Kaunas Zalgiris Thread

[zalias]

a lot of different journalists mentioned francisco salary and buyout combined shouldn't cost over 500k combined, which is amazing move by zalgiris imo. they got a young, talented guard who had a strong rookie season in euroleague and they didn't even pay much. its interesting to see what his role on zalgiris will be, but if francisco himself agreed to go to zalgiris i assume its only because he's promised a bigger role than he did on bayern, so its either a starter or 6th man.


smits is 99% getting bought out this summer according to all the rumors. its an interesting situation because he was really good right until trinchieri got hired and ever since then he's been horrible. considering he's zalgiris most paid player its probably risky to keep him and hope he turns it around. i hope they dont think manek can be their starting pf next year, he's just too big of a liability defensively

[Straight forward]

Zalgiris presented Sirvydis like they signed a superstar. Have to say they figured it out the media part. Highlights, interview, tour, welcoming logo video. All covered up.

At the end of the day, I think Sirvydis will be a players of highest ceiling in Zalgiris roster next season most likely.

https://x.com/bczalgiris/status/1802949855205060646

[zalias]

jokubaitis is most likely going back to zalgiris, it would've been a more exciting signing before he had a bad season with barceona and even worse qualifying tournament but i still think he has the potential to be something in euroleague. his fit on zalgiris with how the roster is constructed currently is a little bit awkward because they kept hayes who's a complete 0 offensively, which means they dont have a center who's capable of playing 2v2 and that's jokubaitis main weapon. you can say birutis but if jokubaitis and birutis are sharing the court at the same time for more than 10 minutes per game the defense will be non-existent.

on paper this is a very interesting backcourt, a good combination of playmakers, shooters, isolation players:

jokubaitis, francisco, lekaivicus

wallace, sirvydis, giedraitis

looking at the team overall i just dont see how they can end up playing euroleague level defense, a lot of holes on that side of the court, especially when butkevicius has looked dead on the court since 2023 season ended. jokubaitis, francisco, sirvydis, manek, smailagic, birutis are weak defense players and these guys will have big roles on the team.

[Straight forward]

Jokubaitis at some point of the season will be the best player of Zalgiris. If he will look at the mirror and will start to work hard. Barca spoiled him, now I'm looking if he will wake up. Also it's interesting how Sirvydis will cope with it mentally. He still falls into those crappy shooting stretches and later he shoots like a world class player. He still needs to grow as a consistent player.

[Dreamcatcher]

Jokubaitis at some point of the season will be the best player of Zalgiris.

According to you, Jokubaitis shouldn't have returned to Zalgiris at all. You'd better not project anything, then maybe it will happen. I'm not superstitious, but you are THAT bad.

[zalias]

Jokubaitis at some point of the season will be the best player of Zalgiris. If he will look at the mirror and will start to work hard. Barca spoiled him, now I'm looking if he will wake up. Also it's interesting how Sirvydis will cope with it mentally. He still falls into those crappy shooting stretches and later he shoots like a world class player. He still needs to grow as a consistent player.

i definitely think jokubaitis become underrated, he went from being called the saviour of lithuanian basketball to a bust in a year. his lack of progress these past couple of years is disappointing but i've seen way too much to give up on him at the age of 23. his first euroleague season with schiller, 2023 world cup, even some stretches in barca show that he got potential to be a great euroleague player, this will be a perfect oppurtunity to prove it.

i fear sirvydis might end up falling out of the rotation at some point of the season, a good start will be crucial to him. i can see how him having a bad shooting slump at the start of the season combined with weak defense might force trinchieri play other guys over him

[Straight forward]

i definitely think jokubaitis become underrated, he went from being called the saviour of lithuanian basketball to a bust in a year. his lack of progress these past couple of years is disappointing but i've seen way too much to give up on him at the age of 23. his first euroleague season with schiller, 2023 world cup, even some stretches in barca show that he got potential to be a great euroleague player, this will be a perfect oppurtunity to prove it.

i fear sirvydis might end up falling out of the rotation at some point of the season, a good start will be crucial to him. i can see how him having a bad shooting slump at the start of the season combined with weak defense might force trinchieri play other guys over him

Jokubaitis will be just fine. Maybe will take one or two months for him to be at his 100%, but not more. He will be putting 12-15ppg,6-8as, 5rbs at some point with 16eff or so as a starter. It's inevitable.

Regarding Sirvydis you described it very well, but at the same time he will have very successful stretches, it should be up and down season for him.

[zalias]

brazdeikis is apparently going back to zalgiris also, i dont even understand whats going on at this point but it will be a very fun team to watch even if they are not winning games, very exciting core of young lithuanians.im guessing butkevicius will be sent to the end of the bench and ulanovas will play a lot of minutes at 4. not great news for sirvydis fans. i kind of wish they invested more in a solid center instead of another backcourt player.

[Straight forward]

Love it. Jokubaitis, Brazdeikis, Sirvydis, D. Giedraitis on Zalgiris team is something very very right and good for the NT cause Trinch will coach them right.

Trinch is showing how the roster should be build. Again, Maksvytis hesitation and provincial moves (as protecting Dimsas and so on and letting go Brazdeikis) look silly. We're in shit with coaching. There's only Jasikevicius and the desert.

[Hepcat]

...cause Trinch will coach them right.

Trinch is showing how the roster should be build.

Huh?! Andrea Trinchieri? Isn't he the coach who has a history of coaching high payroll teams to a crash and burn finish in the payrolls including this past season to Rytas? Žalgiris should fire the bum.

[Straight forward]

Huh?! Andrea Trinchieri? Isn't he the coach who has a history of coaching high payroll teams to a crash and burn finish in the payrolls including this past season to Rytas? Žalgiris should fire the bum.

Dude, why do you keep talking about things that you don't understand?

[zalias]

lekavicius and dimsa need to be gone, there is no place for very limited guards who are simply not euroleague level players anymore on zalgiris.


it will be very interesting to see how trinchieri utilizes players like jokubaitis and brazdeikis. one thing ive noticed about trinchieri is that he's very good at using his players strenghts, he even managed to make players like birutis and lekavicius look decent.

[zalias]

Huh?! Andrea Trinchieri? Isn't he the coach who has a history of coaching high payroll teams to a crash and burn finish in the payrolls including this past season to Rytas? Žalgiris should fire the bum.

he has coached bamberg, partizan, bayern and now zalgiris. who are those high payroll teams?

[Straight forward]

lekavicius and dimsa need to be gone, there is no place for very limited guards who are simply not euroleague level players anymore on zalgiris.


it will be very interesting to see how trinchieri utilizes players like jokubaitis and brazdeikis. one thing ive noticed about trinchieri is that he's very good at using his players strenghts, he even managed to make players like birutis and lekavicius look decent.

This. Those two has to be gonners, IMO. Lekavicius can't handle EL physicality anymore and Dimsa always was (more or less, SS, DC, not the place to nitpick, LOL) trash in EL.

Jokubaitis starting with Brazdeikis is nice set up for 2025 NT, as well as the further development of Sirvydis, D. Giedraitis (as back-up material for the NT).

Trinch will figure this out. Maybe a bit pity that some of guys will have very limited roles in some stretches or even ride the bench. But basketball is so dynamic and intense today, that most likely we are talking about Jokubaitis and Brazdeikis as a starters playing 22mpg, not more. I didn't study all the rookies well, so maybe there's something better than Iggy at 2, we'll see.

[Hepcat]

he has coached bamberg, partizan, bayern and now zalgiris. who are those high payroll teams?

These:

I just found out that Trinchieri lost not 4, but the last 6 domestic leagues. Even 7, but i believe that Bamberg losing to Bayern in 2018 was understandable.

2019. Partizan lost semifinals to Crvena Zvezda.
2020. Partizan lost semifinals to Crvena Zvezda.
2021. Bayern lost finals to Alba. While in EL Bayern had a great season finishing 5 (Alba only 16).
2022. Bayern lost finals to Alba with the same result (1-3). While in EL Bayern again had a good season finishing 8 (Alba 10).
2023. Bayern sensationally lost finals to Ulm with the same result (1-3).
2024. Zalgiris lost finals to Rytas with the same freaking 1-3 result.

Were the teams Trinchieri was coaching not the ones with the highest payrolls in their domestic leagues? And what was the payroll of Žalgiris vs. that of Rytas last year?