Kaunas Zalgiris Thread

[Mindozas]

Jokubaitis hitting a rookie wall a little bit? Great game in LKL hitting everything (17pts), but last five rounds for him was a little bit of slump which is normal.

Not only Jokubaitis, but also Lekavicius stopped lately, we lack scoring from both, add to that Walkup who is also quite shy in getting buckets. Good that we managed to live without their points, rivals were beatable, but it won't work against CSKA I'm afraid, we need contribution from our PG line

[Svajunas]

Dropped contribution from these two can be a result of more ball movement and less isos. These two used to get a bunch of their pts from drives from perimeter, at the momment we see less of those and more of swinging the ball around and letting Grigonis initiate.
Not worried at all as long as we are getting W's.

[Mindozas]

Dropped contribution from these two can be a result of more ball movement and less isos. These two used to get a bunch of their pts from drives from perimeter, at the momment we see less of those and more of swinging the ball around and letting Grigonis initiate.
Not worried at all as long as we are getting W's.

Of course wins are all that matters at the end, but if you won't analyse your mistakes and won't look for improvements even in games you've won, those wins will end one day, especially when you'll face stronger rivals. Let's be honest, latest ones weren't top notch teams, more like a games where we had to win. Lukas and Jokubaitis points are badly missed, even with more fluid ball movement, there's enough ways to find open shot, drive to the basket, but we are missing it. Against CSKA and Zenit it will be hard without at least any of them contribution

[Hepcat]

Indeed. With games against both CSKA Moscow and Zenit St. Petersburg, this is the week that may determine whether Žalgiris is a medal contender or merely a playoff contender.

[Dreamcatcher]

Dropped contribution from these two can be a result of more ball movement and less isos. These two used to get a bunch of their pts from drives from perimeter, at the momment we see less of those and more of swinging the ball around and letting Grigonis initiate.
Not worried at all as long as we are getting W's.

Jokubaitis had some open shots in the game against Chimki but badly missed it. He's not a good and consistent shooter so you shouldn't expect many pts from him every time especially in the first season being a main player.

[Mindozas]

Indeed. With games against both CSKA Moscow and Zenit St. Petersburg, this is the week that may determine whether Žalgiris is a medal contender or merely a playoff contender.

It's not that complicated, Hepcat We know that we are not Final4 contenders, even if we'll beat CSKA tonight, it won't change it. But we still should remain PO contenders no matter the outcomes this week. It'll be tough cause CSKA is simply much more talented individually, while Zenit is beatable, they are overperforming for now, but its very physical, tough team to play against. A game where we will need creativity, individual efforts, especially from guards. That no creative PG problem is very visible in such encounters. 1-1 from this Russian trip would be very good result

[Straight forward]

Jeez, I can't stand Petrauskas He's such a trashy commentator, can't see what's happening on the floor at all and says tons of nonsense almost every minute...

[edvinas9]

Jeez, I can't stand Petrauskas He's such a trashy commentator, can't see what's happening on the floor at all and says tons of nonsense almost every minute...

He seems to be cheering for everyone who is on his fantasy league's team, lol.

[Shawshank]

Jeez, I can't stand Petrauskas He's such a trashy commentator, can't see what's happening on the floor at all and says tons of nonsense almost every minute...

Petrauskas is emotional story telling commentator ordinary people love him, for hard basketball fans that want to get niuances there is Vysniauskas for that.

Petrauskas never was good at basketball tactics or niuances,but he is very good at story telling and 90% of ordinary fans that watch basketball like one game a week he is perfect for them.

Ordinary basketball ltu watchers dont care about Vysniauskas pick and pops,zones and so on and lrt knows that.

But for those 10% hard basketball fans Vysniauskas put ltu commentating on very high level compared previuos long time commentators who almost all were simply emotional play tellers.

I like both of them, both are doing things they are good at ,only for diffrent audience.

[auris1]

Jeez, I can't stand Petrauskas He's such a trashy commentator, can't see what's happening on the floor at all and says tons of nonsense almost every minute...

Really ? For me he is/was the voice of our basketball for the last 10-15 years .
Sometimes i just hear his voice in my head,, not sure what game it was.He was screaming, whatever, but it was iconic . Good memories if that.
Who is lame is Brazys with whoever is in between halfs.

[Straight forward]

Shaw, Auris,

I see your point, Petrauskas is emotional commentator, good narrator, articulates well, has sense of humour, but that's not enough. In recent years I watched many NBA games, I read a lot of basketball American BB articles and that's the roots and fundamentals of BB language. The problem is that Petrauskas doesn't have it and he makes ridiculous comments. Like Kazlauskas says "oh, Zalgiris can live with Shengelia's threes", then Grigonis takes his usual floater off the p'n'r (and misses), one of his lenthal weapons and Petrauskas says "CSKA can live with such Grigonis shots". I mean, duuude. In NBA, no matter how cool the commentator is, he's PREPARED. He understands the game and he never will say complete BS. Petrauskas in the last game missed at least 2 clear moments when Zalgiris players where fouled in active shooting, like it's even cringy, "oh, that won't be in an active shooting", when Grigonis clearly made 2 and 1 and ref didn't hesitate a single second to show it. He makes tons of misreads of actual game, he's super non PRO. Ordinary or not people love him, that's just ridiculous, Kazlauskas is forced to correct him all the time. And his mistakes are super annoying. Commentators should be the sharpest watchers of the game, he just spoils it.

[Mindozas]

Petrauskas used to be my favorite back in 00s, now it's very hard to listen to him, I gave up after few games. It's not hard to spot that he simply doesn't have the same passion for the game anymore, his thoughts are floating somewhere, at times he is simply unprepared, makes silly mistakes. Team can lead by 20, it can be close game or we can be losing big - it's still the same careless, joyful voice, talking about smth, at times not even related to what's happening on court, like Edvinas said - cheering for some fantasy league players and so on. He is simply not into the game. It's surely not the same Petrauskas I used to like back in the days. He has great voice/timbre to be commentator, I don't need all that tactical details to hear too, but that attitude simply kills it all. Now I prefer to watch the game with Vysniauskas and Leksas

[Straight forward]

One adjustment that I would like Schiller already make is to switch Lekavicius' and Jokubaitis' positions. I understand Walkup can't play at 2 (IMO, he barely can play anywhere in EL offensively), but it's time to put Jokubaitis at the point. Not only he's way more creative and incomparably superior facilitator, but he also splits the D and initiates aggressiveness against strong EL guards better. Lukas struggles to beat physical D barricades and he would exploit his quickness and shooting touch while gaining some advantages, off other point guard facilitating, besides he shoots threes well. IMO, Jokubaitis is ready and Zalgiris likely would find another reserve. Sure, some TOs are probable, but Jokubaitis has tools to be elite at the point and it's time to make a switch, IMO.

[Hepcat]

Indeed. With games against both CSKA Moscow and Zenit St. Petersburg, this is the week that may determine whether Žalgiris is a medal contender or merely a playoff contender.

So the answer is playoff contender.

[Hepcat]

One adjustment that I would like Schiller already make is to switch Lekavicius' and Jokubaitis' positions.... but it's time to put Jokubaitis at the point. Not only he's way more creative and incomparably superior facilitator, but he also splits the D and initiates aggressiveness against strong EL guards better. Lukas struggles to beat physical D barricades and he would exploit his quickness and shooting touch while gaining some advantages, off other point guard facilitating, besides he shoots threes well. IMO, Jokubaitis is ready and Zalgiris likely would find another reserve. Sure, some TOs are probable, but Jokubaitis has tools to be elite at the point and it's time to make a switch, IMO.

I agree. That's become increasingly more evident from even the stats sheet in recent games. Lukas Lekavičius is the deadlier shooter, but Rokas Jokubaitis has now become the better facilitator.