2025 Lithuanian NT

[Shawshank]

Sabonis in 2020s fiba

2021 3pointers made 0 from 1 in 4 games
2022 3pointers made 2 from 8 in 6 games
2024 3pointers made 0 from 3 in 4 games

What was worst his body language he was allergic to shoot not just 3pointer but even 4-5 meters wide open jumpers. Nobody is defending him there ,he is all alone and he still trying to find way to get to basket through multiple opponnets bodies. It so predictable and its clearly doesnt work in playoofs basketball neither nba or fiba.

Im very confident Sabonis is worst our NT shooter. All his jumpers is not defended,its practise shots. So all that % nonsense i dont care and opponnets dont care either

Opponnets coaches is saying : Domas please shoot more jumpers we promise we arent defending you


Dinosour expert building plan how for Sabonis to shoot more and solve NT spacing with our worst shooter who made even two 3pointers in last 3 fiba tournaments )

[Straight forward]

We really have to get some respect back. Totally lost our track as international powerhouse. This author, differently than the other one I shared here, didn't even gave explicit take on Lithuania via 2028 Olympics while he gave it to Germany, Canada and even South Sudan. Time changing. Anyway, pretty spot on and fun take. I have to say Greece is so empty in talent heading forward, I mean big time talent. So is Italy it seems. Croatia with bros Ivsic has some talent and all, but no guards yet again it seems.

https://www.nbabigboard.com/p/whos-got-next-young-international

[Toruko]

We really have to get some respect back. Totally lost our track as international powerhouse. This author, differently than the other one I shared here, didn't even gave explicit take on Lithuania via 2028 Olympics while he gave it to Germany, Canada and even South Sudan. Time changing. Anyway, pretty spot on and fun take. I have to say Greece is so empty in talent heading forward, I mean big time talent. So is Italy it seems. Croatia with bros Ivsic has some talent and all, but no guards yet again it seems.

https://www.nbabigboard.com/p/whos-g...-international

Greece was always short on talent but they are even too short for their terms but Greece is Greece in basketball. Papaloukas has been also not very visible since his 25 birthday. It will be really interesting what is going to come after prime Giannis. They have Samodurov and few others but its still very thin.

[Shawshank]

Usa,France,Serbia,Germany,Canada,Australia

this 6 teams A rosters is 2020s fiba powerhouses head and shoulders better and will be in most of remaining 2020s decade.


In my eyes they are not a little bit better,but like 10-12pts diffrence stronger than those B tier rosters like Lithuanias,Greece,Italy,Slovenia,Spain average tier types.

Thats already 11 teams and I dont even mentione teams like Brasil,Latvia,Puerturico,Croatia,Turkey,Argentina that on good day easily can beat top 10 NT.


Fiba never was so deep and strong and to make top 8 that NT have to play really really well and beat multiple good NTs just to make that top 8.



Thats why im predicting LTU NT if they will make top 8 once in 2025-2028 its decent olympic cycle. I get lithuanian homers dont wanna hear that,but its reality

I wouldnt be suprised that Olympic cycle 2017-2021 without top 8 can repeat again seeing how loaded and deep in 15+ strong NTs fiba competions become.


That foreigner journalist dont see LTU as top 8 most promissing teams for 2028 i cant blame him and more less i agree with list. Only Sudan i think they were just good feel story like Nigeria 2012 was

[Toruko]

Greece will hit a wall after the Eurobasket 2025. This team is simply too old and Giannis is also 30. He still has 2-3 years at top level but he cant do much by himself. I am not even sure if it makes sense for him to play in international tournaments after Eurobasket 2025.

Slovenia has solid guard prospects but nothing outstanding after Doncic. I dont expect both teams in the Olympics.

[Shawshank]

Giannis by himself can bring Greece NT to top 8 like he did in 2022 and 2024 when he played.

Doncic also by himself can bring Slovenia to top 8 like he did in 2021,2022,2023


Thats what top 5 nba player can do with limited rosters... to achieve more in 2020s fiba obviuosly they need more help in fights with those 6 fiba powerhouses

[Straight forward]

Greece was always short on talent but they are even too short for their terms but Greece is Greece in basketball. Papaloukas has been also not very visible since his 25 birthday. It will be really interesting what is going to come after prime Giannis. They have Samodurov and few others but its still very thin.

Agreed. Most likely they will come up with solid NT anyway. But it will be hard to establish such quality as once they had with Papaloukas, Diamantidis, upcoming Spanoulis.

[Toruko]

Giannis by himself can bring Greece NT to top 8 like he did in 2022 and 2024 when he played.

Doncic also by himself can bring Slovenia to top 8 like he did in 2021,2022,2023


Thats what top 5 nba player can do with limited rosters... to achieve more in 2020s fiba obviuosly they need more help in fights with those 6 fiba powerhouses

I am not convinced about this at this point. This is not 2021/22 season

[Shawshank]

If you have top 5 worlds player and crap roster its doesnt guarantee anything in 2020s fiba.

But if top 5 player is dominating (like his level player should) most likely his NT will make top 8 like 2 of 3 fiba tournaments thats what 2020s fiba tournement results shows


But when they face with those rosters who has 5-6 or more nba players and literally get triple teammed and even top 5 player simply gets overmatched...

I remember at 2023 how Doncic looked demoralised in 1/4 Canada game or how tired Giannis looked after game in 2024 1/4 Germany


If even top 5 nba players have limits fighting powerhouses 1 vs 3 its shows how much our NTs need to have to beat those 2020s powerhouses

[Straight forward]

In 2017 our best prospect was Sabonis, but it's not about centers. Sabonis is one of the most versatile centers ever in BB. Overall. Ever. And yet even he is limited in FIBA. Only such miracles as Jokic can be a game changer as Jokic, literally no-one else can. Even Embiid looked meh with USA NT. Actually Pau had way better fit for FIBA ball than all these Embiids, Davis and other superstar centers. Only Pau and Jokic could make a difference in FIBA in really modern FIBA. At some point I even doubted Jokic, but he proved he can dominate and change the game at 5.

So from guards we had Grigonis and Lekavicius as our best guard prospects...No comments That's how our Olympic cycle started. The worst Olympic cycle talent wise ever it will never be that low, IMO...Never.

In 2022 out best guard prospects were Jokubaitis, Brazdeikis (and Sirvydis, D. Giedraitis who didn't make it, or rather ignored, but they were on radar). So much better improvement compared to Grigonis, Lekavicius.

Now in 2025 we will start Olympic cycle having world class pieces as Buzelis, Jakucionis as best prospects and such pieces as Indrusaitis, Rubstavicius and even Buika in the horizon. As well as super duper versatile forwards as Murauskas that we didn't have in last 2 previous cycles.

2028 team will be much much srtonger compared to 2021 and 2024. In 2028 will be hard to win big, but the upside of the team will be completely different than 2021 and 2024. Different level. Even if we won't winning anything, it will be a fun ride, IMO. Dynamic BB as fuck.

2032 Olympic should be our strongest Olympics since 1992, 2000, 2004 (IMO, our best teams ever). I see tremendous true guard presence in Jakucionis, Indrusaitis, Buika, Jokubaitis and prime Buzelis, Murauskas. I have Buika as nearly NBA prospect, or at the very least boderliner. He will be very very good. I would even put it in other ways and I would say that with KJ, Nojus, Buika, Buzelis, Murauskas we would have the most ISO talent ever. The most sheer talent ever.

My projection is this 2021<2024<2028<2032.

Personally, I expected us to be much better in 2024. I hoped that Jokubaitis, Sirvydis, D. Giedraitis, Brazdeikis could lift us to contenders when I was projecting things around 2019 (we were not that far even Lekavicius and grigonis being main perimeter guys in 2019 WC so..), but Jokubaits made a brake in his development (he'll be OK), Brazdeikis turned out to be worse than expected, Sirvydis takes his time to become consistent, D. Giedraitis suffered from minor injuries and stupid coaches. I actually expected Marciulionis to be way better cause 18yo to me he looked nearly transcendent prospect, but with added weight in NCAA it was obvious his upside is not that. But the key is with this group, FIBA's level was increasing faster than this bunch improved LTU NT talent level. I believe that if we were in mid 10s, we could contend with this group (add Rubstavicius), but not now.

Luckily our next bunch is even from higher tier. World class prospects. 2028 will be very fun. KJ is different. Prime Jokubaitis will be good. Buzelis at this stage will be explosive and natural mismatch. Sabonis sill good. Krivas adding length for some D. Super dynamic wing players as Rubstavicius, Sirvydis. 2021 roster will look silly with Dimsases, Masiulises, Bendziuses and Rokas Giedraitises. There will be no place for such second rate players. Still probably no medals, cause USA, France, Canada, Serbia will have more world class material in their prime likely (at least USA and France for sure), but it will be super fun team with some serious serious upside and dynamic profile.

[Straight forward]

BTW, fun coincidence. 24yo Jasikevicius in EL was 14.1eff guy for Barca. Jokubaitis now is 14.1eff guy for Maccabi as 24yo Not saying anything particular and specific about their upside, but sill fun fact

[Shawshank]

Yes dinosour expert like somebody else on this forum told you your projected kids in 2019 ale Sirvydis,Giedraitis,Jokubaitis,Brazdeikis,Marciuli onis,Tubelis will need time to mature to be winning players in fiba and very unlikely it will happen in 2021-2024 cycle.

Was they ready to win in 2021-2024 cycle? at 20-23 age no they werent...one Jokubaitis was close to be ready like very often just one youngster per olympic cycle...


Same i can repeat you now your todays projected kids born in 2004-2008 will not be ready to win vs best teams in 2025-2028 cycle


When your 2019 projected kids born in 1998-2002 is finally close to be ready and mature enough realistically to fight for wins in 2025-2028 fiba ,you start ignoring them or dissapointed in their progress and found other 5 years younger kids that simply isnt ready and wont be mature enough for next olympic cycle )



Dinosour expert simply dont get how hierarchy works in NTs and always predicts one olympic cycle too soon with best ltu tallents.

Even when olympic cycle is finished he still dont learn the lessons at what age real winning basketball performances starts for majority of players

[Straight forward]

Redneck (if you prefer this, LOL), you're too eager to oppose my opinions. It's like the most fun thing for you in your life (which is kinda odd and sad). Even more sad part that you never read what is written, jump straight to generalizations and always missing tons of points. I'm replying only because it's interesting topic to me.

It's not about winning. I din't claim that we will necessary win this or that. I was talking about increased level, improvements. Even now I don't claim that in 2028 we will win with KJ and Buzelis. I saying our level will be higher compared to 2021 and 2024. Much higher.

Grigonis was the main guard in 2021 while he basically started his career at the start of Olympic cycle. In 2024 Jokubaitis was the best player in the key game and if Brazdeikis was there he also would have provided, but he didn't come. I'm not even talking about Jasikevicius debut in1997 and then being big time game changer in 2000 as 24yo. Or Kleiza in 2006 and being top scorer after group stage in 2008 Olympics and so on. But you ignoring all this, so I'm posting to other saint people here. You in my eyes are hopeless, I'm sorry. I have nothing against you personally, whish you only the best in your personal life, but I know that you never learn and you will be the same careless and primitive poster after 10 years as well. You will be posting the same generalizations.

I never gave up to any player that I liked initially. Sedekerskis is a stud to me, Giedraitis too, Sirvydis and all. Those are very nice role players for the NT. Very nice. The problem with our NT was that such role player as Grigonis was asked to be a leaders. That's is our tragedy, but luckily this time when mediocre role players are forced to do what they can't do is over. Several times more talented players are prevailing. Those who can be leaders.

[Shawshank]

Dinosour expert i dont need your excuses . Look at cold facts


You were telling non stop how Sirvydis,Jokubaitis,Giedraitis,Brazdeikis,Marciulo nis,Tubelis will help our NT alot in 2021-2024 cycle.

When i repeated most of them wont be ready for 2021-2024 cycle. They are more 2025-2028 cycle players.


Facts we know already what happend in 2021-2024 and its simple from all those your 2019 your projected kids born in 1999-2002 the only one who was in top 9 rotation in 2024 Olympic summer was Jokubaitis thats it.


Brazdeikis sucks last 18months and 2 diffrent euroleague coaches just dislikes his brainless play to point that under them he become DNP. So no ground to imagine that Brazdeikis would have played well in 2024 summer.

[Shawshank]

I can see diffrences in Jokubaitis last month.

He is demanding and loudly saying what he thinks to his teammates. I see signs that he goes fast and knows what the hell he wants to achieve


That wasnt case before, he was like good soldier that was doing what coach says and looking to coach signs every time.

Thats shows signs me that is becoming grown up man, who already has his own opinion and can make desicions by himself.


Those stories of this summers partying things and what hate he got from fans ,that painfull NT summer fiasco and him playing his worst fiba tournament ... it can end up being good thing for him.I see better focus in his eyes.


I see clear signs of changing maturity in 24 old Jokubaitis that wasnt there even this summer.

Million examples where tallent got kicked to the ass and started moving again to right direction