2023 Lithuanian NT

[Shawshank]

Butkevicius is injured and is out too


Lekavicius,Grigonis,Giedraitis,Butkevicius,Ulanova s,Gudaitis,Sabonis 6 euroleague players and 1 nba player OUT


Jokubaitis,Brazdeikis,Dimsa,Sedekerskis,Dmo,Valanc iunas 5 euroleague and 1 nba player IN



Balciunas again gonna come and talk his nonsenses how younger and more hungry players will replace 6 out of top 10 curent best ltu players and NT will fight for highest positions

[Straight forward]

Butkevicius out due to health issues...

Probably Radzevicius now is very probable.

[Shawshank]

Loosing by far best ltu defender will hurt badly for this bad defensive NT

We should forget about Usa,Greece in 2nd group


All attention should be how to qualife from first group now Mexico and Montengero looks like seriuos opponnets for this 2023 roster

[Straight forward]

All attention should be how to qualife from first group now Mexico and Montengero looks like seriuos opponnets for this 2023 roster

Sedekerskis, Dimsa, D. Giedraitis/Margiris and Radzevicius IN likely though. Butkevicius to me was an obvious starter for NT at 3 and now we barely have staring SF. A chance for Sirvydis, Kulboka, Radzevicius. Probably now we'll start to talk about this if lucky Jokubaitis, Brazdeikis, Kuzminskas, Sedekerskis, Valanciunas.

[Shawshank]

Jokubaitis, Brazdeikis, Kuzminskas, Sedekerskis, Valanciunas.

Horrible defensive lineup.Opponnets guards gonna have NTs career high performances

[Straight forward]

JV says that Brazdeikis should come. That's a good news. The way this NT is built, Brazdeikis is more important that Butkevicius. Even though we badly needed both. If we have Jokubaitis and Brazdeikis messing from perimeter, we have a backcourt core and serious aggression.

[Straight forward]

Horrible defensive lineup.Opponnets guards gonna have NTs career high performances

How to you suggest to play good D with JV and D-Mo? Our close outs will be non existant. Maybe some zone defense and risking on shooting...the only solution likely.

[Shawshank]

Have pesky guard defenders that fight over screens like Seibutis type or Diaz from Spain such type guard


Valanciunas played with Seibutis,Maciulis near him and that team was very good defensive team


Now all opponnets need to do put Brazdeikis with Valanciunas in same pikenrool and help god ltu fans .Opponnets will get wide open jumper every single time.Because Brazdeikis is cluesless where and how to react and Valanciunas too slow


Horible fit having Valanciunas/ Dmo and Brazdeikis as a guard. I would try play Brazdeikis as SF.,just to have one real defender at guard position


Who from Jokubaitis/Brazdeikis is guarding elite fiba guards scorers? Atleast in 2022 coach used to put Butkevicius,now they gonna put Sf Kuzminskas on guard?

[Straight forward]

Valanciunas these days is much slower compared to his 2015 self. Back then his effort was still at another level defensively. We have guys as Dimsa and D. Giedraitis to do what Seibutis was doing. And we have Sedekerskis and Radzevicius to do what Maciulis was doing (well, close). But these days JV and D-Mo really on that slow side vets...

It will be hard for Maksvytis to make decisions. He may go with more defensive players (Normantas, Giedraitis, Marciulionis, Radzevicius) or more offensive (Rubstavicius, Sirvydis, Kulboka, Benzdius), or to try to get the best mix (which is more likable), but there's no optimal solution.

Yeah, Jokubaitis and Brazdeikis ain't no good defenders at 1 and 2, but you also can't go with Giedraitis and Dimsa offensively to have sufficient offense. Only Jokubaitis at 1 ATM can make our offense run at high level.

[Shawshank]

Start Jokubaitis+Dimsa as backourt .Overall I dont see how team can survive playing Jokubaitis+Brazdeikis and slow center in same lineup


But yeah there is no good asnwers .

One things is to have lesser tallent but in which pieces fits together . This 2023 NT have neither



I would treat Brazdeikis same way like in Zalgiris did. If he not scoring alot and like alwasy f**ing defensive team rotations 10minutes playing time

If he scoring alot 28minutes.

Such brainless player cant be main player of winning team. He can be in 6th men volume scorer role

[Shawshank]

O dangaus podcast naming possible players if Brazdeikis also wont come


Jokubaitis,Normantas,Dimsa,Kariniauskas,Radzeviciu s,Bendzius,Kuzminskas,Sedekerskis,Jogela and so on thats literally window games roster from 2021 + Valanciunas

[LuDux]

Balciunas was on Delfi podcast. If I understood his bul.. diplomatic speech, Brazdeikis never seriously considered skipping WC and Sabonis has 3 weeks to heal finger, give birth and sign contract with KIngs

[Straight forward]

Urbonas is the most clueless and the biggest joke ever to me in terms of commentating. I mean, It's the new bottom! That redneck thinks that Kariniauskas is better facilitator than Jokubaitis and says it like it's nothing, like just rational The biggest idiot ever. I thought R. Paulauskas is the bottom, but no, there's Urbonas...Complete redneck who can't walk 2 meters away Utena's mindset. Kariniauskas could play shit in Rytas...he was horrible by all means, barely could crack rotation. But, no, for Urbonas he's better facilitator than best Barca's facilitator "Jis sustatytu visus"! I mean, I can't stop my self, but call this complete douchebag a joke.

OK, boomer! Keep that kind of rednecks away from LTU BB. Keep him locked in Utena.

[Straight forward]

I already know the main problem of Lithuanian coaches - provincialism. You can clearly see that Urbonas head is all over with mediocrities. In his mind he knows Kariniauskas better and ever treats better than Jokubaitis. Again, to think that Kariniauskas offensively can do something better than Jokubaitis you have to be an idiot, hands down, I can't justify that. It's like comparing D. Sabonis or Geben. Valinksas for him is better player than D. Giedraitis, Rubstavicius.

Hopefully Maksvytis is growing into a coach with broad horizon. We need that to happen. I think Adomaitis also basically grows into such, even both of these 2 were negatively affected by working with mediocrities for many years in clubs like Utena, Neptunas and even Rytas, or Russia. Now Maksvytis is getting better, avoids mediocrity mentality, analysis EL market broadly and so on.

After Kazlauskas there's Jasikevicius. 2 world class coaches. One retired, other didn't yet coach NT. We badly need more. I like how Maksvytis progressing, I feel that his attitudes expands. I don't mind Adomaitis to come back to the NT one day. While Such as Urbonas will always remain petty provincial.

[Straight forward]

I will say this. That 15 spot in the ranking for us is very metaphoric. That's exactly what happened with Lithuanian basketball - it became mediocre. Aside center position, what has been happening with Lithuanian basketball since 2008? Only decline. When EL stars Siska, Jasikevicius and such declined and retired, we had Kalnietis, Seibutis, Maciulis as the core. EL role players. After these such players as Kuzminskas, Grigonis, Lekavicius followed. Also EL role players and probably an inch worse than previous trio. Yes, we had Valanciunas and Sabonis who kept NT respectable, but overall this ranking is a great metaphor - LTU basketball has been on a declining mode 2008-2022 and reduced to mediocrity (even if this ranking is exaggeration, it's a nice message for us). Some will say, look with A team we're different et cetera...But the fact is we can't win anything with A rosters for long time now. Current A roster can't expect medals objectively.

Realistically this WC is a great chance to rebuild and to throw a lot of babies into the water. We badly need a rebuild and to develop real deal talents, not EL mediocrities, role players or to ride with lower league's complete mediocrities (Zemaitis, Zukauskas and now likely Normantas, Radzevicius coming). The shift should be happening now already. It's obvious we are not getting anything with current vets, not even talking about hyping Normantas kind of breeds...it's pathetic.. JV got slow, Grigonis crippled, Ulanovas crippled. Let's face it - we are not going anywhere with them anymore. We should legitimately go after new talent that we have plenty. I don't expect Maksvytis to go full mode with that, he is the guy who took Cizauskas back to the map, but generally everyone sees that LTU basketball needs radical recharge. And we have great generation for this coming. The further we hesitate, the more open the wound will become. If we won't throw most of these into the NT (Marciulionis, D. Giedraitis, Rubstavicius, Sirvydis, Tubelis, not even talking about Sedekerskis who is more than the lock in my eyes) we will pay the price in 2024 and even 2025. There will be some crippled players in 2024 too, I'm pretty sure. It's not like there's guarantee that all pieces will come back for Olympics. If we will be forced to go with Normantases and Kariniauskases for 23, 24...we're done as baskebtall country. We need to push that shit cause it sticks for nearly a decade now.