Vilnius Rytas Thread

[auris1]

The fan letter said his ambition might very well be understandable. What they didn't like was that Kurtinaitis had spoken of it to the press on more than one occasion.

Look , this is no issue to all, but a few ... The same people did not like the Lrytas juniors supporting Zalgiris at the tournament as well just because they happened to be there ,and you know , who else they should be supporting at final 4 tournament if not Zalgiris ... CSKA ? Who gives ... anyways ,right?
I am not sure if you are aware of a culture of " ultras" -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultras

This is a plague that has been spreading among European sport alongside with right wing nationalist supporters . All you can do is to ignore them .

[auris1]

Another news which is more relevant to this thread ...

https://www.lrytas.lt/sportas/krepsinis/2018/05/22/news/-lietuvos-ryto-jaunimas-ikliuvo-pagavo-vartojancius-alkoholi-6382939/

In other words , some guys from Lrytas winning junior team got caught drinking. Aged 16 and 17 .
That doesn't bother me that much to be honest with you . Kleiza rightly said that maybe after seeing Zalgiris celebrating them young players decided they had achieved more hence ....
Lekunas is the recent one that had been known for his drinking habits more than his talent on the court . He is the one who is still decent at LKL level and probably could upgrade , but you know , reputation . So them young folks are getting reputation even before they have started their professional career . Sad

[Hepcat]

In other words , some guys from Lrytas winning junior team got caught drinking. Aged 16 and 17.
That doesn't bother me that much to be honest with you.

Hardly shocking. Teenagers the world over sneak drinks whenever adults aren't around. It seems to be some sort of rite of passage.

The solution? Closer adult and coach supervision of youth teams.

[auris1]

Hardly shocking.

The solution? Closer adult and coach supervision of youth teams.

I think that depends on situation . So Sirvydis had just won Junior Euroleague as a member of a team and MVP as a player . They went out and had some drinks after they got that title ? I hope you can find Kurtis remarks in Lrytas newspaper - he was sort of - oh well ,what do you expect ? He does not tell players to drink , but if they do on occasion like this ?

[Hepcat]

Hmmmmm. So it appears that Dainius Adomaitis will be coaching the Vilnius club next season. What's on the horizon for current head coach Rimas Kurtinaitis though?

[Svajunas]

I for one would be suprised if he gets any decent job at all. Maybe Lietkabelis, since Butautas is not a good coach imo...

[madmax]

I like Kurtis as a person and we would probably become the best mates in an instant if I was still boozing like in my student days and had a chance to sit down and crack some jokes with him, but guy's coaching pedigree is declining rapidly and now the series against much inferior Neptunas team hang in balance too? It seems like all those decades of heavy boozing are finally taking their toll on the guy afterall...

[Hepcat]

The cause-and-effect relationship may to a large extent be in the opposite direction though. If Kurtinaitis is in fact a "lame duck" coach slated to be replaced at season's end, what does that say to the players? How does he get them to execute the game plan, as opposed to just going through the motions and playing street ball on the court? At best the whole situation has to constitute a huge distraction to the players right in the midst of their semifinal.

I'm thinking that Rytas' management has once again sabotaged the team.

[auris1]

I like Kurtis as a person and we would probably become the best mates in an instant if I was still boozing like in my student days and had a chance to sit down and crack some jokes with him, but guy's coaching pedigree is declining rapidly and now the series against much inferior Neptunas team hang in balance too? It seems like all those decades of heavy boozing are finally taking their toll on the guy afterall...

No,no and you wouldn't. Plus he doesn't drink anymore and you are talking shit . Them times of heavy

boozing are finally taking their toll on

you as well as it seems from your posts .

[Straight forward]

Here's the thing:

Magden, Baron (both absolutely useless), Peterson (too soft), Mavrokefalidis (too slow and too old) have to go. So Kleiza's Rytas managed to grab one solid foreigner. Inspiring start of "new team".

Now Mockevicius, Lukauskis Jomantas have to go from Lith. I would consider keeping Girdziunas under small contract, but he is also not exactly starting lineup players.

So Rytas has to build from here, IMO:

PG: Girdziunas, (Sabeckis)
SG: Sirvydis
SF: Giedraitis, Butkevicius
PF: (Bendzius)
C: Ehodas

I hear they are interested in Bendzius which is good. I would consider bringing Sabeckis from Siauliai. And they badly need more luck with foreigners. I would look for ohysically strong player who could play D.

Overall as long as Zalgiris has Jasikevicius I don't see them winning a title, but they have to slowly improve as a team.

But I can congratulate Rytas - they really turning to their young players. Ehodas is their starting center now. Sirvydis is a heck of a prospect and they locked him. They signed 16yo stud center Blaževič. Rytas finally understand they have to slowly and patiently build the team. The fact that Rytas youngsters grabbed Euroleagues' title is a nice accomplishment.

[Shawshank]

Zalgiris vs Rytas is not even fair fight.Rytas has b nt level team players, zalgiris have a team nt players.Max what rytas can do win one game in siemens ( if they will have good shooting day).

Zalgiris have bigger budget than all lkl teams combined have.Next year if Jasikevicius goes to some barcelona/maccabi then maybe you have a long shot .

This zalgiris with jaska coaching is way too good for other lkl teams.

Agree rytas slowly but are building good things again after so many pathetic seasons, even in results they atleast begin making finals this year...its takes time to rebuilt vainauskas sr made shit, but steps are in right directions now.

[Straight forward]

Zalgiris vs Rytas is not even fair fight.Rytas has b nt level team players, zalgiris have a team nt players.Max what rytas can do win one game in siemens ( if they will have good shooting day).

For now. Give Ehodas a year and he's a flat out A team option. Sirvydis is yet an enigma, but he became MVP of second EL youth tournament in a row and he really has good body and skills to pan out. IMO, he may be the best prospect of Rytas since Valanciunas. If Giedraitis won't stop developing, he'll be pretty much A team option in upcoming years. So the core is promising, but they need solid work signing foreigners.

Now is Adomaitis an answer for them? I pretty much doubt. I don't see Adimaitis changing the culture entirely. Unless Adomaitis will surprise and will show that he learned a lot in recent year (he spent time in NBA, he had a time to watch games and to learn, he has a great example just in front of his eyes in Kaunas).

[Shawshank]

For now. Give Ehodas a year and he's a flat out A team option. Sirvydis is yet an enigma, but he became MVP of second EL youth tournament in a row and he really has good body and skills to pan out. IMO, he may be the best prospect of Rytas since Valanciunas. If Giedraitis won't stop developing, he'll be pretty much A team option in upcoming years. So the core is promising, but they need solid work signing foreigners.

Now is Adomaitis an answer for them? I pretty much doubt. I don't see Adimaitis changing the culture entirely. Unless Adomaitis will surprise and will show that he learned a lot in recent year (he spent time in NBA, he had a time to watch games and to learn, he has a great example just in front of his eyes in Kaunas).

For me Adomaitis is not better than Kurtinaitis,i would prepare Rimas from those 2.For me such change over looks strange to say the least.I dont understand what rytas management want from their coach? win against zalgiris? or win uleb? yeah you could say rytas didnt make uleb top8,but in their way were 3 of top5 uleb teams as later tournament results shown,they got bad draw.They didnt lose againts nobody even in uleb.For me Kurtinaitis this season did ok job,obviuosly better than other rytas coaches in 2013-2017 did.So they gonna fire him and hire Adomaitis and he will beat zalgiris or whats the point?

Echodas maybe will make nt team in 2021 at best, but as looks now he has looong way to go.Its more than one year.Our frontcourt is too strong now, he has basically no chance making possible olympic ltu team 2020.I believe Jankunas will still be avalaible in 2019-2020.Im not even sure who is better prospect Echodas or Birutis.

[Straight forward]

For me Adomaitis is not better than Kurtinaitis,i would prepare Rimas from those 2.For me such change over looks strange to say the least.I dont understand what rytas management want from their coach? win against zalgiris? or win uleb? yeah you could say rytas didnt make uleb top8,but in their way were 3 of top5 uleb teams as later tournament results shown,they got bad draw.They didnt lose againts nobody even in uleb.For me Kurtinaitis this season did ok job,obviuosly better than other rytas coaches in 2013-2017 did.So they gonna fire him and hire Adomaitis and he will beat zalgiris or whats the point?

Echodas maybe will make nt team in 2021 at best, but as looks now he has looong way to go.Its more than one year.Our frontcourt is too strong now, he has basically no chance making possible olympic ltu team 2020.I believe Jankunas will still be avalaible in 2019-2020.Im not even sure who is better prospect Echodas or Birutis.

I think the only logic is that Adomaitis is pretty young coach, he did well in LKL and he coaches NT which is an extreme school and he still growing as a coach. Kurtinaitis is what he is, he won't be a bit better. So it depends how much Adomaitis has leaned in recent years, but obviously I'm not an optimist because I don't see Adomaitis being a "high brow" as Saras or other young coach. Too me Adomaitis seems limited as a coach and a person and doomed to be a mediocre coach, but I hope I'm wrong.

As for Ehodas, when I say flat out NT A option, I mean that he will be worthy to be in the final roster and is more or less as good as other bigs. When you have some Cepukaitis, hands down he's a B option by all means. Ehodas may already be an A option after a year or two and he still may not make NT, but that doesn't mean he's not an A team material.

The good example is Giedraitis, He is a borderline A team material. He is worse than Kuz, Maciulis, Ulanovas, but breathing just next to them. So after a year, if he improves his defence even more and will be more decisive and aggressive at O, he basically will be an A team option because the difference between him and Ulanovas would be too small to treat him as B option.

[Hepcat]

Now Mockevicius, Lukauskis Jomantas have to go from Lith.

Not just from Vilnius, but from Lithuania as a whole?



You must really hate these fellows.

Moreover you were keen on Egidijus Mockevičius earlier this season. However I agree that Mockevičius' potential is being wasted at Rytas since he's behind Martynas Echodas on the depth chart and isn't getting any playing time. Mockevičius would be better off playing in Klaipėda or somewhere.

While I also agree that Mindaugas Lukauskis and Artūras Jomantas are not the "future" for Rytas, they can (and do) still contribute both on the floor and in the locker room. It's just a case of how much payroll room Rytas can afford to allocate to veteran leadership.