2023 Lithuanian NT

[Straight forward]

We will desperately need this version of Jokubaitis going further. With him playing well we are completely different team. I liked that we finally had some transition offense this time, but it's only Mexico. Hopefully that first easiest off game against Egypt is the last one for Jokubaitis, that would be the best case scenario. Also I like how Tadas makes a huge dunk every game so far and has been really useful. Kuz has been huge from the bench with his scoring punch just as in 22 EB. Iggy has been consistent so far which is a good sign cause we will need his presence. Normantas and Dimsa as expected are streaky offensively, but defensively they are consistent presence (too bad Dimsa coming to this WC not being in his best shape and that may cost us some). From guys who will truly be rotatable in key games I'm a bit disappointed with Bendzius so far, he missed too many good shots. Hopefully that's coming at the right time. I think Maldunas, Kariniauskas and Sirvydis will barely play in the key games, but I think it's really meaningful to test Sirvydis where he stands for 3-5 minutes even against strong opponents. If his trigger is hot you gotta play him. He brings good energy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O62i2qcixng&ab_channel=FIBA-TheBasketballChannel

[Shawshank]

Jokubaitis must shoot those wide open threepointers with no doubts . Both weak opponnets went under pick and ignore Jokubaitis shooting (thats was clear game plan)

If Rokas isnt making those jumpers we arent beating anybody strong.


Watching Australia-Germany game how their guards Mills,Schroder Lo beating mobile bigs and their switching defence was masterclass and just wow level


Nobody was going under,mobile 2m04-06 bigs was switching and still got burned by fiba elite guards.Thats what kinda level individually strong guards we need if ltu want to win medal in 2020s fiba.

Good teams tries to shut down everything with switch defence in 2020s basketball and guards must punish bigs for switching on them.


LIke Montenegro guards will try to burn Valanciunas/Motiejunas drop defence,our guards should burn in same way Vucevic,Dubljevic that also is big holes and slow in pikenrool defence.

[Straight forward]

Ooh, I was waiting for this day long time. Good meaningful win after a very very long time.

LTU BB didn't see much of good times recently, but finally I see good things coming back. Jokubaitis backed up up my preachings here nicely with big 27eff game. I never doubted him and have nothing to add. But also Sedekerskis made a statement as potential super role player. He will be useful as dirty hard worker long term. Worked on Vucevic nicely and his relentless energy and athleticism gave a lot of dividends. Rebounding, blocking, serious physical presense in post defense. 19eff. Brazdeikis again solid, not forcing anything , he's playing much smarter and so much more efficiently than last summer. These 3 pieces is legitimate and real positive for LTU BB now and long term.

Gotta say good word for Maksvytis. His decisions worked out nicely today. And vet Kuz. He's doing amazing job from the bench, even defensively tonight. One of these good vets like D. Lavrinovic. Some guys find new life being vets and Kuz is one of them. He kinda looked lost in 2019 and 2021. And then he just exploded as a vet. Dimsa carried us in important stretch nicely.

Now about negative things. JV is a problem. Second game when his +/- is negative. We can't expect success building around him and trying to find him. We didn't even win last year when he had a monsterous game against Germany. It just doesn't work. Tonight MNE didn't shoot the ball well, but our offense is too slow. We need more shots. 60 shots per game is too low. OK, today we were shooting efficiently, but it's too low for this LTU NT. It could work if we were great defensive team, but we are offensive team and we should attack more dynamically. Trying to find JV slows everything down. It's a dead end. He is declining already and even previously has been a problem. His efficiency is going down. Our turtle centers is the weak link of the team. We would benefit so much more having another strong perimeter player or versatile forward instead of those JV/D-Mo old school crap.

Margiris showed why he is just Margiris. Was basically lost at both ends. First more serious opponent and the true level prevails. Bendzius continues to disappoint.

[Shawshank]

This one was real win.Good all around teams effort

Sedekerskis was game changer in this game

Coaching staff did very smart preparation and you could see Monetenegro players was out of their comfort zone and shooted 3pointers ridiculously bad 5/31

Next game versus Greece is critical tournament deciding for us like was easy to predict before tournament


If this roster beats Greece and makes top 8 first time in 7 years i will applaud coaching staff big time. Our NT play level is increasing with every game

[Straight forward]

After a long time we are shooting threes well - 38.2%. 9th in the tournament (and basically 5th among serious teams). Not shooting too many of those though. It helped that JV, D-Mo, Kariniauskas made their shpts. Not sure LTU can sustain that. Dimsa and Bendzius struggled so far, it's a reserve. Joku and Iggy both shooting 57.1% so far, Kuz 50%, Normantas 50%.

LTU first in rebounding, 8th in scoring. Again, in my opinion we can expect success only with higher pace basketball and more offensive possessions. When we slow down the tempo we become very limited. Our scoring starting to grow slowly and we are not good defensive team however you watch. MNE really sucked today, even if good coaching played a role here. We can definitely fight Greece. But to fight Serbia we need a good pace and JV so far seemed like a pace killer. Actually I think with D-Mo we have been a better team so far. He's not so horrible ball stopper and a bit more dynamic defensively.

[Straight forward]

JV's with -1 (the only in the team) and D-Mo with best in the team +16,7 when it comes to +/-.

This stat is relative and doesn't say everything, but it says quite a lot this time.

https://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2023/team/Lithuania

[Straight forward]

Player of the game for the second time in a row. LTU yet again solved the main puzzle long term - we have an answer at the point guard position.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT6TEtmrK5g&ab_channel=FIBA-TheBasketballChannel

[Straight forward]

Sedekerskis basically slapped Maksoliunas' and Maksvytis' faces with this performance in the group stage. Cutting him in 2021 and 2022 was a mistake. He's 4th most efficient player in the team so far.

When you look at most efficient players of LTU so far - Kuz, JV, Jokubaitis, Sedekerskis, Iggy, Motiejunas. That's all EL quality (or ex EL quality, but I think Kuz could still be a role player in EL). So no surprises. Top players are the best. That's why I hate when we go with mediocrities. Always trust EL quality. It was insanity to take Masiulis or Zukauskas instead of Sedekerskis f.e....

[fasoulaki]

We can definitely fight Greece..

Dont expect too much fight. We will surrender quickly.

[Hepcat]

Our turtle centers is the weak link of the team. We would benefit so much more having another strong perimeter player or versatile forward instead of those JV/D-Mo old school crap.

Well our guards certainly aren't the strength of our team either. The weaknesses of Team Lietuva tend to be exposed on the basis of that particular day's matchups, i.e. they're different on a day-to-day basis. An ongoing weakness though is turnovers versus steals. And it was so once again today versus Montenegro. Team Lietuva turned the ball over thirteen times versus only three steals. Whether this is due to the ingrained culture requiring passing the ball around until an open player can be found for a shot or just the big, clumsy white man syndrome I don't know. But turnovers have been the bugaboo of Team Lietuva as long as I can remember.

And it would be very nice indeed to have those strong perimeter players and versatile forwards waiting in the wings but they're not. That plus the detail that I'd hate to see an undersized perimeter player trying to cover a big lumbering opposition center in the paint.

Margiris showed why he is just Margiris. Was basically lost at both ends. First more serious opponent and the true level prevails.

No. Once again it's you that's full of crap and not the target of your remarks. Yes, Margiris Normantas had a crappy outing today but the "true level" of a player is determined not in any one specific game but over the course of a tournament or rather season. You however trumpet any success and gloss over any failure of your pre-determined favourites while doing exactly the opposite for players that aren't among your group of favourites, e.g. your comments just three days ago when Normantas was the star and Jokubaitis had a lousy outing.

You can take your pre-conceived notions of who must be good and shove them up your ass. I'm sure I'm not the only one sick and tired of your unending biases. Why can't you show a bit of objectivity and rate each player on the basis of that player's on-court production? And somehow it still hasn't occurred to you that all you succeed in doing with your biases is to sow ill will toward your favourites. Idiot.

Sedekerskis basically slapped Maksoliunas' and Maksvytis' faces with this performance in the group stage. Cutting him in 2021 and 2022 was a mistake. He's 4th most efficient player in the team so far.... It was insanity to take Masiulis or Zukauskas instead of Sedekerskis f.e....

I guess it still hasn't occurred to you that Tadas Sedekerskis wasn't ready in the previous two years but is now better than he was then. Some people are slow learners I guess.

He's 4th most efficient player in the team so far.

But he has only the tenth highest +/- number on the team! Like I say, stop cherry picking the numbers in any specific game and look at the whole picture, i.e. all the numbers, over time.

Always trust EL quality.

No. That's absolutely ridiculous. Lithuanian team coaches don't need anyone else - whether very fallible Euroleague coaches or observers with preconceived notions - to make pre-ordained decisions for them. Lithuanian team coaches are capable of making their own decisions, thank you very much.



P.S. Sorry for my own tirade gentlemen, but I've been finding Straight forward's a priori tirades against certain players and coaches increasingly maddening lately.

[Hepcat]

While it's too early to assess each player on the basis of his overall performance yet, Straight forward's commentary is forcing me to take an objective look at the numbers so far. Combining EFF and +/- figures per minute played, here's a rough ranking of their play so far this tournament:

PLAYER	MINUTES	+/-	EFFICIENCY
Donatas Motiejūnas	16.2	16.7	9.3
Mindaugas Kuzminskas	17.7	10.7	17.3
Vaidas Kariniauskas	12.5	11.0	5.7
Eimantas Bendžius	15.7	15.7	5.0
Ignas Brazdeikis	21.4	16.3	12.0
Rokas Jokubaitis	24.8	15.3	15.3
Tadas Sedekerskis	22.2	9.3	14.3
Margiris Normantas	18.6	10.3	8.0
Tomas Dimša	19.9	11.0	6.0
Jonas Valančiūnas	19.0	-1.0	16.7
Deividas Sirvydis	10.6	2.5	4.0

I didn't include Gabrielius Maldūnas' numbers because at 4.8 minutes per game they're not statistically significant. Sirvydis' performance is also based on only two games instead of the three in which the other players participated.

My conclusions so far. The play of Motiejūnas and Kuzminskas has handily exceeded expectations to this point,while the play of much derided (in certain quarters anyway) Kariniauskas and Normantas has been at least up to expectations. But Valančiūnas has really struggled so far on defence. He and the other starters, especially Jokubaitis, must deliver better in the next two (and hopefully three) games. Hopefully their best games are yet to come.

[Shawshank]

Making any conclusions after games with Mexico,Egypt,Montenegro when next possible opponnets will be Greece,Usa,Serbia doesnt look meaningful analyses

If our NT dont win Greece game we gonna finish in 9-16th places and all those 3 wins againts bad/mediocre NTs will mean literally nothing


Win versus Greece tournament is best of last 7 years and we finally make 1/4 playoofs and then we can make some conclusions about 2023 team.


For me its smells same mentally trap game like 2017 vs Greeece when ltu clearly played better basketball and lost

Greece doesnt look good right now,but they have elite eruoleague coach with 8 euroleague players and underestimate that would be huge mistake


I dont believe they will miss everything like Montenegro did with 5/31 shooting

[LuDux]

tirades against certain players and coaches

Don't like circus - don't buy tickets

[Svajunas]

I got to say that this NT surprised me positively and outcome of Greece game won't change that.
We are playing more guard orientated game and thats good. We need to go away from feeding JV for post ups even more. JV can be used more in PnR action.
We need even higher pace offence.

Regarding JV, it's kind of surprising that he is already noticably slower this year, I wonder if this is a sign of whats next or is he just suffering some minor injury or something.

Rokas is the man or he is becoming a man during this summer and thats nice to see. He and Domantas should be the alfas of next couple of tournaments.

This team would be much better with Grigonis, Dimsa and Normantas cant provide that high% 3pt shot...

[Shawshank]

Valanciunas is 31 is normal progresion of decline.

Sabonis last good fiba tournament was at 32,Einikis at 31, Zukauskas at 31, Javtokas at 31


Historical data saying last decent Valanciunas summer maybe can be next year at 32 or maybe its this summer at 31 where he is still good at his things he does well

After 32+ age things for biggest part of huge centers goes drastically down playing every second day in fiba tournaments