2024 Lithuanian NT

[Hepcat]

According to Urbonas Jokubaitis is close to return to Kaunas.

I don't believe that the soft life in sunny Spain has done Rokas Jokubaitis' game any good.

[Hepcat]

The problem was that the team just wasn't good enough this year. They couldn't score from the perimeter when a determined defence took away the paint.

Ultimately though what hurt Team Lietuva the most in the loss to Puerto Rico was the absence of Jonas Valančiūnas. Consider. Puerto Rico's tallest player was a puny 203 cm. Valančiūnas would have beasted in the paint even in double covertage. With 27-28 minutes of playing time, he would have scored perhaps 20 points and pulled down 15+ rebounds. Yes, Lithuania still took 9/34 rebounds from Puerto Rico's glass while Puerto Rico took only 6/28 from Lithuania's glass but with Valančiūnas it would have been far more one-sided.

[Dreamcatcher]

Another thing, all this talk how Grigonis has cojones and is a leader should stop.

First of all, who talks/talked that Grigonis is a leader? Secondly, Grigonis indeed has cojones. He has been making those bazzers/game winners since youth and including PAO. One without balls simply wouldn't be able to. Another thing is that he lacks speed and athleticism. That's why he can't be leader in a strong team at high level. Not because he doesn't have cojones which isn't true.

[Dreamcatcher]

Ultimately though what hurt Team Lietuva the most in the loss to Puerto Rico was the absence of Jonas Valančiūnas. Consider. Puerto Rico's tallest player was a puny 203 cm. Valančiūnas would have beasted in the paint even in double covertage. With 27-28 minutes of playing time, he would have scored perhaps 20 points and pulled down 15+ rebounds. Yes, Lithuania still took 9/34 rebounds from Puerto Rico's glass while Puerto Rico took only 6/28 from Lithuania's glass but with Valančiūnas it would have been far more one-sided.

Sometimes you understand things better than Straight Forward. At least he didn't understand this. Maybe even now he doesn't.

[Hepcat]

Sometimes you understand things better than Straight Forward.

Not being wedded to a certain few players helps when it comes to objectivity.

But sadly Jonas Valančiūnas wasn't available. And in retrospect it's easy to say that Coach Maksvytis should have taken Eimantas Bendžius and Rokas Giedraitis instead of Ąžuolas Tubelis and Deividas Sirvydis. But given that the players he'd taken were having so much trouble scoring against Puerto Rico, what could Maksvytis have done? Perhaps try Sirvydis or Tubelis on the floor in desperation?

[zalias]

everyone talks about lithuania's lack of strong individually guards but before all that lithuanian coaches need a shift of mentality. good iso players dont always make their shots, they dont always take good shots but their coaches still trust them no matter what, puerto rico is a really good example of that, their guards were taking horrible shots and missing everyhing in the first half but instead of getting benched their coach trusted them, which ended up winning them the game and that's just completely different from how lithuanian coaches see the game. sirvydis missed a couple of shots he got benched instantly, jokubaitis had a couple of bad games and he lost his minutes to lekavicius, similar thing happened with brazdeikis as well. im not saying sirvydis or jokubaitis are great scorers or anything like that but having 0 trust from your coach probably adds additional pressure for no reason at all.

[Straight forward]

Sometimes you understand things better than Straight Forward. At least he didn't understand this. Maybe even now he doesn't.

I'm afraid you don't understand anything lately (or almost always). I guess you got too brainwashed by your Russian world. Yeah, JV would save us LOL. Just as he did against frontline less Slovenia 2021 and Spain 2022 (trashy, 14mpg Willy in EL, trashed him big time), or getting trashed by Milutinov (none NBA material). By the way stop being resentment and angry, you only look like a full. You soft posters have the only power - being slow thinkers (clueless and forgetful), resentful and always pissed. That's actually almost a description of status quo Russian redneck if by any chance it's a coincidence. Please, stop being pathetic and rude, cause I was too patient with you too long anyway. You don't deserve it, you should try harder to earn my respect.

Few game winners in 5 years club career span is nothing. Grigonis choked in all key games of all tournaments. Even against PR he was missing some good shots. That's always the case with him in key games. I care a little fuck about PAO. I'm concerned with NT and he always choked and didn't provide guts in all key games, literally. Maybe only in 2017 he kinda gave nice hustle defensively against Greeks, that's his best attempt I think.

[Straight forward]

everyone talks about lithuania's lack of strong individually guards but before all that lithuanian coaches need a shift of mentality. good iso players dont always make their shots, they dont always take good shots but their coaches still trust them no matter what, puerto rico is a really good example of that, their guards were taking horrible shots and missing everyhing in the first half but instead of getting benched their coach trusted them, which ended up winning them the game and that's just completely different from how lithuanian coaches see the game. sirvydis missed a couple of shots he got benched instantly, jokubaitis had a couple of bad games and he lost his minutes to lekavicius, similar thing happened with brazdeikis as well. im not saying sirvydis or jokubaitis are great scorers or anything like that but having 0 trust from your coach probably adds additional pressure for no reason at all.

This a good point, but we come again to obvious - Maksvytis has been trash. I really treat him the worst NT coach ever (from those who coached in major tournaments). Kazys screwed is some many ways that there's no point to even go deeper into this. We should forget that and move on.

Nevertheless, we should have first truly individually gifted players. As long as we won't have them, we will be vulnerable with such short preparation. Some Denmark team could look better than us cause they might have few individually stronger chucking guards who can be effective in completely open basketball. Lithuania is way better team when everything is fixed and working, but as a system team we need time, a good month and more to prepare that. Maksvytis built everything on Grigonis, that was his decision and he burnt completely with it. Off course, others choked as well. Just make a damn open three.

[Dreamcatcher]

I'm afraid you don't understand anything lately (or almost always). I guess you got too brainwashed by your Russian world.

It's you who don't understand anything lately. Krepsinis.net posters have more clue about things than you. Even now you can't write anything reasoned, but just blind hate. I'm not resentment or angry on you, you are not worth it. You are just stupid and arrogant chauvinist, being out of mind enough to call someone else a redneck.

Before and after Spain 2022 Willi was NBA player. What his minutes in EL has to with that at all? You even counted his short minutes playing in Real when he was very young, wtf is this? He was MVP of that EC 2022, what are you talking about at all? How is Willy Hernangomez is trashy? It's you who is trashy.

[Hepcat]

This was a streaky PR without any world class talent and we didn't match their physicality, lust for win and motor. It wasn't just their shooting, they were at another level physically, in terms of effort, hustle and lust to win.

Very true!

Consider. Here are the tallest players from the two rosters:

Donatas Motiejūnas (C) - 213 cm.
Domantas Sabonis (C) - 211 cm
Tadas Sedekerskis (PF/C) - 206cm..
Ąžuolas Tubelis (PF) - 205 cm.
Mindaugas Kuzminskas (SF/PF) - 205 cm.

George Conditt IV (PF) - 212 cm.
Ismael Romero (C) - 203 cm.
Aleem Ford (PF) - 203 cm
Christopher Ortiz (PF) - 202 cm.
Amaldo Toro (PF) - 202 cm.
Isaiah Pineiro (PF) - 201 cm.

So Lithuania had quite the height advantage which should have been reflected in the rebounding stats. Here though were the rebounding numbers for the players who participated in the game:

Donatas Motiejūnas - 2 in 12:40
Domantas Sabonis - 9 in 26:53
Tadas Sedekerskis - 0 in 12:52
Mindaugas Kuzminskas 1 in 18:22

George Conditt IV - 5 in 28:18
Ismael Romero - 4 in 18:17
Christopher Ortiz - 6 in 22:36
Amaldo Toro - 0 in 10:49
Isaiah Pineiro (PF) - 3 in 21:26

Among the Lithuanian bigs, Sabonis rebounding number was alright but the rest were very disappointing. I can only conclude that the Lithuanian team didn't match the physicality, hustle and overall desire of the Puerto Rican team.

[Hepcat]

Yeah, JV would save us LOL. Just as he did against frontline less Slovenia 2021 and Spain 2022....

Come on! Those two teams were much better than this 2024 Puerto Rican team.

[Svajunas]

Hepcat, food for thought.
most of Lithuanian basketball podcasters and analizes agresija that taking Dimsa over Dovydas was a mistake.
We are talking about Kleiza, Gecevicius, Purlys and others. Dude get out of your bubble

[Hepcat]

Hepcat, food for thought.
most of Lithuanian basketball podcasters and analizes agresija that taking Dimsa over Dovydas was a mistake.

Okay. Could be. It's anybody's guess now. But!!! That selection was hardly a factor in Lithuania losing to Puerto Rico. And hardly a reason to heap further abuse upon the coach. You mentioned yourself that the loss was due not to Lithuania's defence but was due to Lithuania not being able to score. The players simply couldn't take what Puerto Rico was giving them.

We are talking about Kleiza, Gecevicius, Purlys and others. Dude get out of your bubble

You could be right about the bubble. Kleiza, Gecevicius, Purlys and the others have been outside the bubble. Meanwhile I've been within the bubble on this forum listening to Straight forward ceaselessly tout Dovis Giedraitis (and a select few other players) for years while heaping scorn upon every Team Lietuva coach for passing on D. Giedraitis. I'm the one who's therefore had it up to here when it comes to hearing that D. Giedraitis is a lot better than appears to an arm's length observer. Had I not been subjected to so many over-the-top accolades for D. Giedraitis, perhaps I wouldn't now be such a sceptic.

[Hepcat]

It's ironic though. Puerto Rico's game plan was to stay back in the paint on defence to neutralize Lithuania's height advantage (as much as possible) but in so doing daring the Team Lietuva players other than Marius Grigonis to shoot the three. Had Coach Maksvytis and the Lithuanian players been told of Puerto Rico's game plan prior to the game, I'm sure they would have just looked at each other and said "Okay. We'll just have to make our share of the shots they give us." Well they didn't. And that was it, game. set and match.

[Shawshank]

stats from 4 qualification games


Grigonis 23min 17,5pts+3,8ass. on 58% and 46% shooting

Sabonis 26min 12,5pts+9reb on 64% and 57% free throws

Jokubaitis 21min 8,8pts+4ass. on 40% and 42% shooting


like it was easy to predict they were top 3 in scoring,but i was expecting way more from Sabonis at 28 and more from Jokubaitis.



10-12th players ended being Dimsa,Sirvydis,Tubelis by played minutes.

Like i said history says and it repeated in 2024 youngsters wont help in pressure games in olympic summer.