Top Lithuanian Coaches

[Mindozas]

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.

Could be in 1998-1999

[usagre]

Could be in 1998-1999

Around the same time period I think he did his best job with the national team at the 2000 Olympics. That team was talented but overachieved by eliminating a super talented Serbian team in the quarterfinals and took Usa to the wire in the semifinals before winning the bronze against Australia on their home court.

[Mindozas]

Around the same time period I think he did his best job with the national team at the 2000 Olympics. That team was talented but overachieved by eliminating a super talented Serbian team in the quarterfinals and took Usa to the wire in the semifinals before winning the bronze against Australia on their home court.

Indeed. 2000 was an amazing surprise. I remember very well how this team traveled to Sydney without any expectations. We lost our two biggest NT stars in Sabas and Karnisovas, both were injured. That was huge blow. Team was very young, most of the players without any Olympic experience, most coming from very tough seasons, then the one who supposed to be a leader, Einikis, was having behaviour issues and was kicked-out from NT, but later brought back. But what was supposed to be a disaster turned out into one of the most astonishing achievements in our bball history, not only in terms of final result, but also the way we reached it, playin' great bball. Basically similar to the one Zalgiris played in 1998-99

[Straight forward]

The difference is that Kazlauskas had stud point guards in Šaras and Tyus Edney back than (and stars like Stombergas, Anthony Bowie). Jasikevicius could only dream about such creative and elite players last season. That's why to me he did more impressive job as coach, he had to create an oiled mechanism to achieve as much and he did. Edney could do a lot by himself alone. Jasikevicius was making everyone better around him. Not that I want to take anything from Kazlauskas. It was amazing times of Lithuanian basketball.

[auris1]

My list:

Wait , no Vladas Garastas ?
He is / was a legend . I never particularly liked him for one or another reason as a coach, and at the end , when he was presiding our bb federation , i just did not liked him at all.
Yeah , nowadays he seems like very outdated and old school , but on the other hand , this was a very powerful and successful figure at his peak , like almost globally , beit long long time ago .
Lets say that i honestly can not put him anywhere in your list just the same like you can't put a dinosaur into zoo because their are extinct . Still , you can not deny the fact he existed .

[Babajas]

Wait , no Vladas Garastas ?
He is / was a legend . I never particularly liked him for one or another reason as a coach, and at the end , when he was presiding our bb federation , i just did not liked him at all.
Yeah , nowadays he seems like very outdated and old school , but on the other hand , this was a very powerful and successful figure at his peak , like almost globally , beit long long time ago .
Lets say that i honestly can not put him anywhere in your list just the same like you can't put a dinosaur into zoo because their are extinct . Still , you can not deny the fact he existed .

Yes, he undoubtedly was a successful figure (had all the right personality traits to be a fine coach), but my list reflects the current coaching situation, as mentioned in my last post, and last time I checked, Garastas is no longer coaching. Your excuse to extol an archaic basketball figure seems rather out of place, forgive me for being so blunt.

[Babajas]

The difference is that Kazlauskas had stud point guards in Šaras and Tyus Edney back than (and stars like Stombergas, Anthony Bowie). Jasikevicius could only dream about such creative and elite players last season. That's why to me he did more impressive job as coach, he had to create an oiled mechanism to achieve as much and he did. Edney could do a lot by himself alone. Jasikevicius was making everyone better around him. Not that I want to take anything from Kazlauskas. It was amazing times of Lithuanian basketball.

Agree with you about Edney being a "stud", arriving to Kaunas with some NBA experience under his belt. But Jasikevicius? He was still a new kid on the rise in European basketball when he played in Sidney. He showed potential in Olimpija, but had much to prove. Lithuania surprised everyone for similar reasons as in 2010 - nobody expected Lithuania to get to the medal round, and many teams underestimated it. Kazlauskas was able to instill the right attitude on a young and hungry team. When you consider those two factors together, you get a strong showing at a prestigious tournament. Jasikevicius also had both factors working for him this past season - right from the beginning, no one expected Zalgiris to do well, and when Zalgiris gained momentum, teams found it difficult to stop it. This is not to say that Jasikevicius did not impress the team with a better approach to games - but I find your argument regarding Jasikevicius "outranking" Kazlauskas in ability somewhat flawed. If we were to normalize their ages, however, then by all means, I would agree with you. Nevertheless, the nature of this topic is very subjective, and we can fight about this all day and night and not come to a consensus.

[Mindozas]

The difference is that Kazlauskas had stud point guards in Šaras and Tyus Edney back than (and stars like Stombergas, Anthony Bowie). Jasikevicius could only dream about such creative and elite players last season. That's why to me he did more impressive job as coach, he had to create an oiled mechanism to achieve as much and he did. Edney could do a lot by himself alone. Jasikevicius was making everyone better around him. Not that I want to take anything from Kazlauskas. It was amazing times of Lithuanian basketball.

Man, Kazlauskas won freaking Euroleague and did it with his own style. When slow basketball dominated the courts, he came with fast paced game and blew everyone away. That's the key. He managed to build such team. Of course you need tools to do so. Edney was no one when he came to Europe, of course he proved to be vital on court, but let's say, the same Edney never won EL again bein' in better teams, actually none of Zalgiris players did

[auris1]

Yes, he undoubtedly was a successful figure (had all the right personality traits to be a fine coach), but my list reflects the current coaching situation, as mentioned in my last post, and last time I checked, Garastas is no longer coaching. Your excuse to extol an archaic basketball figure seems rather out of place, forgive me for being so blunt.

Fair enough , because I just did not scroll back enough to catch your last prior to your last post .
But just as a suggestion -how about Algirdas Paulauskas ?
He coached our NT team , beit women , and other as well (Polish NT team)? Google is very spare on him , I do not know why. As a club head coach he was very successful as well with jobs in our telecom team , whatever it was called , as well with Russian clubs .As far as going to the Euro league final 4 stages quite a few times . I am sure someone like Ludux has more stats , but he was top coach like just a few years ago .

[Babajas]

Fair enough , because I just did not scroll back enough to catch your last prior to your last post .
But just as a suggestion -how about Algirdas Paulauskas ?
He coached our NT team , beit women , and other as well (Polish NT team)? Google is very spare on him , I do not know why. As a club head coach he was very successful as well with jobs in our telecom team , whatever it was called , as well with Russian clubs .As far as going to the Euro league final 4 stages quite a few times . I am sure someone like Ludux has more stats , but he was top coach like just a few years ago .

Do you mean Alfredas Vainauskas, who recently coached Utena women's team? He used to head Rytas back when it was just starting out. The guy had a lot of potential too - won a couple of domestic and regional tournaments with young Siska and Macas, even vanquished a team led by our NT coach in LKL. But he chose to continue his career in women's basketball, made a name for himself in 2012 as European women's coach of the year, and lost it the next with that Russian NT fiasco, so I'm not really sure his experience warrants a place in the top 10. Maybe in the top 20.

[Mindozas]

Do you mean Alfredas Vainauskas, who recently coached Utena women's team? He used to head Rytas back when it was just starting out. The guy had a lot of potential too - won a couple of domestic and regional tournaments with young Siska and Macas, even vanquished a team led by our NT coach in LKL. But he chose to continue his career in women's basketball, made a name for himself in 2012 as European women's coach of the year, and lost it the next with that Russian NT fiasco, so I'm not really sure his experience warrants a place in the top 10. Maybe in the top 20.

He meant what he wrote - Algirdas Paulauskas, a women bball coach. He was assistant coach to Vydas Gedvilas when our women NT won Eurobasket back in 1997

Talking about all-time best coaches and Garastas. Latter surely would be among top ones. Lot of people simply ignores him cause he coached Sabas' generation, so it's a common thought that basically anyone could coach it and win, Sabas would do it all. But actually, Garastas was really good coach even without Sabas on board. He proved that at first in youth level when he lead small town Birzai team to Lithuanian top, which was kinda huge, who could challenge top guns like Kaunas or Vilnius??? then he took a risk to take a charge of Zalgiris, when club was in very tough situation and none really wanted to take responsibility, so he managed to take Zalgiris from relegation candidate to league finals very next season. That was huge achievement. When Sabas showed up, Garastas was the one who trsuted young fellow no matter all the mistakes he made. Overall, he was not just good tactitian, but first of all very good psychologist. He knew where to push the players, where to let it go. I mean, that, I guess we all know that discipline back then was far from current one No wonder players called him a father too. After he was kicked out from Lith bball for a while, after we retrieved our independence, in one season he managed to lead some Slovakian club to it's title... Of course, when our first Olympic team was build, players on their own, against federation decision, called Garastas to comeback and be a coach of it. Everyone knew how valuable Garastas is to a team

Other than that, we had really good coaches like Stepas Butautas, Vytautas Bimba, Feliksas Kriauciunas, Konstantinas Savickas, maybe I forgot some others too

[LuDux]

He meant what he wrote - Algirdas Paulauskas, a women bball coach. He was assistant coach to Vydas Gedvilas when our women NT won Eurobasket back in 1997

Talking about all-time best coaches and Garastas. Latter surely would be among top ones. Lot of people simply ignores him cause he coached Sabas' generation, so it's a common thought that basically anyone could coach it and win, Sabas would do it all. But actually, Garastas was really good coach even without Sabas on board. He proved that at first in youth level when he lead small town Birzai team to Lithuanian top, which was kinda huge, who could challenge top guns like Kaunas or Vilnius???

Do you mean Zalgiris and Statyba? Did they really play in republican championships?

[Mindozas]

Do you mean Zalgiris and Statyba? Did they really play in republican championship?

No, you got me wrong here. As I wrote, it was on youth level, back in those days it was competitions between the cities/towns, don't know how to call it correctly. Kaunas, Vilnius obviously gathered the biggest pool of talent, at times it was Panevezys who could challenge them, but it was practically impossible for a town like Birzai to be among the best

[LuDux]

No, you got me wrong here. As I wrote, it was on youth level, back in those days it was competitions between the cities/towns, don't know how to call it correctly. Kaunas, Vilnius obviously gathered the biggest pool of talent, at times it was Panevezys who could challenge them, but it was practically impossible for a town like Birzai to be among the best

Sorry, missed that

Spartakiada

[Mindozas]

Sorry, missed that

Spartakiada

Yes, it very well might be Spartakiada