2023 Lithuanian NT

[Straight forward]

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.

Terrible ball hog too which you correctly indicated saying he plays completely isolated. It is nothing short, but madness.

[Dreamcatcher]

Kariniauskas' case is overstimated). He or any other pg (not including Jokubaitis) wouldn't play any meaningful minutes. It anyway will be Dimsa or Normantas when Rokas is on the bench. A worse thing is that it's the same mistake like it was in the past - to take a pg only because of the position (Mazutis, Vasiliauskas...). Somehow it's too hard to live with a fact that we don't have a second good pg.

[Straight forward]

Kariniauskas' case is overstimated). He or any other pg (not including Jokubaitis) wouldn't play any meaningful minutes. It anyway will be Dimsa or Normantas when Rokas is on the bench. A worse thing is that it's the same mistake like it was in the past - to take a pg only because of the position (Mazutis, Vasiliauskas...). Somehow it's too hard to live with a fact that we don't have a second good pg.

This. And Maksvytis made this mistake two years in a row which I find hard to remember who did this previously.

He could take the same Jogela who looked pretty refreshing with his energy, aggressiveness and athleticism.

And when you have a problem - like no proper PG - you have to solve it, to work on that and develop it. Jasikevicius of 2000 version didn't happen from the scratch. Like suddenly there's a great player! Who knew! No...He had to suck balls in 1997, 1998 and then to have pretty decent 1999 tournaments and only then he exploded in 2000. The same Sireika made a huge favor for LTU basketball in 2006 when he unleashed Kalnietis, huge favor! He could take some ball sucking vet "yet another Kariniauskas" easily, but he had some imagination and balls and took new real talent. Sireika is known for trusting and developing prospects and we need more of such coaches. I understand Adomaitis in 2017, the talent pool of ours was completely empty at that time, there was literally no-one to take. Lekavicius got injured and that's it. But now Maksvytis had plenty of options like Marciulionis/Velicka/Jogela. Hell, take even Jakucionis, and he would over-hustle Kariniauskas and make some threes here and there. I'm really angry that Maksvytis simply went 100% with this decision no matter how bad Kariniauskas would look. Bad signs from Maksvytis. He sucks 2 summers in a row. He blew 4 close games last EB, now he established the team which stands no chance defensively and already wasted 2 spots of the roster, it's more than clear (4 wasted spots in 2 years). He could even invite some-one like Bickauskis for competition at 1. The guy would be messing around defensively at least and offensively would be in the same spot where Kariniauskas is.

Maksvytis has been sucking balls so far with the NT.

[Straight forward]

To me the saddest part is that we became basketball province lately. Our results are crappy, our basketball style - old school, we prioritize experienced mediocrity and lacking personalities among coaches (for some time lacked players too, but this problem ceasing). Look even at conservative Serbia. Even they have freakin' 17-18yo Topic among candidates. Spain takes Nunez to the final roster. And what we do? We even afraid to invite 23yo Velicka or 21yo Marciulionis to the camp...cause we have freakin' - EFF Kariniauskas...

It's really sad...we have such a nice talent pool filling and no personalities to properly handle this process...

[Shawshank]

Jasikevicius become who he become because he played 10min per game in 1997 and 1998 summers in those 7-8 games?

Seasons of 60-70 games as main pg and playing 30minutes a game in Rytas and Olimpia played no part in 2000 olympic performance ?


As always fantastic dinosour expert analyses

[Hepcat]

The nomination of Kariniauskas is wild.... 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.

Keep in mind that Arnas Velička hasn't exactly been overlooked by the Lithuanian coaching staff. He's been given looks previously. Here's how he's looked in comparison to Vaidas Kariniauskas:

2020 Qualifiers for Eurobasket

PLAYER	GAMES	MINUTES	POINTS	ASSISTS	STEALS	TURNOVERS	EFFICIENCY
Velička	3	12:00	4.0	2.3	0.7	0.7	4.3
Kariniauskas	2	23:00	12.5	4.0	1.0	2.0	12.0

2021-22 Qualifiers for World Cup

PLAYER	GAMES	MINUTES	POINTS	ASSISTS	STEALS	TURNOVERS	EFFICIENCY
Velička	4	14:30	3.5	2.8	0.3	2.5	1.0
Kariniauskas	4	18:30	5.5	4.0	0.3	2.3	3.0

So no, Kariniauskas didn't exactly have stellar numbers but those of Velička were even less so.

That being said I would have liked to see Velička and perhaps another dedicated PG in camp (Žygimantas Janavičius?). I like to see relative newbies have to earn their way onto the team by out competing other candidates. I didn't like seeing a red carpet laid out for Rokas Jokubaitis back in 2021 either. I'm logically consistent in that regard. Some of Coach Maksvytis' recent critics have shall we say been less intellectually consistent.

[Shawshank]

NT 2023 final roster age groups look like this:


33-30 old Kuzminskas,Bendzius,Motiejunas,Valanciunas,Karinia uskas,Maldunas

29-25 old Dimsa,Normantas,Sedekerskis,

24-23 old Brazdeikis,Sirvydis,Jokubaitis


19-22 old Not found


What is the worst not only this NT looks like weakest in tallent of last 10 years,but also is kinda old roster


Thats how looks NT when coaches must stitch-up broken roster thats missing atleast 50% of best players.

[LuDux]

2011 29,5
2019 29,2
2012 28,9
2023 28.7
1995 28.6

Fun fact: in 2011 and 2012 youngest player was JV, 19 and 20, second youngest - Kalnietis, almost 6 years older

[Straight forward]

This summer Marciulionis looked better than Kariniauskas as PG, as facilitator. In front of everyone's eyes. The only reason Kariniauskas was taken is "experience". That's utterly horrid mistake. He would look like complete trash at this level even if he was 50yo. When a player is simply from lower tier that NT requires, forget about the age. He will suck balls no matter if he's 17 or 42.


As for Jasikevicius discussion...Butkevicius had a monster season in LKL 2019. IMO, it's his best LKL season. But in the NT he needed time. He was only decent in 2019. But in 2022 he was really solid already. Club experience matters and is the core of player's career, but NT experience is different animal and you have to go through this even if you're experienced player. It's good that Jasikevicius, Kalnietis, Jokubaitis (and even Lekavicius) got NT experience early. All this gave great benefits to Lithuanian BB long term. It's a rarity that player would come and play well instantly. Sometimes it happens, but that's more like exception (Adas Juskevicius...but he felt zero pressure). We seen lately with Butkevicius, R. Giedraitis. Or even take Ulanovas, in 2017 he was 25yo, his debut was only decent, but in 2019 he was solid already. It takes time at this level, at NT level. It's different animal.

What Maksvytis did in 22 and 23 he wasted those spots which he could dedicate for long term NT solving main issues and, even more, I truly believe that either of Marciulionis/D.Giedraitis/Jogela would be better NOW than Kariniauskas. Maybe only slightly better, but all 3 are better players than Kariniauskas already, no question. Maksvytis blew it and really disrupted the processes that had to be done to assure the progress. Maksvytis already hurt 2024, 2025 and even 2027 tournaments to certain extent. That's how it works, if one coach is sleeping today, the other will be cleaning his shit and take the consequences...Kazlauskas once made a huge work and Sireika just took fruits in 2003-2004. Maksvytis is the anti-thesis of Kazlauskas...It's obvious he doesn't care about NT long term, all he thinks about how to cover his ass now. It's obvious we need legitimate PG back-up, that all this Kariniauskas shit is a joke. Nothing but the joke. But he does nothing.

Now imagine in 2025 new coach coming. He takes Marciulionis as a back up. Will he instantly provide as his first season in the NT? No, most likely not. Even Jasikevicius as 23yo pretty much sucked with NT. If Maksvytis was smart, he would know that some playing time for Marciulionis now would make a player from him sooner than later. These moves had to be done, specially when he looked that good in reserve NT. I partially understand that out of shape post injury Tubelis is being cut, but Marciulionis was ready. So this necessary move wasn't done and next coach will suffer because of that cause Maksvytis has been paralysing the natural processes.

People say those 11-12th spots doesn't matter...False. It matter highly. Those players will take important roles in upcoming tournaments, sometimes key roles. So if you care about the next tournaments (and why would you care about them less than current ones?) then you take those 11-12th spots extremely seriously. Otherwise you just say "I will shit on this table and who ever will coach in three upcoming tournaments will clean it". That's what Maksvytis has been doing. Totally wasting 4 freakin' spots.

[Shawshank]

2011 29,5
2019 29,2
2012 28,9
2023 28.7
1995 28.6

So its 4th oldest age roster of all time and what is worst is weak tallent roster too

Atleast 2011-2012-2019-1995 rosters those 30+ players was medal winning proud champions,past leaders of NT


2023 roster most are mediocre players that won nothing in the past and also is old to play every second day on 2020s speeds


Damm its looks bad looking from historical signs analysing roster ,but Balciunas says everything fine more motivated and hungrier players will fight for the highest places.Lets hope that money manipulator knows better to be so optimistic about 2023 team

[Straight forward]

Damm its looks bad looking from historical signs analysing roster ,but Balciunas says everything fine more motivated and hungrier players will fight for the highest places.Lets hope that money manipulator knows better and have more info than we do

Ever see any responsibility for Maksvytis ? Or is he the first head coach who has zero to do with NT issues? I thought that the head coach is talking with players, not GM. I remember Adomaitis visiting NBA players overseas... What I know now is that Maksvytis doesn't even show up in FIBA windows and the whole communication with players was a mess this summer. Did he talk with Kulboka or not? Did he know anything about Sabonis or not?

Yes, federation lost control...and it started with the day when they hired Maksvytis and let him coach Zalgiris too, leaving NT without head coach in qualification and making complete mess in the summer...

[Shawshank]

I remember Sabonis federation sending Siskauskas to america (adomaitis had club to work with)

No pictures,no video how Siskauskas trips went.He just had dinners with player and his family. And we got know about it from this from Adomaitis podcast after 3 years



New federation methods: sending Chomicius to america to make selfies with Buzelis or make video trips how they meeting Domas and Jonas

What about sending Chomicius to Greece to have dinner with Grigonis family ? and keep their mouth shut up about it, respect players families.

simply ask how your family doing,how is your back feeling,ask about plans in summer.



Head Coach is already calling players in May when they have made their mind and made summer plans after federation didnt show no attention in 9month season.

Balciunas federation remembers players only when they need them to play for NT and make commercials for Tv3.

Putting players names in media list and not even asked players themselfs before doing that No wonder multiple players feeling disrespected by Balciunas media bullshits in first 2 years already and we seeing results in decline number.



I blame very busy head coach 20% and federation 80% for our NT 2023 roster

[Straight forward]

Communication with players is direct responsibility of the head coach. In which planet do you live? That Spokas and Siska visited NBA players once (2017), doesn't mean that Adomaitis wasn't handling the whole communication. He was calling and talking with them, and it was written about it as always. Maybe it's just fluke, maybe random reasons, I doubt players have anything against Maksvytis, but the fact is he is the main figure to take responsibility. First coach, then GM or president of federation.

https://www.facebook.com/krepsinis.net/posts/10159932191895654/

[Straight forward]

I blame very busy head coach 20% and federation 80% for our NT 2023 roster

Adomaitis wasn't skipping any NT games and he was grabbing all best players. Blame your sacred cow Maksvytis, he is the guy who should call to play, not freakin' Balciunas. I only blame Balciunas that he actually allowed NT to be butt naked in the windows without the head coach. This was really cheap shot and big hit for NT prestige. So now we can play without freakin' head coach? Really? Stop being funny fan boy of Maksvytis. What did he do well in the NT so far? He blew in 22. He didn't gather the roster in 23. He wasted 4 spots of the roster for scrubs. Where's the positive?

[LuDux]

Vasiuki chess club president defends Great Combinator and Father Of Democracy