2023 Lithuanian NT

[Straight forward]

Here's the thing. The pace of FIBA BB is increasing. Compared to 2017 EB field goal attempts per team are increasing. Slovenia reached 71FGAPG, several teams are close to that. I have no doubt that some teams will go for 73-75 shots per game in 2025EB and maybe even more. We like it or not, NBA sets the trends and NBA is running. Most teams are running and shooting. It reflects FIBA too, even in smaller courts the tempo will continue to increase, IMO.

Our field goals attempts are also increasing. We had 60FGAPG in 2017 and 64,3FGAPG in 2022.

The more we will go further away from feeding JV and playing static BB, the more shots we will have. Not only because our offense will be much more distributed, mobile, sharing, versatile, but also because we'll have better defensive bigs at other end, we will make more stops, we will have better transition defense which is very important today cause most teams gonna be running. When JV's era will be over for good, I bet we are going up to at least 70FGAPG once we are using Sabonis more at 5 and even some Tubelis substituting him. We'll have more stops, we'll have more shots, and shots will come from more various situations.

With that said, we should be looking for at least 68FGAPG 2023 WC, IMO. JV's minutes should be decreased. We should integrate Sedekerskis and Ulanovas which should improve our defense. Sabonis should play more at 5 and we should run with him. I see 2 key things. Improve defense, play faster. That's what we can do while not yet having perimeter stars who can control half court offense at elite level and close game properly in crunch time. Better D and faster pace should help is a lot.

[Straight forward]

I see Maksvytis figuring out.

[Dreamcatcher]

I see Maksvytis figuring out.

I didn't like this dude at all against Zalgiris today.

[Svajunas]

I didn't like this dude at all against Zalgiris today.

I liked him. Some of the fouls called against him were 50/50. Other then not making the dunk He was very solid, as always. Ulanovas tried to post him up, once hit a low percentage fade away, the other failed.

[Shawshank]

I said before 2021 Olympics,before 2022 eurobasket and i will repeat before 2023 world cup all 3 Ulanovas,Butkevicius,Sedekerskis should be in final roster hide/help in Domas and Jonas defensive problems.

NT cant play total defensive holes like Lukas,R.Giedraitis,Kuzminskas near Valanciunas and think somehow miracles will happen defensively

Butkevicius,Sedekerskis types players they can be efffective without even touching the ball. I judge their games by M.Zukauskas criterias .Every point with them is a bonus,but they are put out there not for scoring points.

If NT dont have tallented offensive guard that can create himself on high level so atleats put big size men that can move his ass at PG in 4 querters for defence like Dimsa/Grigonis.

Guard dont need some special offensive tallent to pass the ball inside to Domas and Jonas. Putting small Lukas with Domas and Jonas that barely can pass the ball over way bigger dudes and cant defend nobody makes no sense and it didnt worked in those fiba tournaments.



Around Jonas/Domas

Tadas,Arnas,Ulanovas,Dimsa good fit (only 1 played in eurobasket)

Lukas,Kuzminskas,R.Giedraitis bad fit (all 3 played in eurobasket)


Im not saying latter 3 are worse players than first 4 players im talking about fit with 2 nba players.


When everything was decided in little details and last 2 minutes againts best teams both in 2019 and 2022 that little change with roles players can make a difference

[Straight forward]

I didn't like this dude at all against Zalgiris today.

Just to add to what Svajunas said generally Sedekerskis was good. I liked how against Ulanovas he looked really big and posted him up nicely. He got 3 steals, some good passes, made three. I mean he's active and impactful. That's his game.

BTW, Butkevicius didn't have a good game this time at both ends.

Brazdeikis nearly had "Pocius 2010 landing", looked pretty scary. But, again, good game. Since Evans went down with injury, Iggy shooting threes 48% (12/25). To some extent this is certain brake out, he's much more confident now.

To think that Tomas Dimsa can close games for the NT is a bit utopian though. Dimsa is struggling offensively. Tonight he was 1/8 from the field, zero assists. He can't facilitate, really pass. Even when his role increased since Evans injury, he simply can't generate any assists. Just as before that he's a 1 assist per game kinda guy. The games are not being closed with post up situations, we seen this again and again. Maybe it's theoretically possible if Grigonis and Ulanovas are having good games, so Dimsa can only be spreading the floor without the ball offensively.

But the good news that Ulanovas is pretty clutch and he does a little bit of everything now offensively. He can play some face to the basket, he's pretty terrific creating situations for other from the high post. Ulanovas will add a lot to the ball movement and ability to sharpen up things. Jokubaitis at 1, Ulanovas at 3, Sabonis at 5 means terrific ball movement (if there's also Grigonis at 2, then we have really good passing team). Those guys will be closing games and I would fill the holes depending on the game with Iggy, Grigonis, Butkevicius, Sedekerskis. Anyway, Ulanovas with another huge game, 5 assists is huge. He's the best facilitator and decision maker in Zalgiris ATM (along with D. Giedraitis who will show it in the future if able to stay healthy).

Jokubaitis, Lekavicius
Grigonis, Brazdeikis, Dimsa
Ulanovas, Butkevicius
Sedekerskis, Kuzminskas, Tubelis
Sabonis, Valanciunas

I kinda see such roster today more or less.

[zalias]

after seeing how terrible lithuania's defense looked at eurobasket they no choice but to invite sedekerskis to the summer camp, however he looked very hesitant when talking about the nt in an interview after the game yesterday

[Shawshank]

T.Dimsa is playing all game endings for zalgiris (over Lukas) since Evans got injury and does good job in defence.

After Evans injury offensively everyhting is so hard and difficult no flow at all ,but defensively Dimsa,Butkevicius,Ulanovas,Smit,Hayes lineup does the job in 4 querters.

Dimsa is playing 20min in zalgiris and finishing games not for his offence or passing abilities.He is poor men lithuanian Walkup version


When Brazdeikis scores alot and 4 other players becomes watchers so far neither for Zalgiris,neither NT end up in winning games.

After yesterday Iggy crazy fall and unsportmen faul Brazdeikis was put on bench and Baskonia barely scored at all in last minutes after that and zalgiris grind up a win with their defensive lineup

[Straight forward]

Dimsa is playing 20min in zalgiris and finishing games not for his offence or passing abilities.He is poor men lithuanian Walkup version

That's a bad comparison. Walkup is facilitator, he can play 1, Dimsa can't. Besides, now Dimsa shoots basically poor from all positions, 2/3/FT. You can still live with season 35% threes, but in last 7 games he shoots 20.7% (6/29). Extremely streaky. So you put a guy who can't facilitate, can barely score and he does play only solid defense (he's not elite at it). IDK, not really high on the idea to base my NT success hopes on such players. F.e. Butkevicius at least does play elite defence, that's the difference. Dimsa is a mediocre by all means.

It can be tried I guess, but I doubt it. I'm very sceptical about offense in NT if we have something like Dimsa, Butkevicius, Ulanovas, Sedekerskis, Sabonis. Zalgiris has the advantage of maximum chemistry, both offensively and defensively. In the NT environment we can't expect as much defensive coherence and usually NTs who have perimeter stand-outs win something. One thing is to win some regular EL games, other - to make it in the knock out stage of FIBA (where star power is incomparably higher than EL). But even this Zalgiris, with Dimsa closing games, has little chance to do much in PO, even if Zalgiris makes it.

I don't know any similar cases in medal winning NT history, not only Lithuania.

[Shawshank]

Im just saying what works for zalgiris.

Dimsa size allows him to defend 3 position players and he really competes, puts all 100% of his body muscles in front bigs after switches (even learned this season how to flop in those situations)

When Lukas/Rokas after switch with big is like little chairs that just wait for help and gives no fight inside.

Dimsa is not affraid to make 3poointer+ good defence. Thats what NT need from 8min role player .

[Dreamcatcher]

I liked him. Some of the fouls called against him were 50/50. Other then not making the dunk He was very solid, as always. Ulanovas tried to post him up, once hit a low percentage fade away, the other failed.

How 6 pts and 4 PIR is a solid performance? OK, he's a defensive player so you can't judge only by stats but he didn't do anything special defensively as well. Two times he simply didn't defend against Polonara and Dimsa and the fact that he fouled out also shows he wasn't impressive. And i would say there was only one 50/50 foul against Ulanovas' fast break. It's really hasn't been generally nothing solid yesterday.

[Shawshank]

3pointer % this season in Zalgiris NT candidates

24 played game is already not small number of data:

Ulanovas 38,7%
Dimsa 35,8%
Brazdeikis 30,4%
Lekavicius 28,6%
Butkevicius 27,9%
Giedraitis 14,3%

[Straight forward]

IDK what happened to Lithuanian basketball. Too much streaky shooters (Dimsa's numbers only decent cause he had few great shooting nights, but in most games he's trash basically). Only Grigonis now seems to be reliable, good shooter, but even he is out of shape and injury prone now.

Imagine if around current Domas with his hand offs and all the passes we would have Macijauskas, Stombergas, M. Zukauskas (who were shooting ~50% in NT) and Jasikevicius, Siskauskas (~40%). That would be dope and offensively unstoppable team. Domas makes Kings the best offensive team with the right pieces around him.

On other hand, Jokubaitis shoots 46% threes this season and also it's his career threes % too. In ACB his career three is 44%. I hope that he can shoot in NT better this time. Ulanovas should add some shooting too as he shoots 39% this season and 37% career. And hope that Grigonis will be in. Other that these three - Lekavicius, R. Giedraitis (I hope he won't make it), Dimsa, Brazdeikis, Butkevicius are all very streaky or even bad shooters.

We badly need more reliable shooters who wouldn't also be black holes defensively (as Kuzminskas).

[Shawshank]

It's not fantasy world we have what we have right now. Maybe its Valanciunas fault that all ltu guards isnt good shooters right now ?


You can downplay all you want Dimsa play in euroleague dude is balling well and suprised everybody including NT head coach. To a point that coach trust him in crunch time.


Jokubaitis is not good shooter either he just plays in barsa and get alot wide open looks.

How do you think from who barsa opponents goes double team Mirotic from Higgins,Lapro,Kuric, Abrines ?

Or double team comes from Satoransky and Jokubaitis? according to 3point % those 2 are best barsas shooters ... aha right



Jokubaitis in his Barsa role shoots mostly when both feet is set up in open looks like PF Smit/Cavanaugh in zalgiris.

Dimsa/Grigonis/Brazdeikis types they shooting after dribble,sometimes forced shots with 3 seconds left on clock. Ofcourse when player shoot that type % goes down.


Put all Lithuanian NT guards on 3 pointer contest Jokubaitis with his slow shooting mechanics have no chance winning it.Simply players shoots different dificulty shots.

[Straight forward]

LOL, balling Yeah, 3eff kinda guy is just killing it out there Dimsa is Dimsa. Nothing changed. He is not even reliable shooter. He's a streaky shooter. For him sometimes it's easier to make some long distance step back three than an open three. He needs that first shot, otherwise lose his confidence fast. Again, if not couple of great shooting nights as 5/6 against Asvel or 4/7 against Fener, his shooting % would be completely trash. He's shooting 37% from the field which is bad, even struggling with FTs 66%. It's horrible for SG. I give him credit for his 100% defensive effort and hustle and heart, that's what he's providing, but no need to overrated him.

Jokubaitis was shooting 39% under Schiller too. I'm not saying he's Macijauskas, but he can shoot, even to make a step back three from time to time.