2019 World Cup Qualifying Odyssey!

[Shawshank]

What exactly Bendzius would do in the NT? Explain me this. He would come of the bench and would jack up some random threes or fade away jimmies whenever he gets the ball? That's basically his game. He can't pass, he can't rebound, he can't defend, he can't post up. No-one will leave him wide open for a jimmy. When I got to know him better in Rytas, I very well know he's not a NT material.

I would do everything to get rid of him. No Gudaitis and Maciulis? I would go this way and pretty comfortably:

Lukas, Mantas
Marius, Seibutis, Rokas
Ule, Butkevicius
Domas, Kuz, Jankunas
JV, Geben

Sure Geben is raw and inexperienced, but he's tough, sturdy and willing to play some real man's BB. It wouldn't be a waste spot and you can throw Geben for 5 minutes against Lumberjacks as Baynes or even Thompson.

shooting today is very very important ,Bendzius dam can shoot ,he can be strech four for limited minutes thats his role.He have been in champ,have played in acb,is matured player,played well in those windows...Geben ? seriuosly lkl player that never played anywhere? comon again stop putting inexperience youngster that gonna have shaky legs and scared eyes every time they gonna be out there...way more talented players than geben couldnt deliver in first champ.Why the hell we need 3-4 strong bodies and no fast bodies in pf? thats not smart,basketball is going diffrent direction from big and slow bodies that cant shoot. Neither Geben or Bendzius will play most likely,but you cant have all bigs playing only power game (Jv,Sabonis,Jankunas).We have enough strenght and power inside, we need more shooting go with strenght!

That you dont like Bendzius or Juskeviicus thats your problem,but they have seriuos shots making nt becaue they are matured player and have been in that level before,Geben have long shot,he is juts lucky to be in training camp and get a chance play with best ltu bigs.

if we want to score more than 65 pts in playoofs type games,we dont need to take such raw and inexperience guys like Geben.His job this summer is to get experience and be sparing partner for our main bigs.

[Straight forward]

Shooting is important, but making your shots is also pretty relevant I don't see Bendzius contributing offensively. If he's wide open, he can make a shot, but I don't see when you can throw in Bendzius in. He can't stay with mobile stretch fours as he's too slow and lanky and he can't bang inside with bigger power forwards. I'm all for adding more scoring and shooting power, but not empty shooting.

Juskevicius? I'm not terribly against this option. If you want to play 50/50 game for a knock out stage, go ahead. Few shots might go in, might not. Against Greece he choked and I believe there's more chances he would choke again against powerhouses as Australia and such. But I believe Giedraitis is surely better. He's not only shoots, but does other things, runs and jumps as deer. I take Giedraitis for some dynamit in small packages.

The way I see it, we should be very good rebounding team, specially offensively. We will have length at the perimeter with Kalnietis, Grigonis and hopefully Giedraitis. Our position three will be deep with our without Maciulis. With JV and Sabonis in front we have ultimate rebounding duet. I wouldn't be surprised we will be among top three teams in rebounds and also field goal % as I expect as to be a good transition team and off course we will shoot a lot from inside.
The biggest concerns will be defence. We need a lot of adjustments and flexible, unconventional decisions during the games against Canada and Australia as throwing some Butkevicius to guard Simmons and moving others to guard other positions (f.e. Grigonis to guard SF, Lekavicius SG in case it's Mills) while offensively to use them traditionally. But I really doubt Adomaitis has courage and ideas for such moves. With Jasikevicius I would be rather comfortable that we would pass the group. With Adomaitis it can go either way.

Looking back to 2017EB there had been three main issues: short backourt, three point shooting and defence (specially at 1 and 4). I expect to improve all these matter to some degree. The addition of Lekavicius and Seibutis will surely widen rotation and improve defence. I expect three points % will grow (35%) as Grigonis is a different animal now and Lekavicius will exceed in some games.

We were second best rebounding team and second best at field goals. With Sabonis, we should even improve these numbers, specially rebounding.

[LuDux]

Gudaitis out

[Shawshank]

No Gudaitis,Kavaliauskas retired we lost frontcourt depth no doubt.

Does our frontcourt is really that good now? Jankunas at age of 35 won't be able to replace both our NBA bigs.I don't trust neither of 3 youngster rookies we will have in camp, but for one of them doors suddenly opened.

Sure we gonna start both our bigs together, but summer goes on and I wouldn't be surprised that +- numbers will tell us that our team is better when only one of them is on the floor and our mobile wings changing from sf to pf will make more problems for opponents than very predictable offence with 2 centers.

That can be one of the main challenges Adomaitis will have to face this summer,how to find that correct balance between playing really big and playing mobile lineups.

[Straight forward]

So Mačiulis is pretty much in? Gudaitis was announced as an absence, but no word on Maciulis one week till the camp. I assume he's pretty much in. If Maciulis is 100% ready, I wouldn't mind projecting such team not wasting a back-ups centers spot and I think we should be going smaller generally these days. To me this would be completely utilized roster without obvious level-below fillers:

Lukas, Mantas
Marius, Seibutis, Rokas
Ulanovas, Butkevicius
Domas, Kuz, Maciulis
JV, Jankunas

[Shawshank]

Maciulis as I understand want to play alot, but they will see how his hand reacts to contact just before camp or in the beginning of the camp .But he won't be 100% that basically a fact even if he is in.At such age 34+ is harder and harder to get back to 100 % shape.

Your lineup would be good to me, if Jankunas wouldn't be 35 , Maciulis 34 and both coming after injuries and barely even playing any basketball in last 5 months.

I feel we need one more big body in case of injury to those veterans. Geben has seriuos shot now.

[Straight forward]

I feel we need one more big body in case of injury to those veterans. Geben has seriuos shot now.

It's very possible Adomaitis will go this way. But I don' think we need another lumberjack. There's JV, than we can throw Sabonis at 5 and there's Jankunas who can really play at 5 for 10-15minutes. Basically JV and Sabonis will fill position 5 (I think 29min for JV and 11 for Domas) while Jankunas will play in some games, in some he'll sit. At least I would see that. When you have 2 absolute beasts you don't play inferior player just for the broader rotation. Jankunas would be needed if Sabonis would be glued to position 4 particular night ir Sabonis would struggle. I think this frontline is the best we can have under circumstances.

Another obvious controversy - Giedraitis, Juskevicius, Butkevicius puzzle. I already showed how I would solve this, but I believe Adomaitis will still go with Juskevicius.

[madmax]

no one seems to have mentioned yet that JV and Sabonis will be able to join training camp only on the 1st of August due to NBA regulations...this could really mess up the preparation of the team without it's two best players - essentially, they will be able to join the preparation straight with an exho against Spain in Pamplona only

[Straight forward]

no one seems to have mentioned yet that JV and Sabonis will be able to join training camp only on the 1st of August due to NBA regulations...this could really mess up the preparation of the team without it's two best players - essentially, they will be able to join the preparation straight with an exho against Spain in Pamplona only

How? Still plenty of time to get the shit together. A good month.

[Shawshank]

4 guards,5 wings, 2 real bigs and 35 veteran Jankunas that's too risky.No protection to injury or faul trouble in big lineup .

If Jankunas would be 27 is one thing, but he is 35 and he can give us only around 10 min per game at this stage of his career.He didn't show ability to stay healthy anymore in last season for Zalgiris.

4 guards,4wings,4 "real bigs" seems way more logical

It's not just about names, it's about who fits and what is required.

[Shawshank]

Nba loans their players for only 5 weeks ,our federation repeating this last couple years.I dont think this rule was like 5 years ago with nba players.

So federation have to find right dates,first game is September 1st if both bigs joins in early august yeah dates looks good.Until tournament finishes it will be 5,5 weeks.


But i have question how federation gonna find way to fix "5 loan weeks rule" next summer in 2 diffrent tournaments? one starts is in early july,other starts in early august.This can be a problem.

other possible problem: hopefully Domantas will resign with pacers in season progress or otherwise his chance play in olympic qualification tournament is very slim.Both Free agency and Olympic qualification tournament starts basically on same week.

[Straight forward]

4 guards,5 wings, 2 real bigs and 35 veteran Jankunas that's too risky.No protection to injury or faul trouble in big lineup .

If Jankunas would be 27 is one thing, but he is 35 and he can give us only around 10 min per game at this stage of his career.He didn't show ability to stay healthy anymore in last season for Zalgiris.

4 guards,4wings,4 "real bigs" seems way more logical

It's not just about names, it's about who fits and what is required.

I don't know, we used to have 2 centers and one 4/5 tweener. So this would be the case again. In 2017 there were JV and Gudaitis and well D-Mo. Now JV, Domas and Jankunas. That seems enough to me. Geben or Echodas can't really slow down dominant world class bigs anyway at the moment. I think Jankunas will be fine if he's healthy, even if he won't score much, he just knows how to play D and will add intagibles and IQ and offence. Let's face it Geben and Echodas would be toyed by Bogut, Thristan Thompson, Gorgui Dieng (group stage) and other NBA bigs later on. JV, Sabonis, Jankunas is a strong frontline to deal with opponents, best we have from current options.

[Hepcat]

Maciulis as I understand want to play a lot, but they will see how his hand reacts to contact just before camp or in the beginning of the camp. But he won't be 100% that basically a fact even if he is in. At such age 34+ is harder and harder to get back to 100 % shape.

Jonas Mačiulis isn't the player he was even three years ago. Therefore if he's not 100%, I'd be inclined to leave him off the team.

[Mindozas]

Jonas Mačiulis isn't the player he was even three years ago. Therefore if he's not 100%, I'd be inclined to leave him off the team.

How many games of Maciulis did you saw this season?

[Straight forward]

How many games of Maciulis did you saw this season?

Hepcat just does his job to make sure Butkevicius secures the spot