Žalgiris 2015-2016

[Svajunas]

good fight from zalgiris. nice to see Pocius making shots, and Vogiukas so crafty under the basket.
the canadian guy Hanlan can hit some tough shots , but I hate when he is holding the ball so long literaly for 5-6 seconds sometimes. he also has tunel vision, wich I think is more a sign of selfish play...
some boneheaded plays at the end of the game....Ulanovas foul was not intentional, the last attack no one sets a screen and Kalnietis obviously exhausted couldnt do anything.
why Lekavicius is warming the bench I dont know, he was a starting pg last season and now he cant play 5mins?

[Shawshank]

good fight from zalgiris. nice to see Pocius making shots, and Vogiukas so crafty under the basket.
the canadian guy Hanlan can hit some tough shots , but I hate when he is holding the ball so long literaly for 5-6 seconds sometimes. he also has tunel vision, wich I think is more a sign of selfish play...
some boneheaded plays at the end of the game....Ulanovas foul was not intentional, the last attack no one sets a screen and Kalnietis obviously exhausted couldnt do anything.
why Lekavicius is warming the bench I dont know, he was a starting pg last season and now he cant play 5mins?

Last year he was sharing minutes with kariniauskas in PG... This year he is just worse than Kalnietis,Hanlan,Seibutis,Pocius... he is 5th guard in rotation...Krapikas said Lekavicius cant guard Delaney,he is tall as PG...But either way when he gonna get minutes in better matchups for him its will be 5-8minutes in euroleague.LAst year he got those moments that basically their were Lekavicius and Kariniauskas in that position...both at best lkl level players before the season started...as said before Lekavicius wait very tough season,because position he is right now in zalgiris roster is way worse than was last season.

[Straight forward]

It's completely normal that Lekavicius won't see playing time in some Euroleague's games with current roster, but IMO it was a mistake not to use him in this particular game (no mattet Krapikas arguments). Kalnietis looked completely gassed and he is being way overused in Zalgiris at the moment, Hanlan is worse defender than Lekavicius in my opinion, Pocius is far from his optimal physical condition. Overall I just felt that Lekavicius could add that quickness. intensity, resilience, specially defensively. However, I can understand this decision.

[Svajunas]

It's completely normal that Lekavicius won't see playing time in some Euroleague's games with current roster, but IMO it was a mistake not to use him in this particular game (no mattet Krapikas arguments). Kalnietis looked completely gassed and he is being way overused in Zalgiris at the moment, Hanlan is worse defender than Lekavicius in my opinion, Pocius is far from his optimal physical condition. Overall I just felt that Lekavicius could add that quickness. intensity, resilience, specially defensively. However, I can understand this decision.

Zalgiris has only one pg thats is Kalnietis. Hanlan is not PG, he is terrible at organizing team ball.

[Straight forward]

Zalgiris has only one pg thats is Kalnietis. Hanlan is not PG, he is terrible at organizing team ball.

Yeah, I see it this way as well. Lekavicius should find his ways to rotation and I would even say Kalnietis should play a bit less than he's playing now. Not trusting Lekavicius doesn't help him anyway and all he needs is playing time and trust, the guy simply delivering. I don't know about Lekavicius' upside, but it's something about him making me trust him - the way he hustle, fights, how fast he is, how he can brake defensive pressure, to stick with his man. For 21yo he looks damn well.

[Modis]

Yeah, I see it this way as well. Lekavicius should find his ways to rotation and I would even say Kalnietis should play a bit less than he's playing now. Not trusting Lekavicius doesn't help him anyway and all he needs is playing time and trust, the guy simply delivering. I don't know about Lekavicius' upside, but it's something about him making me trust him - the way he hustle, fights, how fast he is, how he can brake defensive pressure, to stick with his man. For 21yo he looks damn well.

Yes but there is one thing that he will never be able to change and that's his height. You can see sometimes in the matches this limits his abilities and it has an affect on his performances. He would be much more effective around the rim if he had at least +10 cm... Also no outside range yet but it should come in time...I like his floaters though.

[Shawshank]

Zalgiris has only one pg thats is Kalnietis. Hanlan is not PG, he is terrible at organizing team ball.

Seibutis who is true SG is better PG than Lekavicius right now for sure...Both krapikas and kazlauskas is putting Seibutis in PG when it was crunch time and kalnietis was dead tired....Hanlan maybe is not Pg and dont run a team,but neither does Lukas yet...Hanlan is faster and more explosive and brings more things than Lukas does. Both of them are first shoot Pg,only than pass PG. In friendlys when their were more up and tempo game Lukas looked really good,but when in eurobasket game slow down ( and always will slow down in official games) Lukas was strugling badly...Kalnietis is doing a lot tournavers ,because he is risking too much with his passes,but he is runing a team like Pg should and putting everybody on right spots.Lukas can be usefull for 5-10minutes on highest level for suprise reasons and puting more tempo,but when we are talking about positional basketball,Lekavicius wont help us much here in euroleague yet.Lukas is far from ready to be a true PG on highest level, its long learning process for any PG.Kalnietis too sit like 2-3 seasons at the end of the bench in euroleague for zalgiris until he become what he is now.

About his small height it can become seriuos weakness later on .How many Pg that are less than 1m85 we know from europe countrys that is white and dont jump and dont run like afro-americans and was/is seriuos PG on strong teams in the highest level?

[Svajunas]

Yes but there is one thing that he will never be able to change and that's his height. You can see sometimes in the matches this limits his abilities and it has an affect on his performances. He would be much more effective around the rim if he had at least +10 cm... Also no outside range yet but it should come in time...I like his floaters though.

what matchups? he is conpensating his height by good defense when he glues to his guy. I have not yet seen a single game where he would be destroyed because of his height.
and no range, really? he is shooting 43% from 3 this year and was shooting 37,5% from 3 last year in LKL. Notice he is shooting better this year even though he is "out of form" according to most fans and media.

[Svajunas]

Seibutis who is true SG is better PG than Lekavicius right now for sure...Both krapikas and kazlauskas is putting Seibutis in PG when it was crunch time and kalnietis was dead tired....Hanlan maybe is not Pg and dont run a team,but neither does Lukas yet...Hanlan is faster and more explosive and brings more things than Lukas does. Both of them are first shoot Pg,only than pass PG. In friendlys when their were more up and tempo game Lukas looked really good,but when in eurobasket game slow down ( and always will slow down in official games) Lukas was strugling badly...Kalnietis is doing a lot tournavers ,because he is risking too much with his passes,but he is runing a team like Pg should and putting everybody on right spots.Lukas can be usefull for 5-10minutes on highest level for suprise reasons and puting more tempo,but when we are talking about positional basketball,Lekavicius wont help us much here in euroleague yet.Lukas is far from ready to be a true PG on highest level, its long learning process for any PG.Kalnietis too sit like 2-3 seasons at the end of the bench in euroleague for zalgiris until he become what he is now.

About his small height it can become seriuos weakness later on .How many Pg that are less than 1m85 we know from europe countrys that is white and dont jump and dont run like afro-americans and was/is seriuos PG on strong teams in the highest level?

Im not gonna argue that those players are better then Lukas now, but still. Somehow even if they are better Kalnietis is being run down to the ground like a horse, I wouldnt be suprised if something serious would happen to him.. you know like back issues. Ok dont play Lukas in euroleague, but give him atleast 20 minutes in LKL, and rest Kalnietis.

I feel like Krapikas is in a hot chair this year and he knows it. All this talk about good team Zalgiris assembled and how they should reach top 8 in euroleague. If team fails, everyone will start to blame coach and will want Sarunas to replace him. Krapikas understands this and will do everything to win games: overplaying older guys and stunning young guys growth at the same time.

No one paniced when Zalgiris lost to Juventus last year, no one would panic this year aswell. He shouldnt be playing Kalnietis 30+mins in LKL. He should not even play him 20mins.

[Straight forward]

I also didn't notice Lekavicius struggling defensively because of his hight. Actually I think he was second best guard defensively individually wise after Seibutis in Eurobasket. Even in those situations when others try to post him up he shows some sturdiness, moves well and so on. His next steps are better ability to read the game, to create for others, to play better pick and roll, those things comes with time. As for small white guards? John Stockton, Mark Price, Lakovič, Gianmarco Pozzecco just to mention few.

Yeah, I also think Kalnietis is risking at the moment. He was dead overused in Eurobasket and now it continues...and everything just after injury. And those decisions coming from NT coach...Don't like it, specially when it's obvious he's gassed and not exactly carrying Zalgiris on his shoulders. Just give some slack to Lekavicius, Seibutis, the same Hanlan at PG, running Kalnietis like that might cost us freaking Olymics....

[Modis]

what matchups? he is conpensating his height by good defense when he glues to his guy. I have not yet seen a single game where he would be destroyed because of his height.
and no range, really? he is shooting 43% from 3 this year and was shooting 37,5% from 3 last year in LKL. Notice he is shooting better this year even though he is "out of form" according to most fans and media.

I didn't say anything about Lekavicius that his defense might be bad. I said myself during the Eurobasket that Lekavicius major plus is to mark his opponent and create difficult moments for him because of his quickness. Offensively Lekavicius will need to improve his shooting and skills even more to compensate for his height. He cant go inside for the basket and be more aggressive right now because he gets dominated by 7 Footers..

[Straight forward]

He cant go inside for the basket and be more aggressive right now because he gets dominated by 7 Footers..

Nonsense. When he gets inside he usually goes for a floater, shooting over defender or beats his defender with his quickness and is able to shoot a clean lay up. Look, Lekavicius height surely will be a problem here and there and he's far from being some sort of super talent, far from being perfect PG prospect, but nevertheless very promising PG with some very good skills and he can make it to a pretty high level, IMO.

[Svajunas]

I feel he has all the tools to be good PG, in Lithuanian standards. All he need now is to get playing time and get his stuff together.

[Svajunas]

After two quarters so far I can say this: B.Motum is the softest player on court and Hanlan is the worst PG in Zalgiris. Ball just stops with him.

[Straight forward]

Not so many good things going on in Zalgiris camp at the moment. Biggest disappointment so far is Motum. The guy lost his confidence, he's not exactly doing anything very well both inside and perimeter game. He should be working on his toughness and post moves. Seems like he doesn't have identity as a player. Than plenty of players who underperfom so far. Obviously I didn't expect Pocius lost so much of quickness and explosiveness last couple of years or basically last year (because he still was pretty good in 2014 WC). You can visually see he lacks that extra step and a bit of quickness to play his game - I really looking forward to see if he can get in shape again because current Pocius is barely NT material. Javtokas despite making some buckets against Stelmet, really look washed out even compared to last season. He almost literally limping, his sturdiness reduced, he's just god old. Seibutis is not playing as well as he can at the moment as well. However he'll be fine, just a bad streak. Happy to see Kalnietis having a game of his own level and hopefully he'll become more consistent in the second half of the season. Jankunas is playing really nice season despite 2 bad games in Euroleague. Vougioukas was a nice addition. Hanlan can really play and eventually he will help Canada NT a lot in FIBA tournaments. Lekavicius I must say still looks attractive to me - he kinda hit the rookie wall and NT experience also took a bit out of him, but he still looks nice with his quickness, sturdiness, strong legs and quick hands. He's lacking some confidence now, but any time he tries to play sharper good things happen. I liked some of his kick outs. He can really get inside. I thought he's a bit hesitant to make more aggressive plays, but that will come with time.

Quite a few reserves Zalgiris has. I think Vene can be a very solid player for Zalgiris, just injuries annoyed him a little bit. Many players should improve their shape. If Motum will continue to play like this, Kleiza's addition would really benefit Zalgiris.