2023 Lithuanian NT

[Shawshank]

So what is the status of Sabonis? He will play or not? Thanks...

From what federation head said few days ago there 3 reasons why Sabonis is not sure about playing: Hand injury healing problems,new baby comming and Domas want new contract to feel safe playing for NT.

Domas himself in interview said a week ago: Its unclear how his hand will heal asked about NT


Overall what im seeing/hearing i would say 70% he wont play in world cup just too many ifs



How about Giannis? Any doubts comming from his camp?

[Straight forward]

Well, JV has the best beard in Europe, I definitely give him that

Seems like Kings moving towards idea to heal Sabonis' finger without operation. JV described that injury as "interesting". Also says that players should rest a little bit and then to make decision about NT. I think we should know things better at the end of this month.

https://www.lrt.lt/naujienos/sportas/10/2010871/aiskaus-rinktines-silueto-nezinantis-valanciunas-apie-girdimus-ne-rinktinei-sabonio-situacija-ir-labai-gera-jokiciu

Today I realized it's already 2023, after this tournament it will be like third of 20's NT campaign over. There will be some empty seasons as 2026. Time runs fast.

Watching LKL finals, when say Dimsa was doing good job on his opponents, or when Maksvytis seeing that Fridriksson got going in the second half and threw Giedraitis on him (and he shut him off), and generally how Zalgiris had defensive identity all season long in LKL, I think NT in Eurobasket maybe only lacked D. Giedraitis and Dimsa to prevail against Spain. Butkevicius struggled with Brown that day a little bit and eventually fouled out. That was the key moment which allowed Brown to mess around in the overtime. In many possessions Brazdeikis was trying to guard Brown in the overtime...That was so constly....

To have lock down true guard defenders as Dovydas Giedraitis could be game changer for us...You throw him at Brown, you throw him at Schroder and he will make their life more difficult.

[Straight forward]

Watch closely how we defended Brown. He even schooled Butkevicius, Grigonis, but specially Brazdeikis didn't stand a chance to stay with him, completely schooled. To have healthy and ready to go Giedraitis (even Dimsa) would be a big luxury if you ask me. That's why I'm looking what bully defender Marciulionis has too. He can bite his opponents as fuck...He was by far the stickiest guard in U20 last summer, most impactful defensive player in entire tournament. We need this breed cause we looked funny at Eurobasket guarding Brown. Off course, it all starts with JV's inability to step out, that's the big problem. Obviously Sabonis didn't have much more success in defense that night too. But I do hope that Domas made a little improvement in D this season. It was evident during the season. I think that prime Sabonis and ready to go Tubelis duet at 5 will allow as at least to breath and to have solid pick and roll defence from time to time. We can even switch all for short stretches. It's not gonna be stellar defense by any means from our 5 positions, but huge step forward compared to Valanciunas' times...

Giedraitis and Marciulionis should be in the NT. The sooner the better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drQOKo4BWLA&ab_channel=FIBA-TheBasketballChannel

[Straight forward]

Watching this clip I see Lithuania making all possible mistakes that it could make Watch 2:18. Brown attacks Jokubaitis and Sabonis in pick and roll situation, Lekavicius must come in from the weak side, but he's sleeping...

In other words good luck having a good defence with Jokubaitis, Lekavicius, Brazdeikis, Grigonis backcourt...Very capable offensively, but nearly a nightmare defensively. I think Jokubaitis and Brazdeikis still can improve some not to be black holes, but this unite in 2022 was playing really trashy defence...

[Shawshank]

LKl players named Brazdeikis most overated player.

Neptunas coach said zalgiris weak link in defence was Brazdeikis and that even lkl team Neptunas tried to put him in pikenrool to attack him



Jokubaitis+Brazdeikis+Valanciunas such lineup wont make stops even if you Pippen and D.Green near them.

I rather see Dimsa start and Brazdeikis comes in as 6th men like Maksvytis did alot this season .When Valanciunas goes to bench,Brazdeikis, comes in and gives offensive boost

Last 5minutes Jonas dont play,Brazdekis play.I dont wanna see them together on the floor.

[Straight forward]

Jokubaitis+Brazdeikis+Valanciunas such lineup wont make stops even if you Pippen and D.Green near them.

I rather see Dimsa start and Brazdeikis comes in as 6th men like Maksvytis did alot this season .When Valanciunas goes to bench,Brazdeikis, comes in and gives offensive boost

Last 5minutes Jonas dont play,Brazdekis play.I dont wanna see them together on the floor.

When Maksvytis looking back to EB now I'm sure he's not happy about his decision to cut Dimsa It was such a crazy idea when you look at it now. We can see that Brazdeikis and even R. Giedraitis (even worse than Brazdeikis defensively) was trying to guard Franz Wagner when he dropped 32. That's because Germany had other dangerous guards which Butkevicius tried to check (Maksvytis overall made huge mistake not putting Butkevicius on Wagner from the start). Maksvytis had to at least take Dimsa and not to let go Sedekerskis.

Maksvytis was really tried to blow against the wind trying to stop best perimeter players with Brazdeikis, Giedraitis in EB. One Butkevicius is not enough. There should be also Dimsa and D. Giedraitis and maybe Marciulionis already.

It's very important how D. Giedraitis, A. Marciulionis and specially M. Rubstavcius will develop in upcoming 2 years. Rubstavicius will likely be first true 2 ways player to emerge. Well, maybe together with Tubelis. D. Giedraitis and Marciulionis are more of defensively minded, but with time their offensive talent will be visible too.

The problem with current NT that we don't have quality 2 ways players. Lekavicius, Jokubaitis, Grigonis, Brazdeikis, R. Giedraitis, Sabonis, Valanciunas, Kuzminskas are all offensive players. Players Butkevicius, Sedekerskis, Dimsa are primarily defensive. Probably the only serious 2 ways player is Ulanovas and he's not interested in playing...

Dimsa and Butkevicius can play D, but it's not like they are capable to run the team offensively...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zud7TNa9OVI&ab_channel=FIBA-TheBasketballChannel

[Giannis34GOD]

From what federation head said few days ago there 3 reasons why Sabonis is not sure about playing: Hand injury healing problems,new baby comming and Domas want new contract to feel safe playing for NT.

Domas himself in interview said a week ago: Its unclear how his hand will heal asked about NT


Overall what im seeing/hearing i would say 70% he wont play in world cup just too many ifs



How about Giannis? Any doubts comming from his camp?

Hope that he can re-consider... But i will not mad at him if he begs off... He actually needs rest... Lithuania's road to Paris will be more harder this time w/o arguably the best player...

[LuDux]

Echodas out

Teams are releasing rosters and yesterday Maskvytis said that on Monday they will put dots on I's, so, any hour now

My Worst Case Scenario NT'2023 Overly Extended Roster: Valančiūnas Motiejūnas Gudaitis Birutis Kairys Tubelis Bendžius Sedekerskis Kulboka Kuzminskas Žukauskas Radzevičius Sirvydis Butkevičius Varnas Rubštavičius Normantas Jogėla Dimša Giedraitis Velička Žemaitis Kariniauskas Jokubaitis Marčiulionis

[Dreamcatcher]

It's crazy that JV is going to be in NT 16 summers in a row (including youth NT). It's even 17 because he was in U16 NT when he was 15 y.o. in 2007. He didn't make impact there though. Anyway, how much dedication, strength, passion and health/luck in order not to have a single injury were needed.

[Hepcat]

To have lock down true guard defenders as Dovydas Giedraitis could be game changer for us...You throw him at Brown, you throw him at Schroder and he will make their life more difficult.

Uggghhhh. Heaven forbid Dovydas Giedraitis being anywhere near Lithuania's national team this summer.

[Hepcat]

When Maksvytis looking back to EB now I'm sure he's not happy about his decision to cut Dimsa It was such a crazy idea when you look at it now.

But you yourself had nothing but sneers for Tomas Dimša until this past 2022-23 season. You always raged against Dimša taking a spot on Team Lietuva in place of one of your personal favourites such as Arnas Velička. Nor is it the case that his play leaped to a higher level this year. His past season was up to par, no more, no less. Yet because he's with Žalgiris now, all of a sudden your opinion of Dimša has improved dramatically.

[Straight forward]

Oh, NO! Hepcat went through the STATS!

[Straight forward]

So far USA looks beatable. Not complete roster though, but seems that they won't have superstars, true superstars. Anthony Edwards will probably be their main guy offensively, but I would dear to say USA doesn't have a single deadly shooter yet which means mixed zone might be an option against them at least for a try, specially if we will be playing with JV. I think the key will be to have absolutely disciplined defense, specially transition defence (that's where JV incredibly hurts). Stopping their fast brakes is the key cause guys like Haliburton and Edwards are unstoppable in this regard. But if you slow down USA, smaller half court offense won't be all that smooth, IMO. Specially that guys like Haliburton has only U19 WC experience.

On the negative size, Haliburton is a great defender and he will put a lot of pressure on Jokubaitis with his size and length. Also Jaren Jackson Jr. is the best defender in the NBA. So when USA have good defence at 1 AND 5 it gives them a good basis for success. Jaren Jackson could be challenged a little bit in pure ISO post defence though. JV is bigger and stronger.

Nevertheless, I think Lithuania can challenge this USA team unless some big names will be still announced. 3 spots left. I feel like they won't be very good shooting team and many most players are inexperienced to run FIBA half court offense. If you slow them down, you have a chance.

If Greece won't have Giannis, Lithuania even without Grigonis and Sabonis, can more or less equally compete, IMO. With Giannis is off course different story.

[Dreamcatcher]

Oh, NO! Hepcat went through the STATS!

He's right. You treated Dimsa the same like Normantas now more or less. And mentioned Velicka as some sort of decent alternative tons of times.

[Straight forward]

He's right. You treated Dimsa the same like Normantas now more or less. And mentioned Velicka as some sort of decent alternative tons of times.

Yeah, and in 2010 I was pretty high on Gecevicius...

Every month, let alone every year provides new data. Dimsa today and Dimsa a year ago are 2 different players. There's a reason why Maksvytis cut him last summer. He really looked bleak and out of shape last summer and he got cut. That helped him to play with a chip on his shoulder and EL games hardened him well. At first he looked a bit lost with time he really became a valuable role player. Thus he reached that level of role player for the NT, legitimate one. I don't see (at least yet) it with Normantas. He's not there if ever. It can happen or it may not, we'll see. To me Dimsa is more skilled, more coordinated, more consistent with the decision making and defense (in terms of scoring both equally streaky though).

Regarding Velicka, yes, I also was higher on him a year ago than now. Mainly his TOs and inability to reach new level of maturity in terms of game control and the decision making is what concerns me. It's not like he declined, simply couldn't reach another level. He's not there yet, IMO. When he played in WC qualification he made 5 T0s in 22 minutes. Too wild yet. That doesn't mean that he won't be ready later.

Hepcat was right about things that you wrote, but he's surely not right thinking that I prefer Dimsa only because he's playing for Zalgiris now, or that D. Giedraitis is trash, or that I pick players according to my personal partiality. Hepcut simply sneaks in and checks the stats and has no clue what so ever about actual player's level.

PS: Dimsa is one of the cases when my projection was incorrect. I didn't see him reaching the level that reached this year. IMO, he surprised not only me, but many people.