sedekerskis even A.Velicka have to be called for NT camp and not necessarily be real contenders for the final roster but to get them ready from an earlier age thats what Serbia has done in the past.

And lets just make peace with this for ones a country of just barely 3 million people cant always produce talent which can compete on the elite level we dont only have the population capacity for this to keep up but also other resources like money + most of our youngsters go to Spain were they are thought individually which many of LT coaches dont do that.

If Kurtinaitis does take over i see this happening.

 

[CoachZ2]

Few differences - some players came very late at our camp, so had no time for full preparation. Maciulis for example had only 10 days rest after finals in ACB, Kuzminskas almost the same, we played biggest number of friendlies if I remember correct.
It is not the length of training camp, but how do you organise it. Sometimes it is better to have longer, but not so intense camp.

Kalinic, Bogdanovic came with a 18 hour rest before name call for OQT preps. They haven't had a single day of rest. Practically the whole team outside of Jokic who's season ended a long time ago came into the team with very little rest. And they had even worse conditions, they had to run two prep camps. One for OQT and another for OG.

I think it has little to do with prep, much more with bad game plans in most of the games and also you didn't perform at high level. In the last 3 games, you were fully outcoached.

 

[Ashtrusis_dantis2]

Kalinic, Bogdanovic came with a 18 hour rest before name call for OQT preps. They haven't had a single day of rest. Practically the whole team outside of Jokic who's season ended a long time ago came into the team with very little rest. And they had even worse conditions, they had to run two prep camps. One for OQT and another for OG.

Kalinic 24, Bogdanovic 23. Maciulis 31, Seibutis 31, Kalnietis 29. And please dont compare OQT with OG. OQT was your camp before OG.

I think it has little to do with prep, much more with bad game plans in most of the games and also you didn't perform at high level. In the last 3 games, you were fully outcoached.

Don't think so and even if that would be truth what it has to do with being so slow on defense?

 

[CoachZ2]

Kalinic 24, Bogdanovic 23. Maciulis 31, Seibutis 31, Kalnietis 29. And please dont compare OQT with OG. OQT was your camp before OG.

Don't think so and even if that would be truth what it has to do with being so slow on defense?

Because you tried to zone shooting teams way too much with a short rotation. You can gamble a bit but if you do it too much, you can't get to the shots. If you know you don't have that luxury you don't do it.

 

[Ashtrusis_dantis2]

Because you tried to zone shooting teams way too much with a short rotation. You can gamble a bit but if you do it too much, you can't get to the shots. If you know you don't have that luxury you don't do it.

Yes we gambled too much with zone defense, but that's what coaches do when his players aren't prepared good enough physically to play personal defense and that's what I am saying.

 

[CHBB2]

Point taken, but this is one of the reasons I don't like the Olympics. 12 teams aren't enough, especially when two teams arn't nearly competitive. Thus the WCs are so much more intriguing. It is a shame the Olympics are such higher profile (at least in North America) than the WCs as it is less meaningful and exciting tournament to most bball fans. I would have really enjoyed seeing the full contingents of Greece, Italy, NZ, Philippines, Czech, Latvia,Turkey and others playing this summer (and of course Canada).

It should have been expanded to 16 this year. This was the year to do it.

 

[auris12]

http://sportas.lrytas.lt/krepsinis/s-jovaisa-man-rinktineje-gaila-tik-dvieju-zmoniu.htm
Sergejus Jovaisa interview - hope you can translate whole thing yourselves .
Here is a bit i liked:
"Everything is much easier than you might think. Jonas Kazlauskas team is without a single basketball player, who could be team leader. Look, from which the clubs collect the players and what they are in teams - not a single basketball player, who in his club would be striking force. None of those teams are in leaders. So if you gather not the leaders, how they can be leaders, if they do not play as leaders? And these Olympics we had to have the man who could had pulled the team in tough moments, "- taught her mind former Kaunas Zalgiris and Lithuanian national team player.
Indeed ,our previous generation had them players who were regularly averaging 20 or so points in the teams they were playing for .
Jasikevicius, Siskauskas, Kleiza, Stombergas , Siskauskas, Brothers and many more ,all were able to score at will .
This team consisted of the players who are used to score 10 points per game ,god willing .
I am gonna give 10 points to Mantas and gonna pray that he can stay healthy for another 5 years ,because we gonna need him .

 

[remigijus2]

http://sportas.lrytas.lt/krepsinis/s-jovaisa-man-rinktineje-gaila-tik-dvieju-zmoniu.htm
Sergejus Jovaisa interview - hope you can translate whole thing yourselves .
Here is a bit i liked:
"Everything is much easier than you might think. Jonas Kazlauskas team is without a single basketball player, who could be team leader. Look, from which the clubs collect the players and what they are in teams - not a single basketball player, who in his club would be striking force. None of those teams are in leaders. So if you gather not the leaders, how they can be leaders, if they do not play as leaders? And these Olympics we had to have the man who could had pulled the team in tough moments, "- taught her mind former Kaunas Zalgiris and Lithuanian national team player.
Indeed ,our previous generation had them players who were regularly averaging 20 or so points in the teams they were playing for .
Jasikevicius, Siskauskas, Kleiza, Stombergas , Siskauskas, Brothers and many more ,all were able to score at will .
This team consisted of the players who are used to score 10 points per game ,god willing .
I am gonna give 10 points to Mantas and gonna pray that he can stay healthy for another 5 years ,because we gonna need him .

Is very pitty we lost Kleiza he was true leader for this team

 

[R1ou2]

It should have been expanded to 16 this year. This was the year to do it.

It means +48 players,coaching stuff etc.They didn't have enough condoms to share