2019 World Cup Qualifying Odyssey!

[Shawshank]

All of their lives Ulanovas was competing with Butkevicius starting back in youth days. In that 1992 generation Ulanovas was starter, Butkevicius was replacing him and basically was main player of the bench (energy guy). For my taste Ulanovas is just smarter player. But I have noticed not once Butkevicius plays well against Ulanovas usually, maybe he wants prove something? . He is best option in entire lkl to defend Ulanovas.Arnas is as strong and even faster compared to Edgaras. So Ulanovas favourite move back weaker sf doesn't work against Arnas. He holds his own inside no easy basket or faul needed.Jasikevicius doesnt even go to Ulanovas move againts Butkevicius.They both knows Arnas defends that very well.

Butkevicius lacks shooting and basketball iq thats his big problem... but God gave him freakish athletic abilities as white kid,he easily could be in athletic field. I don't see him making nt, but as candidate he can be. Ulanovas will be member of nt team as usefull bench player.

[Hepcat]

So if Coach Adomaitis and the LKF are on the ball they'd already have arranged for the Neptūnas cheerleaders to help the Italian players celebrate their success in qualifying for the 2019 WC tournament tonight with a couple of cases of this:



Strictly for its well known medicinal healing properties of course. For those tired aching joints and muscles. A few glasses of 999 combined with some deep relaxing massage therapy should be just the ticket for the Italian players....

[Hepcat]

I'm very much your typical fan.... Therefore actually watching more games won't make me more "learned".

And you don't have to be scout or top level coach to see the player capabilities. I'm far from it too. You just have to have basic knowledge of the game and pay little bit more attention.

What bewilders me is that out of the hundreds of thousands of Lithuanian-Canadians and Lithuanian-Americans on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, I'm the only one posting on this board. That always leaves me wondering whether I'm the most knowledgeable Lithuanian basketball fan among those born and raised here on this side of the Atlantic.

[Hepcat]

All of their lives Ulanovas was competing with Butkevicius starting back in youth days.

Moreover it's perfectly natural to compare Kaunas' starting SF with Vilnius' starting SF. It's not as if I was making a bizarre comparison.

Butkevicius lacks shooting and basketball iq thats his big problem....

I wonder whether that's not one of those statements that comes to be accepted as fact simply because people have seen it somewhere (e.g. from Straightforward on this board) and it keeps getting repeated. Consider:

1. Arnas Butkevičius is not one of the leading scorers on the Rytas team. But in LKL action he has the highest two-point shooting percentage at 75.3 and the second highest three-point shooting percentage at 46.2 on the team. That would seem to indicate that he's smart enough to play within himself and not force up bad shots.

2. Butkevičius is not one of the bigs on the Rytas team. Yet in LKL action he's #3 on the team in Rebounds and #2 in Blocked Shots per game. Similarly he's not one of the ostensibly "quick" guards. Yet in LKL action he's #5 on the team in Assists and #1 in Steals per game. In fact he's easily #1 on the team when you add up Rebounds plus Assists plus Steals plus Blocked Shots per game in LKL action. (That's what made me sit up and take notice of his play this year.) How can he possibly be doing this without positioning skills, anticipation, basketball sense overall?

[Mindozas]

Moreover it's perfectly natural to compare Kaunas' starting SF with Vilnius' starting SF. It's not as if I was making a bizarre comparison.

It's a bit bizarre you know, cause nowadays it's probably more accurate to compare Vilnius' and Klaipeda starting SF

I wonder whether that's not one of those statements that comes to be accepted as fact simply because people have seen it somewhere (e.g. from Straightforward on this board) and it keeps getting repeated. Consider:

1. Arnas Butkevičius is not one of the leading scorers on the Rytas team. But in LKL action he has the highest two-point shooting percentage at 75.3 and the second highest three-point shooting percentage at 46.2 on the team. That would seem to indicate that he's smart enough to play within himself and not force up bad shots.

2. Butkevičius is not one of the bigs on the Rytas team. Yet in LKL action he's #3 on the team in Rebounds and #2 in Blocked Shots per game. Similarly he's not one of the ostensibly "quick" guards. Yet in LKL action he's #5 on the team in Assists and #1 in Steals per game. In fact he's easily #1 on the team when you add up Rebounds plus Assists plus Steals plus Blocked Shots per game in LKL action. (That's what made me sit up and take notice of his play this year.) How can he possibly be doing this without positioning skills, anticipation, basketball sense overall?

Just to let you know - LKL would barely make it to European leagues Top10. Compare Butkevicius LKL and Eurocup stats and you'll see some big drop in some stats categories like efficiency, like shooting %. Also you don't have to have high bball IQ to have a good stats in some steals, rebounds. I.e. Rytas had Sutton this season, his numbers in LKL was really fine - rebounds, steals, but his bball IQ was lower than his number. The secret is - physical tools. Pretty much like Butkevicius, he simply is more gifted physically than most of his direct rivalsin LKL. I'm not sayin' that Butkevicius can't think on the floor, but he is surely not the mastermind there either

[Hepcat]

Compare Butkevicius LKL and Eurocup stats and you'll see some big drop in some stats categories like efficiency, like shooting %.

Yes, I had also noted the difference between the stats he's achieved in the LKL and Eurocup and I was wondering whether they might tend to even out by the end of the season. That's why I was waiting for the Playoffs to provide a better indication of his play. All this talk though about Butkevičius' low basketball IQ forced my hand and prompted me to pipe up about his play so far this season.

Just to let you know - LKL would barely make it to European leagues Top10.

Well that may have been true a decade ago, but I'm now beginning to wonder whether that's still the case. Consider:

1. We've had several recent examples of good LKL players signing with foreign clubs and immediately exploding into stardom, e.g Marius Grigonis, Artūras Gudaitis, Rokas Giedraitis.

2. The 11-1 record of Team Lietuva in qualifying was a very good indication of the depth of Lithuania's talent pool. Most of the participants play for LKL teams.

[Straight forward]

The hierarchy of SF position is like this today, IMO:

1. Kuzminskas. 2. Ulanovas. 3. Mačiulis/Giedraitis. 4. Butkevičius

[madmax]

The hierarchy of SF position is like this today, IMO:

1. Kuzminskas. 2. Ulanovas. 3. Mačiulis/Giedraitis. 4. Butkevičius

Giedraitis is currently undoubtedly better than Ulanovas and I don't think it's even close...although Rokas can play as a guard as well thanks to his quickness and athleticism, so maybe he will switch between those two positions during the WC as well

[Mindozas]

Well that may have been true a decade ago, but I'm now beginning to wonder whether that's still the case. Consider:

1. We've had several recent examples of good LKL players signing with foreign clubs and immediately exploding into stardom, e.g Marius Grigonis, Artūras Gudaitis, Rokas Giedraitis.

2. The 11-1 record of Team Lietuva in qualifying was a very good indication of the depth of Lithuania's talent pool. Most of the participants play for LKL teams.

It's still the case. Our league stays in Top10, but doesn't move up, like i.e. Germany made a big leap lately and overcame LKL. I'd say that Euroleague, Eurocup as continental competition is obviously above it all. Then Spain, Turkey, Russian VTB are top, a bit lower Greece, Italy, Germany, France. I'm not sure about Israel and Adriatic League, not following them much, but should be around our level.
Talking about signings, Grigonis didn't become a star when he left Zalgiris as a teen. It took years in Spain and only in Alba he became a really good player. Giedraitis plays at similar level now after signing with the same Alba, he is not a star, but just a good player. He needs to work a lot on his defense first of all, on stability. Gudaitis is having decent season in Euroleague. He is closest to that "star" thing. But I'm not in a hurry to give someone a star status. There are bigger players in Euroleague these days, who deserves to be called a stars and actually if to remember how such Macijauskas, Siskauskas entered European scene after leaving LKL - thats who the stars actually were and the same Euroleague, international bbal in general, was in its golden age, the level was higher with wide pool of bball legends.
Well regarding NT, it did good, the main goal was to quaify somehow, we reached it and that's great, but let's take into consideration that it was more of reserves competition than actual NTs playin'. Italy missed its best players in most occasions, Croatia too, Hungary played without their star Hanga, Poland missed Lampe, Slaughter in half of their games. Anyway, I'm happy with the result, the main job was to qualify to World Cup and we did it, but I wouldn't make any conclusions out of it

[Hepcat]

The hierarchy of SF position is like this today, IMO:

1. Kuzminskas. 2. Ulanovas. 3. Mačiulis/Giedraitis. 4. Butkevičius

Giedraitis is currently undoubtedly better than Ulanovas and I don't think it's even close...although Rokas can play as a guard as well thanks to his quickness and athleticism, so maybe he will switch between those two positions during the WC as well

Could very well end up with all five on the team this summer with Mindaugas Kuzminskas and Jonas Mačiulis doubling up at PF and Rokas Giedraitis doubling up at SG depending upon who else is available.

[Hepcat]

Also you don't have to have high bball IQ to have a good stats in some steals, rebounds. I.e. Rytas had Sutton this season, his numbers in LKL was really fine - rebounds, steals, but his bball IQ was lower than his number.

Wasn't the problem with Dominique Sutton not so much his play on the court but more about his being a cancer in the locker room?

[Mindozas]

Wasn't the problem with Dominique Sutton not so much his play on the court but more about his being a cancer in the locker room?

It was both. At times he was pissed on the court, lacked motivation just cause coach didn't let him to play as much as he wants to and the way that he wants to. So he used to get lazy at defense, was shooting dumb shots, didn't share the ball and etc. That's when the arguments between him and Adomaitis started. It hurt all the team as other players obviously saw what's happening. Telling openly to coach to fck off during the game and during practices is enough. Even in new club now, in Spain, where he started really well statistically, he already got into argument with a coach in just his second game, when during one of decisive time-outs at the end of the game, coach ask team to defend, Sutton took it personally, cause he was the last one to make a mistake and started to scream at coach... Good for him that coach took it easy, but the whole time-out was wasted

[Shawshank]

It can easily be same situation like between Adomaitis and Sutton with Adomaitis and Motiejunas. The best team is not that one that combines best avalaible tallent.Best team is the ones that fight for each other and knows there roles and are ready to sacrifise for the team.Donatas is main player we have that is capable of f***ing up lockeroom chemistry with selfish ego.Rytas send their most tallented player to spain and begin to play like team together and good things begin to happening.Loockerooms cancers is very bad example to other players doesnt matter how good they are.

Valanciunas,Sabonis,Kuzminskas + one veteran leadership from Jankunas/Kavaliauskas and one young Birutis/Echodas/Masiulis would be optimal big lineup in my eyes for 2019.

[Straight forward]

Valanciunas,Sabonis,Kuzminskas + one veteran leadership from Jankunas/Kavaliauskas and one young Birutis/Echodas/Masiulis would be optimal big lineup in my eyes for 2019.

Both Kavaliauskas and Jankunas are injury prone this season. It's very unlikely they will suit. Not to mention that I think Jankunas career is pretty much done, he just can't play the way he did last season.

[Mindozas]

Both Kavaliauskas and Jankunas are injury prone this season. It's very unlikely they will suit. Not to mention that I think Jankunas career is pretty much done, he just can't play the way he did last season.

Sure he can't, 2017/18 was hell of the season for him, one of the best ever, but he still can be better than he is this one. Last summer he underwent some surgeries, so he had very poor preparations for season, then some really unlucky injuries that could never happened ruined it all. If he wants to continue club career and play, not just bury it and spend a season on bench as club symbol, he must rest this summer and prepare his body the best way he can. Bearing injuries, he still has couple of years left in him to play in EL. So I'm more than sure that his NT career is over.
Kavaliauskas is similar story. He is having injury plagued season, so he must think twice if he is capable of another NT journey. He probably won't continue in Zalgiris, will go down to lower level, so there's a small chance he might join, but I'd doubt it, unless he is ready to take a such risk - another injury and he is done.

Regarding Motiejunas, he gave nothing to NT to miss him. He simply doesn't care about it too much, never did, so even if invited, he might hide under this "coach hates me" story and never come. But I wouldn't care. Domas+JV, Maciulis, thn Kuzminskas might be used as PF in offense and we might be fine. Really pitty about Gudaitis, with him on board we wouldn't even discuss D-Mo