Top Lithuanian Coaches

[Hepcat]

(also bad memories when he with Butautas decided to go with Mažutis and Jomantas as PGs in 2009).

But who were the alternatives? Was Mantas Kalnietis available?

[auris1]

That's why I say he's decent. Coached solid Euroleague's club for few years, but problems instantly appeared as soon as he faced some high profile players in his team. Pretty similar what happened to Kemzura. That's the difference between Kazlauskas and Kurtinaitis. First, became top European coach, highly respectable coach who could deal with CSKA's stars and so on...Kurtinaitis never became (at least yet) a top coach in Europe. I think personality in coaching career is the key, even more than talent I think. We love Kurtinaitis, but he doesn't have that rock solid authority. Sabonis has it, I think Marciulionis has it, Kazlauskas has it (and respect for that because he wasn't some super player) and Jasikevicius has it. That's why big clubs hunting Jasikevicius, they know he has authority and players will follow his rules.

Hopefully this wont become personal , but i have to disagree with you again .
Kemzura was first to coach Chimki and he got sacked almost straight away because he could not handle big names .
Kurtinaitis came, he had them same players to deal with and got even bigger names during his tenure there ...Yet ...He stayed there for 4 and a half years . Plus , in Russia it is almost inconceivable to have this sort of longevity unless to have balls made out of steel .
Kazlauskas came to CSKA ,he had big names ,if not the biggest available ,did not win Euroleague and he got sacked after just one season .
And why would you mention Sabonis and Marciulionis ? They have nothing to do with coaching at all and their authority is just nominal and token in this case, all due to their playing days .

[Straight forward]

Hopefully this wont become personal , but i have to disagree with you again .
Kemzura was first to coach Chimki and he got sacked almost straight away because he could not handle big names .
Kurtinaitis came, he had them same players to deal with and got even bigger names during his tenure there ...Yet ...He stayed there for 4 and a half years . Plus , in Russia it is almost inconceivable to have this sort of longevity unless to have balls made out of steel .
Kazlauskas came to CSKA ,he had big names ,if not the biggest available ,did not win Euroleague and he got sacked after just one season .
And why would you mention Sabonis and Marciulionis ? They have nothing to do with coaching at all and their authority is just nominal and token in this case, all due to their playing days .

Yeah, I should give creditfor Kurtinaitis staying in Chimki so long, but it's not like bog clubs are hunting him right now right? I mention Sabonis and Marciulionis because it they would decide to coach, I think they would have instant authority. That's what I meant. Specially Sabonis off course.

[Straight forward]

But who were the alternatives? Was Mantas Kalnietis available?

There were plenty other options than Mazutis and Jomantas Basically any other options could work better theoretically More seriously, they never trusted Kalnietis enough and eventually Mantas skipped the tournament because of personal reasons (Father's death if I'm not mistaken), or he just was riding the bench while Mazutis was playing Also they could already go with young Janavičius, Vasiliauskas, Gecevičius. It wouldn't had been worse. Question is also - why the f... Seibutis wasn't in the team? That's stupid, that's poor job of scouts and coaches. Also they could already bring Pocius, but never did it. There were options because Mazutis was a nightmare anyway.

[auris1]

Yeah, I should give creditfor Kurtinaitis staying in Chimki so long, but it's not like bog clubs are hunting him right now right? I mention Sabonis and Marciulionis because it they would decide to coach, I think they would have instant authority. That's what I meant. Specially Sabonis off course.

Are you drunk? What having an authority in general terms of basketball as a player is to do with being a good coach ?
How about we get Einikis to coach our NT team ?
He would beat everyone to a pulp . My ass ,seriously , with your authority thing .
Djordjevic was sacked by Panos . So what ? Are you saying he did not have enough authority to coach Serbia ?
They did badly ?

[Straight forward]

Are you drunk? What having an authority in general terms of basketball as a player is to do with being a good coach ?
How about we get Einikis to coach our NT team ?
He would beat everyone to a pulp . My ass ,seriously , with your authority thing .
Djordjevic was sacked by Panos . So what ? Are you saying he did not have enough authority to coach Serbia ?
They did badly ?

No I'm not. What I'm trying to say here - talent and knowledge is not enough. Kemzura has latter things, but he doesn't have the thing I talking about. So Dzordzevic is a bad coach or a good coach according to you, I think you missed your point here? Dzordjevic wasn't fired because he lacked authority. Kemzura and eventually Kurtinaitis (well in Kurtinaitis case it wasn't so obvious) were fired at least partly of that. DO you seriously believe Einikis ever had any authority? The guy can't say one single sentence fluently. The guy doesn't talk. He surely can't be a coach, and his last trip to Russia proved that pretty well.

[auris1]

No I'm not. What I'm trying to say here - talent and knowledge is not enough. Kemzura has latter things, but he doesn't have the thing I talking about. So Dzordzevic is a bad coach or a good coach according to you, I think you missed your point here? Dzordjevic wasn't fired because he lacked authority. Kemzura and eventually Kurtinaitis (well in Kurtinaitis case it wasn't so obvious) were fired at least partly of that. DO you seriously believe Einikis ever had any authority? The guy can't say one single sentence fluently. The guy doesn't talk. He surely can't be a coach, and his last trip to Russia proved that pretty well.

As I said before , I have no beef with you .
If you can not get a joke about Einikis ,well,that is just too bad .

[Shawshank]

Kazlauskas is half retired coach i believe.He will turn 63 this year,if he dont get any seriuos offers i doubt he will coach ever.Max 1 or 2 years even if he gets any seriuos offers.Over 65 to coach young mens it becomes very dificult. Either way Jonas is/was best lithuanian coach ever by far.

Kemzura works as assistent under Blatt and all other our best coaches are working in LKL...That only shows that our coaches is not respected as much as ex-jugoslavian coaches.Hopefully new generations of coaches will make a difference in future with Jasikevicius,Maskvytis and Adomaitis.

[Straight forward]

I doubt Maksvytis has an upside to become a good European coach. I think he's a fit only for Lithuanian market. I just don't see him handling foreign team. He doesn't have authoritative personality. Could be perfect as an assistant coach in NT probably though. Adomaitis might. Jasikevicius already one of the best in Europe.

[Shawshank]

I doubt Maksvytis has an upside to become a good European coach. I think he's a fit only for Lithuanian market. I just don't see him handling foreign team. He doesn't have authoritative personality. Could be perfect as an assistant coach in NT probably though. Adomaitis might. Jasikevicius already one of the best in Europe.

Jasikevicius has a potential to be one of the best, but not as he is right now.That he one of the best from younger generation europe coaches ofcourse, but not overall.Titles and results should back it up.Jasikevicius dont have them yet. Coaching good one year doesnt
make you one of the best.Last year Bartsokas was best euroleague coach, how he is doing this year with barcelona?

When Jasikevicius will have atleast 5 years of coaching experience than you can make some real conclusions.Now is way too early.

For me Maskvytis did better job with neptunas, maskvytis did way better with youngsters than adomaitis with students, maskvytis is doing better job with lietkabelis, than adomaitis was doing with juventus.

[auris1]

Jasikevicius has a potential to be one of the best, but not as he is right now.That he one of the best from younger generation europe coaches ofcourse, but not overall.Titles and results should back it up.Jasikevicius dont have them yet. Coaching good one year doesnt
make you one of the best.Last year Bartsokas was best euroleague coach, how he is doing this year with barcelona?

I am sort of lost for words there . You say that

Last year Bartsokas was best euroleague coach

.But ... let me get it right for you -Georgios Bartzokas was named EuroLeague Coach of the Year in 2013 ,not last year .
Saying that someone is the best coach is such a fickle .It comes and goes away just like that , like after just one gamer you might be either or neither .
I am pretty sure that Saras as a player was one of the best ,as you would agree? Was he ever the best ? Perhaps not ,yet .. He has all them titles and shit ...
As a coach , he is already in a top 10 of them coaches , right ? All the top teams are coming after him ,and you are still not convinced ? 5 years period is quite steep as well .
Honestly , he had managed to stretch his playing career to almost 20 years at top level . As a coach , he will be good for another 40 if he wishes .

[Lebasketball]

Hi
A little bit update for this thread.
As you may know Butautas is our coach and what i can say at the moment about him is that he gave us a great defense and we were lacking this. He often plays man on man defense with a half court press.
In the attack, he likes the fastbreak but even when we're not in a fastbreak attack the players turns the ball like "an european teams" and i really like that.
Maybe he can be succesfull with us because our players lack the basic things so we can clearly see the improvment with him and he used to coach the youth several years so he knows how to pass his message to the players who lacks basketball IQ.
Last but not least he has big balls hehe ! He don't hesitate to put our best players on the bench, a lot of rotation even in the clutch time. He didn't take our best rising star in the line-up for some reason and we all kniw that this player (Ahmad Ibrahim) is talented but his behavior is not the best so I guess is not a bad things.

[Babajas]

My list:
1. Jonas Kazlauskas. No need for introductions. He's done so much for Lithuanian basketball it would be unfair to list him as anything but number one.
2. Rimas Kurtinaitis. The most accomplished coach after Kazlauskas. Knows how to work with youth, strong leadership abilities, knowledgeable about basketball. Unlike Kazlauskas, who can work with what he's given, Kurtinaitis needs to be involved in the team building process in order to be successful.
3. Sarunas Jasikevicius. Strong leadership abilities, charisma. Decisive and quick, unafraid of taking risks. Intelligent. He's third only because he doesn't have the experience, but should be surpassing Kurtinaitis rather soon.
4. Kestutis Kemzura. There is a reason coach Blatt keeps him as an assistant. He has developed one of the most versatile transition offense systems of any Lithuanian coach; however, he struggles to make in-game adjustments to stop opponent momentum. He also lacks leadership qualities, which burned him in 2011/2012 when veterans were calling the shots.
5. Dainius Adomaitis. Specializes in fast-paced offense with some focus on defense. He has more international experience than his direct competitor Maksvytis, but has lost match-ups to him.
6. Kazys Maksvytis. Also emphasizes offense, and has been a more successful coach than Dainius, but lacks international experience. Even though he's sixth here, he's really not that much worse than Adomaitis. In fact, I don't think it would've made a huge difference whether Dainius or Kazys were coaching our team this summer.
7. Antanas Sireika. Performs if he has backing, but crumbles under pressure. He emphasizes offense, but doesn't have too many plays other than move the ball around or pick 'n roll. Lacks leaderships skills, giving control to his players rather than dictating the game.
8. Rimantas Grigas. A highly underrated coach. He owned a deep L. Rytas team led by the Trifunovic in 2008 LKL finals. He also helped develop a slew of talent by coaching youth (Jasikevicius and Praskevicius come to mind). Unfortunately, he also lacks charisma and consistency to coach high-level teams.
9. Darius Maskoliunas. The man had a good run with Zalgiris in 2009-10, nearly making Euroleague Top 8. But his team also underperformed in 2012-13, when Rytas couldn't get past the first Euroleague stage and capitulated in VTB United League with 9 wins and 9 losses. Still, he is partly responsible for the steely defense Zalgiris has played last season.
10. Ramunas Butautas. EuroBasket 2009 exposed his weaknesses as a tactician and coach. He allowed too much freedom to his players, but when the players needed some guidance, he just wasn't there to offer it. However, he has done a good job with the Lebanon team, giving China a run for their money in the Asian Championship 5th place match-up.

[Straight forward]

My list:

What? Seriously? Unproven puppies as Adomaitis, Maksvytis are better than Sireika? What exactly they did? Sireika is a champ of Europe. He handled the team composed of peaking Jasikevicius and tons of euroleague's true stars (you can ask Kazlauskas how tough is to deal with that, far from every time it was an easy task, 2009, 2011...), he is 3 time LKL champ with Zalgiris. He's not a great strategist, but has personality and guts to handle the highest calibre Lith teams. Even in Zalgiris he had to deal with nut cases like Tanoka Beard and he did. And those were times when to grab LKL title was a real thing. Not now when soft teams as Neptunas and Lietkabelis reaching the finals...


If you rank by actual abilities and not achievements I would put Jasikevicius at the top. Can't remember when Kazlauskas' impact was as obvious and most importantly impressive, effective and all around as Jasikevicius' last season in Zalgiris. He made Zalgiris the borderline elite EL's club of very mediocre roster. In this case to me it would be 1. Saras. 2. Kazlauskas. 3. Kurtinaitis. 4. Sireika. 5. Kemzura

[Babajas]

What? Seriously? Unproven puppies as Adomaitis, Maksvytis are better than Sireika? What exactly they did? Sireika is a champ of Europe. He handled the team composed of peaking Jasikevicius and tons of euroleague's true stars (you can ask Kazlauskas how tough is to deal with that, far from every time it was an easy task, 2009, 2011...), he is 3 time LKL champ with Zalgiris. He's not a great strategist, but has personality and guts to handle the highest calibre Lith teams. Even in Zalgiris he had to deal with nut cases like Tanoka Beard and he did. And those were times when to grab LKL title was a real thing. Not now when soft teams as Neptunas and Lietkabelis reaching the finals...

If you rank by actual abilities and not achievements I would put Jasikevicius at the top. Can't remember when Kazlauskas' impact was as obvious and most importantly impressive, effective and all around as Jasikevicius' last season in Zalgiris. He made Zalgiris the borderline elite EL's club of very mediocre roster. In this case to me it would be 1. Saras. 2. Kazlauskas. 3. Kurtinaitis. 4. Sireika. 5. Kemzura

First of all, this list is just my opinion - I'm not even sure that one can use quantifiable substance to accurately draw a qualitative premise. I ranked Sireika behind Adomaitis and Maksvytis because he hasn't won anything significant in the last ten years other than a couple of bronze medals in domestic competitions. He got his butt handed to him by his assistant Giedraitis in 2011 and by Seskus in 2012 in the third place match-up. Next, he became a head coach of a Japanese team, which wasn't even a top contender in Japan Basketball League despite having some foreign talent. Then in Juventus, he delivered some surprises, but also lost some games where Juventus was a clear favorite. Overall, he's done a good job in the LKL since his return, but so has Adomaitis and Maksvytis. Don't get me wrong, Antanas has given a lot to Lithuanian basketball, but I don't see him as being "better" than the two aforementioned coaches at the moment, especially if we consider the last ten years of coaching experience (I probably should've been more specific, sorry about that).