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So we reached the new bottom, 15th place in EB. Previously the worst record was 12th spot in Eurobasket 2001. It may not mean much, but also quite frustrating momentum.
Despite that, I think Maksvytis deserves another chance. The team performance wasn't hopeless. We should see if he's growing as a coach after all this. If we will come up with loose defence and lack of identity and ideas down the stretch again, he should be gonner. But next year we have to rust Maksvytis for another shot.
Season will open some questions, but there's my early take on how 2023 roster would likely shape. FOA, I'm not a big fan getting back Benzius, he wouldn't be an upgrade to Kuzminskas. Ulanovas probably would be welcomed and he adds defence, but offensively he would be horrible fit to JV/Domas, another player who stops the ball. We already have Butkevicius, so 2 similar defensive players in one position seems to be like a recipe for clogging. I would welcome Gudaitis instead of Echodas if he's healthy and willing to join.
At forwards I remain fairly sceptical about Sedekerskis and Kulboka. I think neither of them would improve our NT much. Maybe Kulboka can prove that he can be a stretch 4 that we need, but so far he has been failing in the NT any time he shows up. Sedekerskis is generally overrated, IMO. I think it's their last season to prove doubters wrong, but these 2 Youth NT stand-puts seem to be on the way to have mediocre careers.
Now short stint about possible new comers. BB community so far is silent on Tubelis, but I think he might storm NT with force and I project that at some point everyone will be talking about him in the camp. Pikenrolas mentioned D. Giedraitis and it should be no brainer if he's healthy. The third player who is a bit overlooked and Maksvytis voluntarily excluded him from the test is Sirvydis. He had a very strong Summer League and we seen how well ex Summer League stud Brazdeikis looked in the NT. Sirvydis off course would bring the same problem that current NT possesses - he's not a good defender. But he's not a horrible one either and he has very good size for SF. One thing that he can improve is three point shooting and he's a good passer. Offensively, IMO, he's better fit to JV/Domas than Butkevicius/Ulanovas. Today I would reserve my projection to these three names as most likely new comers - D. Giedraitis, Tubelis, Sirvydis. . ISpecially first two. I could see Giedraitis stealing some minutes from Lekavicius (due to his defence and lack of facilitation) and R. Giedraitis who overall again was disappointing. I expect Tubelis braking into rotation and playing some defensive stretches. Kuzminskas provides scoring, but he really hurts NT defensively.
The most important stint of our improvement depends on Jokubaitis and Brazdeikis. They should both grow a lot next season. Brazdeikis will have all possible minutes in Zalgiris most likely. Likely both will come to 2023 much more ready than this season which was pretty successful. Interesting how Domas will grow too. People treat him as disappointment, but he dropped 15pts, 20ef in the knock out stage. It's just that he tends to be a bit loose in terms of his act in crunch time (it's like he can't get over the syndrome which hurt Kleiza in the NT at he beginning), but overall slowly Domas adjusting to FIBA, IMO, and hopefully in his prime he will be more turstworthy piece for us. These players are basically the core around which we will be slowly adding talent.
Obviously this Olympic cycle we will have to live with the fact we won't have a great defensive team. Now I think it's more about adjusting, how to make the defence as reliable as we can we such unit and how to make quite impressive offensive upside to function more effectively. We were not far away from being great offensive team, but something was lacking and I hope that with the growth of Jokubaitis, Brazdeikis, Domas we will continue to improve.
In broader perspective we desperately need to improve our overall defence and specially perimeter. Luckily I already see quite good chances there. If I would have to mention names that can really change our defensive profile I would mention D. Giedraitis, A. Marciulionis, L. Lelevicius, Tubelis, Krivas in the first place. I'm almost sure that once/if these will be in the NT, our defense will be much improved. To a lesser extent - Rubstavicius, Murauskas, Buzelis can add defensively as well (I'm not gonna involve golden U16 team (2006), but they have some very interesting defensive and offensive guards and 2 ways in some cases).
To sum up, 2023 suggests minor improvement, likely few new comers, but few key players (Rokas and Iggy) can grow a lot and empower our position 1 and 2. Eurobasket 2022 showed that good pieces always is welcomed. Both Jokubaitis and Brazdeikis stormed into NT and they got the guts to play well in the knock out stage. We should continue to be pro-active integrating new talent. F.e. D. Giedraitis has pretty cold nerves when it comes to crunch time too. He's definitely not Zemaitis who looked lost even against Hungary when everything is done already. Patience and gradual improvement of the roster should lead us to success this decade, sooner or later.
Despite that, I think Maksvytis deserves another chance. The team performance wasn't hopeless. We should see if he's growing as a coach after all this. If we will come up with loose defence and lack of identity and ideas down the stretch again, he should be gonner. But next year we have to rust Maksvytis for another shot.
Season will open some questions, but there's my early take on how 2023 roster would likely shape. FOA, I'm not a big fan getting back Benzius, he wouldn't be an upgrade to Kuzminskas. Ulanovas probably would be welcomed and he adds defence, but offensively he would be horrible fit to JV/Domas, another player who stops the ball. We already have Butkevicius, so 2 similar defensive players in one position seems to be like a recipe for clogging. I would welcome Gudaitis instead of Echodas if he's healthy and willing to join.
At forwards I remain fairly sceptical about Sedekerskis and Kulboka. I think neither of them would improve our NT much. Maybe Kulboka can prove that he can be a stretch 4 that we need, but so far he has been failing in the NT any time he shows up. Sedekerskis is generally overrated, IMO. I think it's their last season to prove doubters wrong, but these 2 Youth NT stand-puts seem to be on the way to have mediocre careers.
Now short stint about possible new comers. BB community so far is silent on Tubelis, but I think he might storm NT with force and I project that at some point everyone will be talking about him in the camp. Pikenrolas mentioned D. Giedraitis and it should be no brainer if he's healthy. The third player who is a bit overlooked and Maksvytis voluntarily excluded him from the test is Sirvydis. He had a very strong Summer League and we seen how well ex Summer League stud Brazdeikis looked in the NT. Sirvydis off course would bring the same problem that current NT possesses - he's not a good defender. But he's not a horrible one either and he has very good size for SF. One thing that he can improve is three point shooting and he's a good passer. Offensively, IMO, he's better fit to JV/Domas than Butkevicius/Ulanovas. Today I would reserve my projection to these three names as most likely new comers - D. Giedraitis, Tubelis, Sirvydis. . ISpecially first two. I could see Giedraitis stealing some minutes from Lekavicius (due to his defence and lack of facilitation) and R. Giedraitis who overall again was disappointing. I expect Tubelis braking into rotation and playing some defensive stretches. Kuzminskas provides scoring, but he really hurts NT defensively.
The most important stint of our improvement depends on Jokubaitis and Brazdeikis. They should both grow a lot next season. Brazdeikis will have all possible minutes in Zalgiris most likely. Likely both will come to 2023 much more ready than this season which was pretty successful. Interesting how Domas will grow too. People treat him as disappointment, but he dropped 15pts, 20ef in the knock out stage. It's just that he tends to be a bit loose in terms of his act in crunch time (it's like he can't get over the syndrome which hurt Kleiza in the NT at he beginning), but overall slowly Domas adjusting to FIBA, IMO, and hopefully in his prime he will be more turstworthy piece for us. These players are basically the core around which we will be slowly adding talent.
Obviously this Olympic cycle we will have to live with the fact we won't have a great defensive team. Now I think it's more about adjusting, how to make the defence as reliable as we can we such unit and how to make quite impressive offensive upside to function more effectively. We were not far away from being great offensive team, but something was lacking and I hope that with the growth of Jokubaitis, Brazdeikis, Domas we will continue to improve.
In broader perspective we desperately need to improve our overall defence and specially perimeter. Luckily I already see quite good chances there. If I would have to mention names that can really change our defensive profile I would mention D. Giedraitis, A. Marciulionis, L. Lelevicius, Tubelis, Krivas in the first place. I'm almost sure that once/if these will be in the NT, our defense will be much improved. To a lesser extent - Rubstavicius, Murauskas, Buzelis can add defensively as well (I'm not gonna involve golden U16 team (2006), but they have some very interesting defensive and offensive guards and 2 ways in some cases).
To sum up, 2023 suggests minor improvement, likely few new comers, but few key players (Rokas and Iggy) can grow a lot and empower our position 1 and 2. Eurobasket 2022 showed that good pieces always is welcomed. Both Jokubaitis and Brazdeikis stormed into NT and they got the guts to play well in the knock out stage. We should continue to be pro-active integrating new talent. F.e. D. Giedraitis has pretty cold nerves when it comes to crunch time too. He's definitely not Zemaitis who looked lost even against Hungary when everything is done already. Patience and gradual improvement of the roster should lead us to success this decade, sooner or later.
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