2023 Lithuanian NT

[Straight forward]

New summer ,same coaches pattern choosing players and same dinosour experts river cries

I'm sure for Mr. Redneck agenda it will be a pleasure to follow 2 old school slow 7 feet lumberjacks

Every coach dreams about Romanian League's market research, pretty sure that's exactly the pattern

[Shawshank]

After how manny new head coaches that goes by same pattern choosing players u will rethink maybe u dont understand something with your biased fans eyes ?


Or you gonna call every hired expert in this field, proffesional coaches cluesless idiots?

[Straight forward]

By what same pattern?

I didn't call a single LTU coach an idiot (except maybe Maskoliunas for his legendary pre game conferences, but it was so ridiculous that actually it would be worthy the title).

My point is that it sucks that LTU NT, one of major NTs in the world, has to go with "Kariniauskases" and such level player (luckily it's probably the last such occasion for many many years heading forward) and it already hurts my eyes thinking about JV's and D-Mo's defensive presence while substituting each other and this way nearly entirely filling position 5 rotation which means we gonna suck big time defensively (no idea when this issue will be solved, but some improvement with Tubelis IN is likely in some upcoming 1-3 years).

[Shawshank]

NT was/is taking such level one guard for like last 30 years why are u suprised? Not because coaches are clueless,because there is no euroleague/nba guards to fill entire roster.


Pattern is simple when coaches dont have more highest quality euroleague/nba players to choose from their attention goes to players with experience with less chance to meltdown in those emotional NT battles.

[Shawshank]

NT lost Nr 1 and Nr 3 best countries players for 2023 summer my expectations is not high this summer.


For 2023 my 9 top playoofs rotation would be: Jokubaitis,Dimsa,Normantas,Brazdeikis,Butkevicius, Kuzminskas,Sedekerskis,Motiejunas,Valanciunas

Dimsa plays both SG and PG. Kuzminskas plays both SF and PF



Sloukas will not play for Greece 2023 thats real lose. Sloukas was main reason Greece eliminated LTU in 2017 with Mills type jumpers.

[Straight forward]

Not all coaches goes with experienced mediocrities (scrubs) when there's little options. Kazlauskas and Sireika definitely not one of those coaches. Many other coaches also tried to aggressively find "new talent". How many times those experienced scubs actually happened to be a good idea? Can you name couple of tournaments? When we speak about guards precisely.

In 2006 WC Sireika takes 20yo wild Kalnietis. No experienced scrub could be better anyway. In 2008 Butautas takes 24yo Prekevicius, in 2010 we go with bunch of young guards as Kemzura's choice, in 2014 Kazlauskas takes 24yos as Juskevicius, Vasiliauskas, in 2015 he takes 21yo Lekavicius, in 2016 22yo Kariniauskas, Grigonis.

I literally don't remember when experience mediocre scrub 27-32 would be really useful player for the NT. Maybe only Delininkaitis, but he was a bit better than complete mediocre scrub, definitely better than Kariniauskas, other tier player. After all spent 3 seasons in EL.

Where are those players?

[Straight forward]

To me it's still extremely funny to name Normantas as reliable rotation player of NT already Why? Where? When? Did we see him playing in EL? Was he good in LKL finals? No...To test him in the camp? Yes. But that's all.

Sloukas loss for Greeks is HUGE! IMO, he was their main guard. Now Greece will have to choose between Walkup and Dorsey. First is defensive beast, but if there's no Dorsey Greece is very very limited in terms of shooting. If there's Dorsey it depends on the night. He's very streaky scorer. On us probably would score a bunch though...I hope Greece will go with Walkup as American and we will try to simply close the paint and risk on their shooting. With lumberjacks all over we have no other options anyway.

Sloukas out means Lithuania has much bigger chances to take down Greece.

[Serbian_Layup]

To me it's still extremely funny to name Normantas as reliable rotation player of NT already Why? Where? When? Did we see him playing in EL? Was he good in LKL finals? No...To test him in the camp? Yes. But that's all.

Sloukas loss for Greeks is HUGE! IMO, he was their main guard. Now Greece will have to choose between Walkup and Dorsey. First is defensive beast, but if there's no Dorsey Greece is very very limited in terms of shooting. If there's Dorsey it depends on the night. He's very streaky scorer. On us probably would score a bunch though...I hope Greece will go with Walkup as American and we will try to simply close the paint and risk on their shooting. With lumberjacks all over we have no other options anyway.

Sloukas out means Lithuania has much bigger chances to take down Greece.

Step by step. Lithuania will have a tough game against Montenegro. Vučević is coming, young Simonović, Dubljević (all of them can shoot and are good shooters, not a good matchup for Valanciunas or Motiejunas)...that's a formidable frontcourt, Perry and Ivanović are decent guards, Žugić is a nice talent. It won't be a walk in the park for Lithuania considering they are missing key players this year.

[Straight forward]

Step by step. Lithuania will have a tough game against Montenegro. Vučević is coming, young Simonović, Dubljević (all of them can shoot and are good shooters, not a good matchup for Valanciunas or Motiejunas)...that's a formidable frontcourt, Perry and Ivanović are decent guards, Žugić is a nice talent. It won't be a walk in the park for Lithuania considering they are missing key players this year.

Montenegro is off course decent team, but not yet ever proved to be more than that. Thay can though. Vucevic with a huge game could be a problem, but so far he wasn't all that impressive in FIBA. Mostly because I think Montenegro doesn't have super fundamentally sound guards and team culture. I think Montenegro will be in the zone of Bosnia of 2022, just slightly worse. If we are planning to play competitive basketball, it shouldn't be a question that we are taking Montenegro down. Vucevic might be pretty slippery if his jimmy falls, but essentially not the worst match-up for Valanciunas.

[Serbian_Layup]

Montenegro is off course decent team, but not yet ever proved to be more than that. Thay can though. Vucevic with a huge game could be a problem, but so far he wasn't all that impressive in FIBA. Mostly because I think Montenegro doesn't have super fundamentally sound guards and team culture. I think Montenegro will be in the zone of Bosnia of 2022, just slightly worse. If we are planning to play competitive basketball, it shouldn't be a question that we are taking Montenegro down. Vucevic might be pretty slippery if his jimmy falls, but essentially not the worst match-up for Valanciunas.

Vučević is basically a p&p big man. That's a problem for both Valanciunas and Motiejunas. He is also more mobile than both of them. Montenegro has better depth than Bosnia and better backcourt and overall talent than in previous years. History and tradition don't play a big role if you lack talent. Competitiveness can make up for the lack of talent to a certain degree (Miami Heat being the fresh example), but there is no reason to think that Montenegro won't play competitive basketball too. And you can't compare 2022 Lithuania with this year because it's obvious that Lithuania will be very weakened compared to last year, which is exactly why I say Montenegro will be a hard nut to break. At least in theory without seeing both teams actually play.

[Straight forward]

Vučević is basically a p&p big man. That's a problem for both Valanciunas and Motiejunas. He is also more mobile than both of them. Montenegro has better depth than Bosnia and better backcourt and overall talent than in previous years. History and tradition don't play a big role if you lack talent. Competitiveness can make up for the lack of talent to a certain degree (Miami Heat being the fresh example), but there is no reason to think that Montenegro won't play competitive basketball too. And you can't compare 2022 Lithuania with this year because it's obvious that Lithuania will be very weakened compared to last year, which is exactly why I say Montenegro will be a hard nut to break. At least in theory without seeing both teams actually play.

Yeah, well, this is gonna be interesting game. Indeed we may face all kind of problems having too slow offensive bigs. Montenegro having a shooting bigs is a problem. Maybe the good news also is that Vucevic is not a good defender too and he'll get his hands full with both JV and D-Mo down low.

The D gonna be a problem.

But I still think we will have much more fundamentally sound offense running with Jokubaitis at 1, having Butkevicius at 2/3, hopefully ISO freak Brazdeikis at 2 (if he's out, I'm much more pesimistic, we need his aggression from perimeter), hard working system player Sedekerskis at 4. We should establish true EL quality presence with our primarily pieces. D-Mo offensively moves the ball well, as well as he has some sense for natural flow offensively. Obviously Jokubaitis is the key player now. If he runs NT at nearly elite level, we still have different level offense than such teams as Montenegro can offer. And maybe even Calathes/Sloukas less Greece (with all respect to Walkup, offensively overall he's not on Jokubaitis' level).

Maybe I'm too optimistic, but I still have Lithuania as favorites. Grigonis was locked with box and 1 versus Spain, but we still led the most of the game and lost it only by a chance.

[Shawshank]

dinosour expert


Where are those young guards who delivered that didnt had euroleague experience?

Neither those young,neithe experience uleb players delivers in his tiny 5-6 minutes playing time in fiba.

Kazlauskas was changing 4th and 5th every summer and neither of those uleb level delivered,When playoofs came Kalnietis played 37min,Seibutis 33min



25-29 old is experience player compare to 19-22 old raw students .in coach eyes

Normantas,Dimsa,Kariniauskas belongs to that group like Gustas,Ginevicius,Mazutis,Delininkaitis,Juskeviciu s did

or recent examples of uleb players ale Juskevicius 2017,Butkevicius 2019,Dimsa 2021,Zemaitis 2022,belonged too



NT Coaches pattern that repeats are taking 25-29 old experience uleb level players in positions spots where there is no euroleague players

Thats why im not suprised at all hearing Kariniauskas,Normantas,Dimsa,Bendzius names talking about NT 2023 podcasts and articles

[Shawshank]

Vucevic,Dublejevic is good matchup for Valanciunas,Motiejunas.

At this point of their career Jonas or Dmo has problem defending fast bigs,not 115-120kg weight montenegro bigs.

Lithuania NT roster want that opponent played 2 real bigs


Valanciunas does well againts Nurkic,Vucevic,Gobert types. Jonas said himself he hates to play vs those small 2m06 athletic,mobile centers


LTU coaches will fear that small american PG way more than Montenegro bigs

[Straight forward]

Exactly, if you don't have quality options it doesn't matter young or old it will give little benefits with very rare exceptions. So my point is that you better hunt "new talent", unless you do know that the vet will really provide. Do we know that Kariniauskas or Normantas truly provide? No, they are not at prime Delininkaitis level. Even Juskevicius is different level player than Kariniauskas, Normantas. He was like seriously cooking in Eurocup, and spent 2 seasons in EL with Zalgiris. Gustas, Mazutis and maybe we can add such players as Vaisvila, Pacesas never really delivered for the NT. Not more than freaking' 20yo Kalnietis anyway. When you go with talented young, you get as little as you get from vet scrubs, but you do a lot of favor long term. We do know how confident Kalnietis was in 2010 already. We do know that later Lekavicius and grigonis became important players for the NT. Some youngsters won't pan out too, that's correct, but at least we truly test them and likely harden some of them for big future games. While going with such player as Kariniauskas is a dead end. The only hope is that he will deliver NOW? Is he in position to do that when he fails in Rytas, spends his season in Romania, signs with NKL champs...? Nope, not really. Maybe he will help some, who knows, but I hate this idea.

Again, only Juskevicius, Delininkaitis truly delivered as mediocre players, but they are not as big scrubs as Zemaitis, Mazutis, Kariniauskas and so on.

The pattern is that there were all sort of solutions at guards. It may be 50/50. I treat U25 as still young players and older as experienced.

youngsters - Pazdrazdis, Gustas, Ginevicius, Kalnietis, Prekevicius, Seibutis, Pocius, Gecevicius, Vasiliauskas, Lekavicius, Kariniauskas, Jokubaitis, Zemaitis

vets - Markevicius, Vaisvila, A. Giedraitis, Pacesas, Mazutis, Lukauskis, Delininkaitis, Juskevicius, Dimsa, Gecevicius, Milaknis

[Straight forward]

Valanciunas does well againts Nurkic,Vucevic,Gobert types. Jonas said himself he hates to play vs those small 2m06 athletic,mobile centers

Vucevic is 208cm mobile big who tends to go mainly for pick and pop as SL said, and if he doesn't have perimeter shots he attacks face to the basket as well, and he has tons of post moves. He's more like athletic mobile center than wise versa. Sure, not a terrible match-up for JV, specially knowing his defensive limitations, but still very uncomfortable. Sort of top 5 offensive center in the world together with Jokic, Embiid, Sabonis, Davis or close to that.

The fact that all 3 Montenegro bigs can shoot is very likely gonna be a problem.