Originally posted by Dreamcatcher
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Now, I also had 3 players when I was thinking about who's best since Macas. And it was Seibutis, Pocius, Grigonis. Seibutis may be the best from the bunch, I probably would agree. But I would claim that even Seibutis never was a true starting level material, or say never reached elite level. He was a good player, tremendous NT figure due to his fighting spirit and so on, but he didn't have all the package. FOA, Seibutis never had expressed offensive game. He was average at everything - shot, skill, decision making. His best attribute was slashing, but even at that he wasn't super athletic or super strong to be extremely good finisher. There was a reason why in Zalgiris he never got bigger role offensively. Sure, the age played a role here, but generally he was that kind of player which couldn't be true starter offensively. He didn't have enough creativity in himself. While Seibutis had higher floor as 18-20yo, obviously there was certain limitation of Seibutis' ceiling.
Pocius lacked shooting and IQ. He was very limited in terms of IQ, but great athlete/slasher. Grigonis has IQ and skill, but lacks athleticism and toughness.
I claim that Rubstavicius has the whole package. He has enough of everything and basically has perfect profile for SG. Maybe I claim that he still needs to get tougher and he's not overly athletic (the reason why I'm slightly more high on Indrusaitis), but he can surely get tougher (and he will as has perfect frame and natural sturdiness) and is explosive enough to claim that he's the first prospect who possesses the upside of true starting SG. We'll see where I will get with this projection, but to me it's like this - Kurtinaitis, Marciulionis, Macijauskas (and maybe Kaukenas, even if his IQ was questionable a little bit, but he generally was a starting material) - Rubstavicius, Indrusaitis. That's all SG starters material I see in modern history (I exclude Siska, as he's SF more).
BTW, Brazdeikis lacks skill (shooting) and IQ. And D. Giedraitis lacks better size and athleticism, explosiveness. (I won't rank Lukosius, but he could also potentially be a starter, but well let's leave him aside now).
To sum up, I think we have 2 starting level upside prospects in Rubstavicius and Indrusaitis. Now I can see a starter in each position potentially which is basically crazy. Never happened before, and now it's a real chance in upcoming 3-6 years:
Jokubaitis
Rubstavicius, Indrusaitis
Buzelis
Murauskas
Sabonis
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