2023 Lithuanian NT

[Shawshank]

When i see what kinda level and tough shot making showed yesterday by nba guards from Canada,Germany,Usa only biggest dreamers can imagine we have any realistic chance with Jokubaitis,Normantas,Dimsas level shot making in world championship versus those top 6 NTs.

France showed our guards what kinda level they can expect facing best fiba teams


Only good thing draw is good for us this time to make 1/4. Montenegro and Greece without 3biggest names is not top 8 NTs of 2023


Our 2019 or 2022 NTs would have made 1/4 game with this draw of 2023 very likely. This our B roster not sure they will,but atleast they have punchers chance.


Magically even our 1/4 opponnets would be not Usa,not Fra,not Aus,not Can,not Spa,not Ger... but winner of Jokicless Serbia or Italy

We got one of best brackets,when we already know NTs rosters.

[R1ou]

Indeed this probable LTU-GRE matchup will be low in quality, in fact it would be a great opportunity for any of them to snatch an automatic Olympic birth with this draw if they had a full roster. Makes me wonder what all those players had in mind, as they decided to skip it but actually dream about playing in Olympics next year. This is a golden chance for all of Serbia/Italy/Lithuania or Greece to do by reaching the semi finals of the tournament.

I do think next year it would be even more impossible to have NBA players in the qualifying tournaments as they usually start right after the NBA and the local championship finals.

[Shawshank]

Youngsters Tubelis,Giedraitis cut and taken less talented but mature Kariniauskas,Maldunas for same reasons like always

If Butkevicius wouldnt got injury same would had happend with Sirvydis.


I hope in tournament start coach gonna lose last hopes about Kariniauskas play and will send him to sit on end of bench with Maldunas and Sirvydis.



Remaining 9 players is the ones NT should play all minutes in meaningfull games and hope for miracle cinderella story,because NT 2023 play not looking prommising saying kindly.

[Straight forward]

I'm becomingt the sceptic of Maksvytis. Hoped that he would develop into something solid, but I'm starting to doubt this. Same old scrub's mentality. I can't believe Kariniauskas, Maldunas are in the team. He didn't learn a single thing from 22 when he totally wasted 2 spots with Zemaitis and Zukauskas. I knew Kariniauskas will be trash, but I didn't even expect it will be that ugly. The guys is totally smashed and demoralized. Maksvytis yet again wasted the spot completely and failed to bring any dividends to LTU BB. 19yo Miro Little is way better than Kariniauskas, way better. Simply Maksvytis is absolutely blind trusting ridiculous scrub who has nothing for this level. No skill, no athleticism, no defense, do agility, nothing...Maksvytis already totally wasted the spot and the tournament didn't even start. This red carpet for Kariniauskas is another joke, just like with Cizauskas and it's a signature of Kazys.
What will Maldunas do in WC? With his jogtrot will be a defensive stopper? I can't believe Maksvytis takes another non- athletic slow vet who is at best average LKL player...

Maksvytis is not an answer for LTU NT...He's just a limited provincial with provincial mentality and his architecture of the roster sucked both 2022 and 2023. He made zero attempts to solve back-up's PGs and mobile center's issue which hurt us tremendously.

LTU needs to bring back personalities under the wheel. I see only Jasikevicius ATM. There's no other way. Maksvytis made huge harm to LTU basketball in 2 years. He ignored current issues,didn't solve problems and never tried to fill the holes, he never cared about new talent, laid red carpets for mediocrities. I don;'t see how can we be successful playing 2 super slow centers all the time...Maksvytis had to kill some-one for decent back-up PG, cause we totally suck without Jokubaitis, and to have anything agile and athletic at 5. If he was smart, he would even now play Sedekerskis at 5, but he's too limited for that. He even hesitates to play Sedekerskis when he's playing well, like yesterday.

LTU basketball is in huge crisis. And it's starts with provincialism. Huge talent wave is coming, but we need some-one like Kazlauskas to handle all this. Maksvytis already made enough harm even for 2025-2028 Olympic cycle, let alone not being able to handle this one.

[Hepcat]

It's interesting but on the basis of an admittedly limited sample of friendly games it appears that the team performs better when the offence is indeed run through Jonas Valančiūnas:

Jonas Valančiūnas Last Ten Games - Basketnews

That though is perhaps not surprising.

[Straight forward]

Nothing new in terms of coaching in Lithuania. We see bunch of pathetic provincials like Urbonas who publicaly spits complete idiocity like "I would even say Kariniauskas will be the main PG"...Dead end. Fucking idiots, with idiotic provincial minds.

All this situation with Maksvytis reminds me Butautas in 2009. He ignored Kalnietis, didn't give him the wheels of the game, and instead trusted Mazutis and freakin' Jomantas as facilitators! This is literally the same. You have a young stud PG in Marciulionis who in your face shows that's he's good in reserve NT, but you say "nah, we have our Mazutis/Jomantas in Kariniauskas, we're good". The fact that NT coaches didn't invite Velicka to either one of three NTs also speaks volumes how Maksvytis is handling whole NT pyramid...

This shit has to stop...NT became fucking pathetic rag to wash provincial boots...Maksvytis can't handle this. Even if he wins anything in this pathetically weak WC facing red carpet for us in terms of the draw (which I don't see happening), he showed enough that he is not the head coach of LTU NT. He doesn't have enough guts, intelligence, long vision, ideas how to run NT as the pyramid and sticks to his pathetic provincial ways. He doesn't have it. He's a mediocre personality and only super strong personalities as Garastas, Kazlauskas can handle this.

[Dreamcatcher]

On the other hand, Maldunas' story is inspiring - he already finished his basketball career 6 years ago and started to work in a bank and now goes to WC.

[Hepcat]

If he(Coach Maksvytis) was smart, he would even now play Sedekerskis at 5, but he's too limited for that. He even hesitates to play Sedekerskis when he's playing well, like yesterday.

You're looking at Tadas Sedekerskis through rose-tinted glasses. You "see" only what you want to see. Sedekerskis was only fair yesterday. He had a personal efficiency of 5 in 13:18 of playing time. Those are the cold, hard numbers.

[Hepcat]

You have a young stud PG in Marciulionis who in your face shows that's he's good in reserve NT....

The problem of course is that Augustas Marčiulionis has hardly showed himself to be a "stud". Yes, it's true that Marčiulionis did outperform some players in the three games against Jordan:

PLAYER	POSITION	MINUTES	EFF
Ignas Sargiūnas	PG/SG	21	18.3
Matas Jogėla	SG/SF	19	15.0
Einaras Tubutis	PF	19	14.7
Laurynas Beliauskas	SG	20	14.7
Augustas Marčiulionis	PG	20	14.3
Deividas Sirvydis	SG/SF	19	11.7
Danielius Lavrinovičius	PF/C	17	7.6
Dovydas Giedraitis	PG/SG	19	8.3

But then again Ignas Sargiūnas outperformed both Marčiulionis and Giedraitis by a wide margin and Sargiūnas didn't get an invitation to the main camp at all. Very curious. The reason 21 year old Marčiulionis didn't get an invitation to the main camp was probably because his numbers playing against kids in the NCAA were at best unimpressive:

SEASON	GAMES	MINUTES	POINTS	ASSISTS	STEALS	TURNOVERS
2021-22	34	15:06	3.1	1.8	0.9	1.6
2022-23	35	15:30	5.9	1.6	0.5	1.0

Moreover Marčiulionis' production in the 2022 U20 tournament wasn't that impressive either:

2022 U20	GAMES	MINUTES	POINTS	ASSISTS	STEALS	TURNOVERS	EFF
Augustas Marčiulionis	7	27:00	9.1	4.9	2.7	1.7	8.7

Hopefully you're aware of these numbers. I'm sure the Lithuanian team coaches have studied them.

[Hepcat]

I'm becomingt the sceptic of Maksvytis. Hoped that he would develop into something solid, but I'm starting to doubt this. Same old scrub's mentality. I can't believe Kariniauskas, Maldunas are in the team. He didn't learn a single thing from 22 when he totally wasted 2 spots with Zemaitis and Zukauskas. I knew Kariniauskas will be trash, but I didn't even expect it will be that ugly. The guys is totally smashed and demoralized. Maksvytis yet again wasted the spot completely and failed to bring any dividends to LTU BB. 19yo Miro Little is way better than Kariniauskas, way better. Simply Maksvytis is absolutely blind trusting ridiculous scrub who has nothing for this level. No skill, no athleticism, no defense, do agility, nothing...Maksvytis already totally wasted the spot and the tournament didn't even start. This red carpet for Kariniauskas is another joke, just like with Cizauskas and it's a signature of Kazys.
What will Maldunas do in WC? With his jogtrot will be a defensive stopper? I can't believe Maksvytis takes another non- athletic slow vet who is at best average LKL player...

Maksvytis is not an answer for LTU NT...He's just a limited provincial with provincial mentality and his architecture of the roster sucked both 2022 and 2023. He made zero attempts to solve back-up's PGs and mobile center's issue which hurt us tremendously.

LTU needs to bring back personalities under the wheel. I see only Jasikevicius ATM. There's no other way. Maksvytis made huge harm to LTU basketball in 2 years. He ignored current issues,didn't solve problems and never tried to fill the holes, he never cared about new talent, laid red carpets for mediocrities. I don;'t see how can we be successful playing 2 super slow centers all the time...Maksvytis had to kill some-one for decent back-up PG, cause we totally suck without Jokubaitis, and to have anything agile and athletic at 5. If he was smart, he would even now play Sedekerskis at 5, but he's too limited for that. He even hesitates to play Sedekerskis when he's playing well, like yesterday.

LTU basketball is in huge crisis. And it's starts with provincialism. Huge talent wave is coming, but we need some-one like Kazlauskas to handle all this. Maksvytis already made enough harm even for 2025-2028 Olympic cycle, let alone not being able to handle this one.

Nothing new in terms of coaching in Lithuania. We see bunch of pathetic provincials like Urbonas who publicaly spits complete idiocity like "I would even say Kariniauskas will be the main PG"...Dead end. Fucking idiots, with idiotic provincial minds.

All this situation with Maksvytis reminds me Butautas in 2009. He ignored Kalnietis, didn't give him the wheels of the game, and instead trusted Mazutis and freakin' Jomantas as facilitators! This is literally the same. You have a young stud PG in Marciulionis who in your face shows that's he's good in reserve NT, but you say "nah, we have our Mazutis/Jomantas in Kariniauskas, we're good". The fact that NT coaches didn't invite Velicka to either one of three NTs also speaks volumes how Maksvytis is handling whole NT pyramid...

This shit has to stop...NT became fucking pathetic rag to wash provincial boots...Maksvytis can't handle this. Even if he wins anything in this pathetically weak WC facing red carpet for us in terms of the draw (which I don't see happening), he showed enough that he is not the head coach of LTU NT. He doesn't have enough guts, intelligence, long vision, ideas how to run NT as the pyramid and sticks to his pathetic provincial ways. He doesn't have it. He's a mediocre personality and only super strong personalities as Garastas, Kazlauskas can handle this.

Uggghhhh. You may call yourself a "fan" of Lithuanian basketball, but your words indicate you're nothing but an arsonist. You must in fact be working for one of those neo-Soviet troll farms. If you're trying to demoralize both the coaches and the players, with rants like that you couldn't do a better job.

And if you're trying to destroy Lithuanian basketball on behalf of Vlad Poutine and the ChiComs, posts like yours help. There are already plenty of absences from this year's team, but the absences this year will pale in comparison to next year's. Why any player would volunteer weeks of next year's summer for this type of abuse is beyond me. The LKF will be lucky to round up aspiring candidates from the NKL (the second tier league in Lithuania) to fill the roster if this is the kind of commentary/moral support that they can expect from "fans".

And I'll remind everyone again that it was you who agitated for Kazys Maksvytis to be the head coach ever since Dainius Adomaitis was given the reigns for 2017. And now you're heaping even worse abuse upon Maksvytis than you did upon Adomaitis. Yet somehow you think that Šarūnas Jasikevičius might be tempted to take the job. Well you've got rocks in your head if you think so. Why would Jasikevičius need the aggravation? He can probably make more money doing one commercial for Kalnapilis beer than for a whole summer enduring your type of "analysis" of his coaching skills.

And for any non-Lithuanian reader of this forum, Straight forward's words aren't reflective of the attitudes of most basketball fans in Lithuania. At least I hope they're not, because with "fans" of this sort there's not going to be any kind of a future for Lithuanian basketball. Not only will no players volunteer their summers for the national team, kids will no longer be tempted to take up the game. Like I say, Straight forward is managing to do the work of neo-Soviet troll farms on their behalf.

[Shawshank]

like 8 out of 10 NT summers same pattern repeating and dinosour expert every time is shocked and picturing proffesionals coach that did well in euroleague ,won everything is possible to win in youth tournament like total basketball moran classic lithuanian brainless beer fan


His brain is in pain because he cant understand why ?? NT coaches is taking those lkl 25-29 mature players over and over again and refusing to take his raw,inexperience youngsters

[LuDux]

I'm becomingt the sceptic of Maksvytis.

Troll

[Shawshank]

Hepcat forget those marciulionis,sargiunas or Kariniauskas or what ever.They arent making no diffrence playing vs euroleague/nba guards


NT need guards from euroleague/nba only they can make the diffrence in Fiba battles


Look that shot making from canada,usa,france,australia,germany guards in 2020s thats tottally diffrent levels.

Players from lkl or ncaa or champions league can do very little facing them

[Hepcat]

like 8 out of 10 NT summers same pattern repeating and dinosour expert every time is shocked and picturing proffesionals coach that did well in euroleague ,won everything is possible to win in youth tournament like total basketball moran classic lithuanian brainless beer fan.

It's fine to have opinions. But I expect measured commentary and not hysterical rants from a poster who certainly can't be in his teens any more. He might of course be drunk when he pecks out tirades such as the above. That's the only answer that comes to mind because that type of posting doesn't help either the team in the short-term or the Lithuanian basketball program in the long-term.

Hepcat forget those marciulionis,sargiunas or Kariniauskas or what ever.They arent making no diffrence playing vs euroleague/nba guards

NT need guards from euroleague/nba only they can make the diffrence in Fiba battles.

Unfortunately we don't have many of those. We have to work with what we have.

[thiago94]

The nomination of Kariniauskas is wild. He didn't even look great against third divisional teams in preseason when playing for Brose Bamberg last summer. The only thing he is good in, is bullying his way to the basket, but he plays completely isolated from the rest of the squad on court and is quite the opposite what I would expect of a PG. His ball handling is madness, hands down, I am not sure if I have ever seen a PG with worse handling in the BBL. Hard to imagine him turning from a player, who wasn't even good enough to play first division in Germany to a valuable asset for Lithuania. Velicia would have been a much better choice. He can't play any defense neither, but at least he brings some creation and spacing on the table, something what Kariniauskas is completely missing.