Top Lithuanian Coaches

[macleopard132]

Okay, so here is the list of (what I think are) the top 8 Lithuanian coaches.

1. Jonas Kazlauskas - led us to a silver medal last season and made his name coaching various elite European clubs/national teams. Probably the best European defensive coach out there.
2. Rimas Kurtinaitis - a very successful coach who has led Rytas and Khimki to Eurocup championships and just missed the Top 8 of the Euroleague last season. He was named the best Eurocup coach of the 2000s decade, ahead of Joan Plaza and Neven Spahija. He is able to get the most out of his players and is great for developing young talented players.
3. Tomas Pacesas - propagates running-and-gunning style of play, but lacks in tactics. He managed to do an okay job as a coach of Asseco Prokom and of the starless Lithuania U-20 team.
4. Kestutis Kemzura - uses a limited amount of tactics and questions the credibility of youngsters, but still is a decent Eurocup-level coach. His Czech team is doing an average job in Eurocup this season.
5. Virginijus Seskus - people underestimate this guy. He molds a team (out of average/slightly above average LKL players) that regularly challenges Zalgiris and Rytas. I think this guy, like Kemzura, would have won us the bronze medal at the 2010 World Championship, because he no matter how bad Prienai look on paper, they will challenge anyone.
6. Saulius Stombergas - a new coach this season, Stombergas has yet to learn how to use tactics in many situations. But I like his no-nonsense and straightforward attitude, as well as the fact that Zalgiris made it to the Top 16 of the Euroleague against some odds.
7. Ramunas Butautas - a rather inconsistent coach - if there's good meat, he'll make use of it, but if there isn't, he'll stand in one place helplessly. More of an offensive coach who's doing an average job in the Eurocup.
8. Kazys Maskvytis - he coached Neptunas through several clutch games this season, and grew as a coach - after losing a couple of games in the clutch, he won others as the season progressed. He is a slightly below-average coach in the Eurocup.

Honorable mentions:
Darius Maskoliunas, Dainius Adomaitis, Valdemaras Chomicius, Rimas Grigas

 

[auris12]

Okay, so here is the list of (what I think are) the top 8 Lithuanian coaches.

1. Jonas Kazlauskas - led us to a silver medal last season and made his name coaching various elite European clubs/national teams. Probably the best European defensive coach out there.
2. Rimas Kurtinaitis - a very successful coach who has led Rytas and Khimki to Eurocup championships and just missed the Top 8 of the Euroleague last season. He was named the best Eurocup coach of the 2000s decade, ahead of Joan Plaza and Neven Spahija. He is able to get the most out of his players and is great for developing young talented players.
3. Tomas Pacesas - propagates running-and-gunning style of play, but lacks in tactics. He managed to do an okay job as a coach of Asseco Prokom and of the starless Lithuania U-20 team.
4. Kestutis Kemzura - uses a limited amount of tactics and questions the credibility of youngsters, but still is a decent Eurocup-level coach. His Czech team is doing an average job in Eurocup this season.
5. Virginijus Seskus - people underestimate this guy. He molds a team (out of average/slightly above average LKL players) that regularly challenges Zalgiris and Rytas. I think this guy, like Kemzura, would have won us the bronze medal at the 2010 World Championship, because he no matter how bad Prienai look on paper, they will challenge anyone.
6. Saulius Stombergas - a new coach this season, Stombergas has yet to learn how to use tactics in many situations. But I like his no-nonsense and straightforward attitude, as well as the fact that Zalgiris made it to the Top 16 of the Euroleague against some odds.
7. Ramunas Butautas - a rather inconsistent coach - if there's good meat, he'll make use of it, but if there isn't, he'll stand in one place helplessly. More of an offensive coach who's doing an average job in the Eurocup.
8. Kazys Maskvytis - he coached Neptunas through several clutch games this season, and grew as a coach - after losing a couple of games in the clutch, he won others as the season progressed. He is a slightly below-average coach in the Eurocup.

Honorable mentions:
Darius Maskoliunas, Dainius Adomaitis, Valdemaras Chomicius, Rimas Grigas

First at all,this is a friendly post and no animosity implied there ,just my opinion....
Pacesas has been without a team for so long,so i claim him as being inactive.He is an owner of a club(Alytus) and doing some administration work for the VTB.But he is not coaching per se.
Seskus is a clown.No pun intended,but that's what he is.He has got some ability to attract very, very decent players ,cheaply,and let them do whatever they want -and all they want to do is to win.So here we go - his magic formula.Not a good coach,but a very smart person.Lucky too,because that is still working so far.

 

[macleopard132]

Seskus is a clown.No pun intended,but that's what he is.He has got some ability to attract very, very decent players ,cheaply,and let them do whatever they want -and all they want to do is to win.So here we go - his magic formula.Not a good coach,but a very smart person.Lucky too,because that is still working so far.

In my opinion, you are slightly wrong on a couple of points here. First of all, Prienai haven't been blessed with good players. Linkevicius? Valeika? Kadziulis? Those are not household names. Before they came to Prienai, they were some decent NKL dudes (some played college hoops, and some were nobodies for weak clubs abroad), but none of them were prospects or looked like decent LKL players. Of course, there's Lukauskis and Janavicius, who are above or at LKL level, but other than these two folks, there's no one famous. On paper, the team looks really sad: no true center (Cepukaitis and Valeika were originally forwards), many guards, and one true small forward (Linkevicius). Despite weaknesses on paper, they're having the best time of their lives. One of the reasons must be the coach. While he may not be a conventional coach with good tactics, Seskus is quite a talented psychologist. From the couple videos I saw of Prienai playing against LKL/BBL teams, his players are confident and they play hard as a team. The guards' passing skills are eye-pleasing, and the team's offense is quite smooth. The coach has to be at least partly responsible for this atmosphere - he has to fire up the players and coach them into playing as a team, doesn't he? Secondly, his team has been one of the top teams in LKL for two seasons in a row - how can he be so lucky for so long? I think it's more than luck - his luck should've run out a long time ago. I think his team is winning because he's a talented and smart person. Maybe he was lucky once, when the players were riddled with injuries, yet hung on - but not anymore. It's all talent and brains now.

Do I think he's good enough to coach Lithuania national team? No. But I do think that he'd make a nice assistant (or a U-team coach).

 

[auris12]

In my opinion, you are slightly wrong on a couple of points here. First of all, Prienai haven't been blessed with good players. Linkevicius? Valeika? Kadziulis? Those are not household names. Before they came to Prienai, they were some decent NKL dudes (some played college hoops, and some were nobodies for weak clubs abroad), but none of them were prospects or looked like decent LKL players. Of course, there's Lukauskis and Janavicius, who are above or at LKL level, but other than these two folks, there's no one famous. On paper, the team looks really sad: no true center (Cepukaitis and Valeika were originally forwards), many guards, and one true small forward (Linkevicius). Despite weaknesses on paper, they're having the best time of their lives. One of the reasons must be the coach. While he may not be a conventional coach with good tactics, Seskus is quite a talented psychologist. From the couple videos I saw of Prienai playing against LKL/BBL teams, his players are confident and they play hard as a team. The guards' passing skills are eye-pleasing, and the team's offense is quite smooth. The coach has to be at least partly responsible for this atmosphere - he has to fire up the players and coach them into playing as a team, doesn't he? Secondly, his team has been one of the top teams in LKL for two seasons in a row - how can he be so lucky for so long? I think it's more than luck - his luck should've run out a long time ago. I think his team is winning because he's a talented and smart person. Maybe he was lucky once, when the players were riddled with injuries, yet hung on - but not anymore. It's all talent and brains now.

Do I think he's good enough to coach Lithuania national team? No. But I do think that he'd make a nice assistant (or a U-team coach).

Lets just say i would never allow Seskus near any of our Nt teams,either senior or junior,in any capacity,within 10 miles,at least.Some people are good at recycling and that what he does - he gives players some money ,chance and a hope, which is one big fat lie of how their chance will improve tenfolds if they play for Prienai for a few seasons)) And although that was very unconventional way to gather the team 3 or 4 years ago,others teams seem to be catching up a little with utilising decent local players without big clubs(or in between contracts,etc).But do not get me wrong,there is a lot i admire about him,and lets be honest,prienai ,when they are in the zone,are really pleasing to the eye to watch.
Back to your list - i think i would add another 2 names.
Antanas Sireika and Tomas Masiulis.
Just because Sireika has chosen to coach in Japan,he did not become lesser coach all of the sudden.The man has pedigree and achievements,well,to be really proud of,and although we all are aware of his shortages,that does not change the fact that he was one of our better coaches for nearly what?,two decades now?
I am pretty sure he would be capable of coaching any team in LKL,or even like being a head coach of Poland etc...Why not...I can not guarantee that he would be successful,but his CV looks alright to me.So meanwhile he is rejuvenating himself there,but you never know...
Now,Tomas Masiulis - I rate him well above D.Adomaitis.I have seen plenty of games in the last couple of seasons of him being on the helm of some national youth teams,and i was always impressed by his decision making etc.He is only 38 or so ,so i will be damned if he doesn't achieve something great in next 5 or so years.So he is my dark horse,if you will,for the foreseeable future.

 

[macleopard132]

Let's see, I'm trying to characterize Lithuanian coaches based on their offense/defense, post/shooting, up-tempo/slow-tempo coaching philosophy.

This is my impression:

Kazlauskas - primarily defense, goes through the post, slow/medium tempo
Kurtinaitis - primarily offense, likes shooters, fast tempo
Seskus - offense, loves shooters, medium/fast tempo
Sireika - offense, loves shooters, fast tempo
Kemzura - primarily offense, balanced, medium/fast tempo
Krapikas - balanced, favors the post, medium tempo
Adomaitis - primarily offense, balanced, medium/fast tempo
Stombergas - balanced, balanced, medium tempo
Butautas - primarily offense, likes shooters, medium tempo
Maskvytis - offense, balanced, fast tempo

Thoughts?

 

[Mindozas6]

I will write it in my way, if you don't mind

Kazlauskas - depends on team he has and it's strenght and weakenesses. He won Saporta Cup and EL with Zalgiris, playin' fast tempo, beautiful, passing bball, when in Europe defensive one was winning the titles. The same was with NT in Sidney. Now he prefers defensive one, cause our NT is limited in creativity and offense.

Kurtinaitis - more offense, but also he is smart coach, understands the game, charismatic, respected by the players

Seskus - my keyboard fails to write word "coach" near his name. At most he could coach classes at school with his "mesk tris, blet, kurva, kas tau yra nx, bek, tris mesk" (couldn't write this in english, cause he can't speak it)

Sireika - offensive one, good psychologist, but overall poor in-game coach. Failed badly in 2004 semi, when we needed coach the most

Kemzura - balanced one. Good tacticial, learned some stuff from Blatt surely, but sometimes lacks cool nerves, experience, so makes wrong in-game decision and has no charisma to be a true leader. Could be great assistant for top coaches tho

Krapikas - balanced. Looks like learned some tactical stuff from Kazlas in NT, and tries to bring it to Zalgiris, especially defense of course. Good that he is learning, but the same like Kemzura, lacks charisma and leadership qualities to become top coach

Butautas - poor man's Sireika, but without psychologist qualities. Another sad example when great NT generation was "lead" by a poor coach and couldn't reach it's best it could

Maksvytis - offensive one

Stombergas, Adomaitis - need more time to judge them

 

[Straight forward2]

Tomas Pačėsas should be mentioned. I would never trust him as far as NT concerned, but he could be a solid coach in the future if he will continue coaching. Has balls to be a head coach, but still lacking experience, tactical maturity.

 

[Mindozas6]

Tomas Pačėsas should be mentioned. I would never trust him as far as NT concerned, but he could be a solid coach in the future if he will continue coaching. Has balls to be a head coach, but still lacking experience, tactical maturity.

I respect your view, SF. But Pacesas is pure streetball coach, without any knowledge of tactics, but instead with full bag of cursing, swearing stuff and usually ends-up as laughing stock in club cause of that. These psycho wilderness of him makes impression only for kids teams, cause kids gets simply scared. I remember how painful was to watch U-20 team he was coaching. Such a stubborn bball, without any ideas. Yeah, those youngsters were disciplined, tried to work hard, defend, Pacesas was brave enough to kick one kid out cause of drinking, that's a good thing, but that's more for some sport teacher in school, not serious bbball coach

 

[Shawshank2]

After Kazlauskas will finish his olimpic cycle in 2017 most likely Sabonis will go to other familiar face Kurtinaitis and thats good thing.But after Kurtinaitis maybe we will see Maskvytis who knows.He is young coach and still in learning process,but after 4-5 years maybe there is a chance he can be next after kazlauskas/kurtinaitis.Maskvytis is growing step by step even i see similiaritys with Kazlauskas in how they started.Jonas started with youngsters,then went to uleb with zalgiris and than to euroleague.Maskvytis started with youths winning everything (even one champ without valanciunas! ).Then coached neptunas in VTb,uleb and now euroleague.WE are talked like basketball nation country but we have only like 3-4 europe level coaches.I agree with mindozas seskus can coach lkl small city club,but please he cant coach normal europe team with 3pointers game and no defence and no english.

 

[Hepcat2]

Let's see, I'm trying to characterize Lithuanian coaches based on their offense/defense, post/shooting, up-tempo/slow-tempo coaching philosophy.

This is my impression:

Kazlauskas - primarily defense, goes through the post, slow/medium tempo
Kurtinaitis - primarily offense, likes shooters, fast tempo
Seskus - offense, loves shooters, medium/fast tempo
Sireika - offense, loves shooters, fast tempo
Kemzura - primarily offense, balanced, medium/fast tempo
Krapikas - balanced, favors the post, medium tempo
Adomaitis - primarily offense, balanced, medium/fast tempo
Stombergas - balanced, balanced, medium tempo
Butautas - primarily offense, likes shooters, medium tempo
Maskvytis - offense, balanced, fast tempo

Thoughts?

How would Darius Maskoliūnas fit into your template?

Do you think Team Lietuva has the players for a fast tempo game these days?

 

[macleopard132]

I will write it in my way, if you don't mind

Kazlauskas - depends on team he has and it's strenght and weakenesses. He won Saporta Cup and EL with Zalgiris, playin' fast tempo, beautiful, passing bball, when in Europe defensive one was winning the titles. The same was with NT in Sidney. Now he prefers defensive one, cause our NT is limited in creativity and offense.

Kurtinaitis - more offense, but also he is smart coach, understands the game, charismatic, respected by the players

Seskus - my keyboard fails to write word "coach" near his name. At most he could coach classes at school with his "mesk tris, blet, kurva, kas tau yra nx, bek, tris mesk" (couldn't write this in english, cause he can't speak it)

Sireika - offensive one, good psychologist, but overall poor in-game coach. Failed badly in 2004 semi, when we needed coach the most

Kemzura - balanced one. Good tacticial, learned some stuff from Blatt surely, but sometimes lacks cool nerves, experience, so makes wrong in-game decision and has no charisma to be a true leader. Could be great assistant for top coaches tho

Krapikas - balanced. Looks like learned some tactical stuff from Kazlas in NT, and tries to bring it to Zalgiris, especially defense of course. Good that he is learning, but the same like Kemzura, lacks charisma and leadership qualities to become top coach

Butautas - poor man's Sireika, but without psychologist qualities. Another sad example when great NT generation was "lead" by a poor coach and couldn't reach it's best it could

Maksvytis - offensive one

Stombergas, Adomaitis - need more time to judge them

Wow, great analysis! So Butautas is the worst one out of all of these then (excluding Stombergas/Adomaitis)? He achieved a bronze medal in EB 2007; could he have achieved more?

How would Darius Maskoliūnas fit into your template?

I don't know too much about Maskoliunas to categorize him, sorry.

Do you think Team Lietuva has the players for a fast tempo game these days?

Yes. The anchors right now are Javtokas, brothers Lavrinovic, Jasaitis and Jankunas - these guys are slow and old. Once we get rid of them (most likely at or after the Olympics), our team will have the potential to play fast paced basketball. The new kids on the block Gudaitis and Sabonis will surely bring speed to the team (we can even throw in Kavaliauskas for a vet reinforcement - he thrives in fast paced games). Gailius or Ulanovas can replace Jasaitis, Lekavicius can join, and suddenly we're a fast team. We just need a good coach (Kurtinaitis will do) and then we can aim for a gold medal in EB 2017 .

 

[Mindozas6]

Wow, great analysis! So Butautas is the worst one out of all of these then (excluding Stombergas/Adomaitis)? He achieved a bronze medal in EB 2007; could he have achieved more?

Excluding Seskus, yeah, from my point of view, Butautas is the worst one. Sure his team won bronze in 2007, was 4th in Olympics 2008, but Butautas was close to none factor in these achievements. Saras and Siska were more of the coaches, who led the team on the floor. Team was totally dependable on their creativity as basically had no strickt gameplan. If they had their game goin', shots were falling, we were good, but if not - no B plan from coaching stuff. It was really obvious when we faced Russia in semi. We had less than 24h to prepare for this game after very tough 1/4 vs Croatia, so under normal circumstances, coaches must've had to work their asses off and prepare some gameplan, tactics as it was simply too little time for players to rest and Russia had one day off more, so we with our usual free-flowing bball could've had problems. But as the game started, nothing was on. Players struggled, Russia was inceasing it's lead, Blatt obviously was prepared and it worked great. We were losing ~20pts in 1st half, then Siska stepped up and brought us back in the game with individual efforts, still no hand of coach, so it wasn't enough. Butautas after Eurobasket said that he is man of honour and he will leave the helm of NT if he won't win a medal in Olympics, also added that you have to have "eyes of pig" to continue if you'll fail after such words. And...he continued. But karma hit him back in 2009, which was the best prove of his coaching abilities when Saras took summer off and Siska retired out of NT. Playin' Jomantas and Mazutis as PG, benching Kalnietis. It was smth... We all remember how it all worked-out.
Of course, you can never know what would've happened with some serious coach like Kazlauskas f.e. Sometimes life brings unexpected surprises and some lucky dudes reaches more than respected and wise persons. But the thing is clear, we achieved what we achieved in 2003-2008 cause of players talent we had and coaches had minimal impact on it. Even if Butautas was the worst one here, that 2004 semi and clueless Sireika was the worst bball experience I've ever had. Bein' one step away from Olympic final and maybe gold and end up with nothing, it hurts badly

 

[Shawshank2]

i agree with mindozas with almost everyhting.And i can add lets say eurobasket 2003 champs team was kazlauskas prepared team and sireika got the credit.In zalgiris he made stombergas and both zukauskas what they were, macijauskas,siskauskas,javtokas was under kazlauskas wing in 2002-2004 when they were making first strong steps in rytas team, jasikevicius worked with kazlauskas from his 18 years in youngster champs,kazlauskas took jasikevicius every summer 1997-1998-1999 even when he was making more mistakes than assists, but he saw in him leader by character that is needed at PG and was taking him every summer as back up to maskoliunas.Until in 2000 saras exploided,songaila was taken by kazlauskas at 21years old tottaly unknown even for us lithuanians to 2000 olimpic games .All those players leaded our team for 4-5 years and won biggest tournament in our basketball history eurobasket 2003.And kazlauskas had his part in that.But sireika was the men kas nuskyne kazlausko sodintus vaisius arne ?

In my eyes Lithuania had never had better coached than Kazlauskas.I was and are very happy that sabonis talked to him and hired him back and again Jonas didnt dissapoint us.Both tournaments were max what our team could achieve.

 

[Modis2]

I like Jonas Kazlauskas overall. But I also like Antanas Sireika. He was the one who won Gold for us in Eurobasket 2013

 

[Modis2]

Sorry I meant to say 2003. Was typing to fast.

 

[macleopard132]

Sorry I meant to say 2003. Was typing to fast.

In the future, you can just edit your post if you want change or add something. It's to the left of the Reply button.

Kazlauskas is a "mathematical genius", as Kunigėlis put it yesterday, but he does have his limitations. He concocts very specific game plans that players must follow and allows little improvisation sometimes. This can be a bad thing, because if other teams can predict what weapons you'll be using, you're toast. That's kind of what happened with yesterday's game - we were too predictable and the Croatians took advantage of us. That's why I don't feel overly confident that we'll grab a medal in this tournament. We need better team chemistry and offensive fluidity to beat teams like Croatia, France, Serbia and Spain than what we've shown so far.

 

[Modis2]

In the future, you can just edit your post if you want change or add something. It's to the left of the Reply button.

Kazlauskas is a "mathematical genius", as Kunigėlis put it yesterday, but he does have his limitations. He concocts very specific game plans that players must follow and allows little improvisation sometimes. This can be a bad thing, because if other teams can predict what weapons you'll be using, you're toast. That's kind of what happened with yesterday's game - we were too predictable and the Croatians took advantage of us. That's why I don't feel overly confident that we'll grab a medal in this tournament. We need better team chemistry and offensive fluidity to beat teams like Croatia, France, Serbia and Spain than what we've shown so far.

He can be to strict with his players,and as I heard in one of his interviews he really hates when players don't follow his directions.Kazlauskas needs to chill sometimes But Kazlauskas is the only coach in Lithuania now who has a chance to reach what Vladas Garastas did. Vladas Garastas has 2 Bronze medals in Olympic Games 1992, 1996, and a Silver in EuroBasket 1995. Kazlauskas has a Bronze medal in Olympic Games 2000, and a Silver in EuroBasket 2013. Kazlauskas was inches away from a Bronze in 2014. No matter how he does this year I hope he stays for Olympics 2016,if we get there of course but its more then likely Is there any other coach who could take over Kazlauskas now ? because the last two tournaments were excellent for him.

 

[omgsomuchpotential2]

In the future, you can just edit your post if you want change or add something. It's to the left of the Reply button.

Kazlauskas is a "mathematical genius", as Kunigėlis put it yesterday, but he does have his limitations. He concocts very specific game plans that players must follow and allows little improvisation sometimes. This can be a bad thing, because if other teams can predict what weapons you'll be using, you're toast. That's kind of what happened with yesterday's game - we were too predictable and the Croatians took advantage of us. That's why I don't feel overly confident that we'll grab a medal in this tournament. We need better team chemistry and offensive fluidity to beat teams like Croatia, France, Serbia and Spain than what we've shown so far.

I actually think Kazlauskas' coaching style is a perfect fit for this type of player personnel we have. We don't have any great individually skilled players but instead quite a few ones that are team-oriented to execute Kazlauskas schemes. If we had guys like Tony Parker then maybe it would be a different story, but as of now there probably isn't a better Lithuanian coach to work with these players. Kurtinaitis could be a nice alternative though.

 

[Ashtrusis_dantis2]

People please throw Sireika away. He has no place in this list. He is a bad (ok max mediocre) coach, who has ZERO knowledges about defence, tactic and has no idea how to play endings of a game. All his victories (actually just one - EC2003) are becourse he coached most talented generation of Lithuanian basketball players at their peak and did it terribely. In year 2003 he used Kazlauskas schemes and Don Nelson junior defensive knowledges, thats why we won. And in year 2004 he showed all his "knowledges" first by not taking Kaukenas because (quoting) "you are a good player, but you dont match my game schemes" and taking Gustas (what a fk? Kaukenas can't dribble or what? Put these schemes in to your hm... if they don't allow you to take Kaukenas, but allow you to take Gustas), second by trying to solve all problems with 3pt shooting. Third by not taking Nelson who was working as defensive coach in our NT for more than decade. With Kazlauskas we would never ever have such defeats like against Italy (2004) or Turkia (2006), or Macabi (2004) and so on. Im even not talking about his famous frases like "who runs fastest in our team" or "men what should we do?" That coach is a parody, not a good coach.

 

[Straight forward2]

Kurtinaitis got fired by Chimki. Well it was a good run for Kurtinaitis with this team. Now I think timing is pretty good for Kurtinaitis to consider NT head coach position if Kazlauskas will retire after Olympics and most likely he will knowing how reluctantly he talked about the future work with the NT just after EB.