2024 Lithuanian NT

[Shawshank]

Saying that in 2024 basketball team dont need offence from SG player is just not understanding basketball 2024 and from where most points is created

Giedraitis=Diaz 15min defensive specialist role players.This role he can play.

But If coach will play one sided bakcups more like 25min+ results wont be effective, lkl finals is good example and opponnets was uleb level guards,not elite world class perimeter stars.


Defensive specialist will bother best fiba scorers yes and maybe even force them shoot under 50% but they wont stop fiba stars from scoring .

in 2024 your main Sg cant be just defender. No chance winning in fiba with that. Zalgiris couldnt even win lkl finals doing that



Doesnt matter what we put Giedraitis,Butkevicius or Seibutis fiba perimeter stars they will score in double digits

Only question is with over 50% or under 50% shooting when entire opponents team is working for them to get them free with picks so on.


Only 14 age level fans can imagine if we have elite defender he by himself will stop elite fiba scorers and fix all teams defence

[Shawshank]

top 10 euroleague like Evans + defensive specialist at Sg makes sense. If your leader can carry offence by himself.

near Doncic or Shai or Schroder or Brown defensive specialist at SG makes sense.


But near Jokubaitis put defensive specialist at Sg makes no sense. Jokubaitis not even close creator other main fiba stars are.


Thats why coaches clearly want near Jokubaitis for all 40minutes have real scorer at SG thats what i saw in 2024 2 friendly games.


They saw Jokubaitis+Dimsa or Normantas or tunel vision Brazdeikis NT couldnt score or create decent looks faced with elite Serbian defence in 2023


Im not saying it will work but i get what they are trying to do.

[Straight forward]

Didn't read last two posts after first sentence. Do you have any brain to understand that he wouldn't be playing SG offensively? Do you understand that some coaches playing with three guards? No-one would use Giedraitis as primarily ball handler or pick and roll initiator. You're clueless. Stop it.

[Hepcat]

good offense will always beat good defense. no need to call giedraitis a bad defender only because in 2 out 5 games foster looked good

Nobody is calling Dovis Giedraitis a "bad" defender. He was rated the second best defender in the LKL by his fellow players. And he has his very good moments, and his bad ones.

So overall he's a good defender. But not a world beater! And he's a non-factor on offense.

The problem here is that some (mostly first-and-foremost Žalgiris fans) scream hysterically that the Coach is an idiot for not including Giedraitis on the Team Lietuva roster. But looking at Giedraitis objectively, he simply doesn't deliver enough to be on Team Lietuva.

This is the national team. When it comes to the national team parochial loyalties have no place. Objectivity is necessary. It's all about the numbers.

[Straight forward]

wow...

Alavarado and Waters are present.

Too bad they are not announcing the score:

https://www.facebook.com/LietuvosKrepsinioFederacija/posts/1443637092982391?ref=embed_post

[Hepcat]

I'm talking about possibility that Domas will feel better and finally bring his A game if JV won't be around. About possibility that other player will be more involved with Sabonis being 30-35mpg kinda player in some games and some D-Mo being a back up (who is better passer and probably slightly better defender in FIBA). Maybe Maksvytis will even use Sedekerskis/Tubelis as back-up centers which I would be big advocate of. Maybe our team will play faster and will be looking for quality threes in more possessions rather than will try to pound the ball inside for slow post game. Maybe it will turn out that without JV we are faster, more defensively capable and having more offensive possessions team. I wouldn't be surprised that with Sabonis at center for 30 minutes will increase our offensive production overall and we will go +90 points per game.

JV slows down the game and other are less involved and out defense becomes super bad.

That's off course just possibility, but I would be very curious to test it.

Basically you're just hoping that the absence of Jonas Valančiūnas forces the rest of the team to take up the slack and play better. My concern though is that they can't play any better than they've shown in recent years.

I'm particularly concerned that Team Lietuva won't be able to replace Valančiūnas' rebounding. In February Estonia dumped Lithuania 65-59 despite the fact that Estonia couldn't shoot worth a damn making only 5/22 from the three point line and 10/17 free throws. Estonia did it by dominating the boards taking 15/42 rebounds off Lithuania's glass while Lithuania took only 2/35 off Estonia's glass! It was so bad I was screaming at the computer screen during the game. I was so disgusted I couldn't even discuss the game after the fact.

Your comments remind me of Madmax groaning at the mention that Linas Kleiza would be the leading light of the 2013 team. "Oh no! Mindless chucking!" was his response. Madmax was agitating for the offence to run through Valančiūnas down low. His exact words were the "classic in-out game". I had to remind him that Valančiūnas hadn't yet shown any capability to pass out to his teammates when he was covered down low so no such in-out game could be played with Valančiūnas on the court.

Maybe our team will play faster and will be looking for quality threes in more possessions rather than will try to pound the ball inside for slow post game. Maybe it will turn out that without JV we are faster, more defensively capable and having more offensive possessions team.

So now you're agitating for the exact opposite. You're arguing for the "mindless chucking" game that Madmax feared.

I don't understand these extremes. What I want is a diverse tool kit in the coach's hands and a coach who's smart enough to use this diverse tool kit to take what the opposition is giving him! And a big strong center ("lumberjack" in your nomenclature) who can dominate down low in the paint is part of such a diverse tool kit. I mean look what happened against Estonia (a team which scares nobody) last March when Team Lietuva had no such dominant center. Estonia took what Lithuania was giving and exploited the fact that Lithuania was conceding the boards. It was ugly!

So the bottom line is that the absence of Jonas Valančiūnas is certainly not something to be cheered. It's a very real cause for concern.

[Hepcat]

I have two main concerns going into this short Qualifying Tournament.

Team Lietuva is relatively short. Rebounding could therefore be a problem and that could be a very important factor indeed. See the game in March against Estonia.

Secondly the team is weak at PG. Despite the hopes and expectations of many, Rokas Jokubaitis has not emerged as a star after three years with Barcelona. He might even have taken a half step backward this past season. And hopefully backup Lukas Lekavičius shoots out the lights when he steps out on to the court because he has shortcomings on defence. Twelfth man Tomas Dimša was taken instead of Rokas Giedraitis because Dimša can step in at PG on an emergency basis and he's a better defender than Rokas Giedraitis. But while workmanlike, Dimša is not exactly a star either.

[Straight forward]

Not gonna lie, will watch the record in the morning. The time sucks, but luckily first 2 games should be meh and easy wins. When it will come to semis, I will be watching live.

In first 2 games I want to see Domas being aggressive and going through his mistakes inevitably. With all his creation he tends to make TOs and the timing is good for it. Most likely both games will be massive sweep, so play Domas heavily early while the opponents still have some shit left in the tank, and that should help him to be much more adjusted to the key games. It's good NT played against PR as friendly game. For us, the more we play with Domas the better, besides Jokubaitis needed more playing time as well.

I still have Italy as obviously the best opponent. If PR had Howard, then probably PR, but now I think it will still be Italy as the main oppponent. Galo at 5 and plenty of quality guards is always dangerous.

[Straight forward]

7 lefty players on the roster - Sabonis, Jokubaitis, Sirvydis, Ulanovas, Lekavicius, Motiejunas, Tubelis. 3-4 of them are among 5-6 key core players.

That has to be some kind of record. And there's Rubtavicius preparing for the Summer League in states. When you think about it, Birutis and Kariniauskas as candidates are also lefties.

Very very pro left NT at the moment. Interesting if that will have any impact for the result.

[Shawshank]

Lefty players games looks more ugly for eye test and less watchable from my fan perspective because they are doing everything not from natural side

Ulanovas,Tubelis,Sabonis,Dmo,Jokubaitis have ugly looking releases and i think lefties is worse shooters overall

Sirvydis only one lefty in NT who have beatiful release



Most ltu best defenders was righties and i dont think its accident.Its easier to be good defender when most action is happening in your strong hand and main side.


Its good to have couple lefties to provide diffrent and akward looking playing style but when its too much its rarely a good thing at anything


That from top 20 best world players lefties will be only 3-4 doesnt indicates that lefties have any advantages.

[Straight forward]

Some amazing lefty players though. I specially value Manu. I have a feeling that Manu could win against anyone on FIBA game (or even in NBA). If I would construct my international FIBA team I would probably go something like:

Doncic
Manu
Giannis
Dirk
Hakeem

This team, IMO, would have a great chance to take any USA lineup, whatever they would bring. Even if that's Magic, Jordan, Pipen, Barkley, Shaq.

Today I read that some-one commented on Jakucionis having a lot of Manu in him. And that's not inaccurate comparison. Manu had even more amazing reach and penetration, even more smooth and deadly strides while driving, but Jakucionis has some of that. Amazing feel of space and ability to utilize every situation to perfection.

[Shawshank]

Ofcourse there is in history elite top 100 players of all time that was lefties. Dont need bring best of best example always and ignore what on average is happening.

But im talking on average taking lefties and righties there will be like 80-85 righties and 15-20 lefties in top 100 list of all time.


So best players of all time data says: lefty team is not an advantage ,but it can be akward looking style playing team and unpredictable one for some NTs with mostly right hand opponnets


LTU NT eye test of lefties : our lefties is shaky shooters and not good defenders,but its difficult to predict their offensive moves thats a plus.

[zalias]

surprisngly lithuania is horrible defensively yet again. getting beat off the dribble by a 40 year old and a bunch of fat slobs. combine that with non existant sabonis rim protection and we have a really close half.

[Hepcat]

combine that with non existant sabonis rim protection and we have a really close half.

Domantas Sabonis doesn't have the height plus wingspan to be a good rim protector. Rim protection is something Jonas Valančiūnas always provided. That aspect of Valančiūnas' game is far too often overlooked on this board since his inability to step out quickly enough for perimeter defense draws all the commentary here.

Moreover Deividas Sirvydis (for whom many of us had high hopes) had a wretched game today against Mexico. Donatas Motiejūnas was lousy as well.

Team Lietuva will need to be a whole lot better to prevail against Puerto Rico and Italy.

[madmax]

So it looks like it's mighty hard to defend the paint area from obese mexican slob without the pterodactyl wingspan of JV in it lol... I just wonder how a bit more professional and lean bigmen will do against the all so praised All Star Sabonis when they come up against him lol