2020 Lithuanian NT: in a chase of Olympic dream

[Shawshank]

i dont hear no contraarguments against eurobasket 1/4 performance 26+15 + putting 15pts againts Serbians in semifinal in very low scoring game that lead NT to win olympic ticket.

2015 LTU pts aver.

1.Valanciunas 16 2.Maciulis 13,8 3.Kalnietis 10,8 4.Jankunas 9 and so on. Both our leaders deserving got place in all tournament team as silver medal winners. If that not being one of main players in winning team i dont know what is. Thats pure stats,not imaginations from memory.

I dont caret about your theories what can happen in the future.Im saying facts what happend already.Bruiser or not Jonas was face of 2010s LTU basketball. When i will see Grigonis or Lekavicius winning us some meaningfull playoofs game that they can put on same discusion with Valanciunas.As to day stand there is nothing to compare. They dont even reached yet Kalnietis,Seibutis level playing for NT .

I dont project nothing im saying facts Valanciunas was leading scorer of our NT in 2014,2015,2017,2019 and was leading EFF. player too.Nobody has lead our NT in scoring 4 diffrent tournaments nobody. He is already at age of 28 is top10 scorer in NT history.

I just wish all NTs would have such 'just bruiser' on their team.

You should stop your hating on him here, putting euroleague bench level players in same sentence with seriuos nba player like Valanciunas.

Jonas already is all time top10 LTU player even if he finished his career tommorow.Not so bad as for just a bruiser.

[Shawshank]

What you are doing is equivalent of jumping from skyscrapper and trying to negotiate with gravity. It just won't work. Optimal and best trajectory was determined, any deviation from it will be dealt with.

you are right.I wasting my time with him.He is so in love with his modern basketball narratives and are blind for everything else and cant even see diffrence between nba top 100 player and some euroleague bench level player.

[Straight forward]

you are right.I wasting my time with him.He is so in love with his modern basketball narratives and are blind for everything else and cant even see diffrence between nba top 100 player and some euroleague bench level player.

JV is not top 100 NBA players. ESPN doesn't have him there for about 5 years or so now. Just a fact. And ludux is too harsh. I'm more prone to admit my flaws than he thinks, but I also an enthusiastic polemist. Also we are here not to agree all the time, but to learn to live with disagreements, or to put it in other way, to master the art of disagreements. That's the core of democracy. You can disagree in plain primitive way and you can disagree in nearly an art form.

[Straight forward]

i dont hear no contraarguments against eurobasket 1/4 performance 26+15 + putting 15pts againts Serbians in semifinal in very low scoring game that lead NT to win olympic ticket.

That's his best game in NT. I never said he wasn't one of the keys, never. But I don't hear arguments on fact he was third best player statistically in the knock out stage of 2015. It's not only one game against Italy, you know.

To me Kalnietis was the face of 10's, even by far. He was one of the keys in 2010, 2011, 2013 (imo, best player), 2015 (IMO, second best player), 2016 (best player and most impressive ISO performance 18/7,5), 2017, 2019.

JV is the one of the most efficient guys ever. He would crash the glass, would go for high efficiency points, but never had all the package to be a true leader. Again, stop pretending that I don't treat him as one of the keys and best players of 10's, I just cut lose the ties with romantic, idealistic and fanatic narratives of JV. I treat him exactly who his is, nothing more, nothing less. And it's unfair to put JV with his 14 or 16 as leading scorer in all time perspective while he was balling in the decade were we had one and half world class players in the team, compared to 4 in 90s or some 6 in 00's.

[Toruko]

I remember this semi final game. The most surprising performance came from Maciulis. He hardly played for Real Madrid back then. Kalnietis had a great block but also 3 turnovers were my eyes were bleeding by watching.

[Straight forward]

I remember this semi final game. The most surprising performance came from Maciulis. He hardly played for Real Madrid back then. Kalnietis had a great block but also 3 turnovers were my eyes were bleeding by watching.

4 TOs, but 14pts and 11 assists in that game.

[Straight forward]

So few live broadcasts of NT camp scrimmage games.

I understand that his camp is also a repetition and core info injection to the team, but now it's rather pity that we missed opportunity to get other youngsters involved, get their feet vet. Perfect chance, specially that NT now lacking players. The way I see it, Maskoliunas invited four players that can fill our holes and increase out depth of weaker positions soon if not instantly - Jokubaitis, Sirvydis, Sedekerskis, Kulboka (Masiulis to me is 5, so again his relevance is questionable, while Marek has nearly zero chances to make NT anywhere soon as he's pure center and even traditional one), but the irony is that now we may see only Jokubaitis and Sedekerskis as the ones that I would really want to see under such circumstances. It could be so much more with D.Giedraitis, Velicka, Tubelis and even A. Marciulionis. The way I see it it was a perfect chance to touch a little bit all most talented Lith youngsters, except Brazdeikis. That doesn't mean that I won't watch all 4 games (exhibition games against Latvia and Estonia if some didn't know).

[Straight forward]

Few first scrimmage's reflections:

Grigonis and Lekavicius stand out. Grigonis was absolutely great and hit probably all his shots, but those 2 just can get the ball and go to the rack, go for instant hunt. I felt that in this scrimmage those 2 are best players (along with all arounder Ulanovas). Another to point out is Jokubaitis. I like how he adds toughness and everything every time I see him after a while. Aggressive drives, aggressive p'n'r action and what I liked the most his long quick and spot on kickouts. These kickouts are game changers. We'll see how Jokubaitis will look in friendly games, but I wouldn't be surprise he will be a real pain in the ass for Kalnietis. It seems that Jokubaitis is ready for real, not some symbolic, competition for that second best PG guard position, knowing that now Lekavicius is clearly best guard at 1 (even if he's not pure PG). I wouldn't be surprised if Jokubaitis will be a better player in 2021 OG than Kalnietis. He may not, Kalnietis may still pull out his last legendary NT presence, but I wouldn't be surprised. Ulanovas is solid, not the guy that you would be exited to watch, but he just makes things done and I think he probably should be a starter for a while now (unless Kuz would come into absolute beast mode, Ulanovas provides D, more versatility, more system BB IQ and ect). I liked Sedekerskis at 4. Still want him to be more aggressive, but great D on Bendzius and I think he feels kind comfortable with big to big action in the paint. I still can't figure out if Dimsa can snatch a role in the NT. Seems on the edge to me. Some solid D and nice step backs, but his decision making at this level is shaky. Birutis kinda schooled youngster Blazevic, but I found it boring to watch both if them. Birutis air ball jumper kinda summarised his narrative in contemporary basketball. Blazevic looked sleepy and flegmatic at defensive end. Don't see much of the future at 5 for those in NT.

[Shawshank]

nice to see our expert eyes again after useless scrimmage of 20min see already that 20kid will overcome Kalnietis at most hardest position to learn to play

talking seriuosly 20 old raw kid in his first tournament and 1m80 shooting guard in small Pg body isnt biggest dream of mine seeing LTU NT pg lineup looking in Olympics againts nba calibre guards,but that comming either way no choice we can see in LTU basketball horizonts these days.So i would take all 3 pg.

Jokubaitis as tourtist to 2021 olympics and start preparing him mentallty to feel by his own skin what is like to play in those tournaments in Lukas 2015 role.

Both Lekavicius and Walkup stayed in zalgiris so for Rokas will be hard to make dramatical leap being 3rd pg in a team with limited minutes again in upcoming season.

Mantas have left max 2 tournaments,most likely 1 tournament in him as top 8 rotation playoofs player.From Podcasts i heard with all his diets Mantas looks as slim and in shape as possible to be by 34guard from what is saw,but still all boddies has expiring date in professional arena.

what my eyes saw and took in the account in NT scriimage we have real ahtletes in Grigonis,Dimsa,Butkevicius,Ulanovas,Sedekerskis that can switch basically everything in defence with their 1m95+ height and mobility.Judging anything else about their playing it not seriuos talks,nobody is in basketball shape right now.

[Shawshank]

day 2 scrimmage was alot better and we saw kinda basketball game:

Green team- White 63-44

Green Team Kalnietis,Lekavicius,Ulanovas,Dimsa,Sedekerskis,Ma rek

White team Jokubaitis,Grigonis,Butkevicius,Bendzius,Kulboka,B irutis

game was one sided.I dont know who decided to put Mantas and Lukas on same team and leave one Jokubaitis on other thats not fair fight execution play wise.

One team was making good basketball plays with lots of time with our 2 best pg together playing, on other team total chaos and Grigonis angry about his team execution.

[Straight forward]

day 2 scrimmage was alot better and we saw kinda basketball game:

Green team- White 63-44

Green Team Kalnietis,Lekavicius,Ulanovas,Dimsa,Sedekerskis,Ma rek

White team Jokubaitis,Grigonis,Butkevicius,Bendzius,Kulboka,B irutis

game was one sided.I dont know who decided to put Mantas and Lukas on same team and leave one Jokubaitis on other thats not fair fight execution play wise.

One team was making good basketball plays with lots of time with our 2 best pg together playing, on other team total chaos and Grigonis angry about his team execution.

It was logical decision. Most universal and best guard overall had to be paired with Jokubaitis. But both Grigonis and Jokubaitis had crappy game decision making and facilitating wise. While Lekavicius had great game and Kalnietis solid. But the difference was forwards. I think Sedekerskis is actually making a name for himself in this camp. Obviously he has advantage as he practised with Baskonia a lot and even played some 30 minutes in ACB, but the guy was getting buckets, offensive rebounds, provided great help and overall defence and he always hustles, adds that athleticism. His presence was being felt. Ulanovas was as good as always so it wasn't even close against lost as usual Bendzius, Kulboka who was without basketball with a knee injury for a long time and Butkevicius (he wasn't bad, but his chucking and being absolute black hole at a set offence really hurts my eyes). Also Dimsa again provided very ambivalent performance. Sometimes he seems like a lock at 2, while hitting some threes, playing solid D, but very often his drives and aggressive decisions lead to TOs. You never know what you're getting when he's trying to do a little bit more than just a catch and shoot type of BALL at this level.

However, the game was equal almost for 2 quarters. Than Kalnietis drained open three (Birutis didn't step out) and Lekavicius dropped a floater (crappy p'n'r D by Birutis), some good plays by Ulanovas/Sedekerskis and it became not even close. Another example that you are playing with fire while keeping lanky, slow 7 footer for longer extent in the game.

[Straight forward]

Delayed replay to Shaw's first post today.

Well, I think coming into his prime Lekavicius, still relevant Kalnietis and upcoming Jokubaitis is substantially better than prime Kalnietis and complete mistake Kariniauskas in 2016. Nothing to brag about yet, but an obvious improvement, IMO. Specially if Jokubaitis will actually won't look like a lost puppy, but will provide quality 6-8 minutes every game from the bench. That would be huge and the rotation would be pretty deep at 1. Most importantly, Lekavicius' offensive performance in 2019 wasn't a fluke. He's ready to be one of offensive anchors and one of the keys in Olympic games as well.

I can see Dimsa and R. Giedraitis fighting for the second spot at 2. Dimsa is much better defender, a bit more versatile player. While Giedraitis a better shooter and more explosive scorer if he can find his niche. But don't see us playing run and get type of ball, and Dimsa is more suitable for that kind of a Zalgiris' type system. Also Dimsa is pure SG, while Giedraitis is wing. So it's really tricky, but most likely Dimsa is a better fit. Would love to see D. Giedraitis already getting his feet wet in 2021 camp as well.

The problem with D is position 1. We don't have a PG who could really guard. We'll have to wait Marciulionis for that.

[Shawshank]

From underdogs i have to agree Sedekerskis and Dimsa looks nice and really impressed so far.

But with Tadas we will see, he the only one played in seriuos games when other players was 4 months without games.So he is in best basketball shape right now.When he grab rebounds and goes by himself full speed with the ball i loved that,why the hell i dont remember him doing that in Neptunas?

Game changed not because birutis,because in green team it was 4-5 players making plays,only marek watching.

In white team Grigonis and Jokubaitis must do all creative job,when Bendzius,Kulboka and Butkevicius just stands and wait to shoot 3 in positional basketball...Birutis played way better than Bendzius/Kulboka tandem all they did stand and wait to shoot tree + neither of them played defence,i dont recall a single moment where Bendzius/Kulboka stopped somebody.

Butkevicius gave energy (that what he always does) + using his athletic abilities in fast break become leading scorer in white team.But if such type player was leader in scoring something wasnt right with playmaking of the team.

Such energetic version of Sedekerkis defensively is head and shoulders better than other Pf candidates.The men was flying all over the floor,it was impossible not to see that. Guarding everybody doesnt matter what position.I just hope it not just the case when is in basketball shape when others isnt.

[Shawshank]

Delayed replay to Shaw's first post today.

Well, I think coming into his prime Lekavicius, still relevant Kalnietis and upcoming Jokubaitis is substantially better than prime Kalnietis and complete mistake Kariniauskas in 2016. Nothing to brag about yet, but an obvious improvement, IMO. Specially if Jokubaitis will actually won't look like a lost puppy, but will provide quality 6-8 minutes every game from the bench. That would be huge and the rotation would be pretty deep at 1. Most importantly, Lekavicius' offensive performance in 2019 wasn't a fluke. He's ready to be one of offensive anchors and one of the keys in Olympic games as well.

I can see Dimsa and R. Giedraitis fighting for the second spot at 2. Dimsa is much better defender, a bit more versatile player. While Giedraitis a better shooter and more explosive scorer if he can find his niche. But don't see us playing run and get type of ball, and Dimsa is more suitable for that kind of a Zalgiris' type system. Also Dimsa is pure SG, while Giedraitis is wing. So it's really tricky, but most likely Dimsa is a better fit. Would love to see D. Giedraitis already getting his feet wet in 2021 camp as well.

The problem with D is position 1. We don't have a PG who could really guard. We'll have to wait Marciulionis for that.

Giedraitis will not be cutted comon men , i dont care how how he plays in friendlies coach are not cutting euroleague player from top12 especially when NT needs shooters like him badly.

Nobody play 3 pg in playoofs type games. It usually 8 men rotation overall Lukas,Kalnietis,Grigonis,Giedraitis most likely will be chosen to do the job in main games from guard perspective.

We all saw with who Adomaitis tried to guard P.Mills in 2019 somebody from Sf that says lot

In real playoofs games in 2013-2016 when Mantas sit on the bench,it was Renaldas was doing Pg dutties not those backups PG Kazlauskas was changing every year.Dont see point comparing 11-12th players that was like tourist either way. Top 8-9 players make the result ,we need to compare those 8-9 players that plays in playoofs to see which team had more.

Doesnt matter which 3 players sits out entire playoofs run team result wont change by that


I would take 2 peaking guards 27 old Kalnietis and 28 Seibutis any day over 25 Kalnietis and 35 old veteran Jasikevicius in those 2 week tournaments.

Peaking high quality players will play well in 4 of 5 games,those u-22 and over-33 will play well like in 2 games of 5.One group still dont know how to sustain good play in every game,others old body limitations wont allow play well in all 4 games in same week.

Lukas is in his prime,Mantas too old,Jokubaitis too young that the truth for 2021 Olympics.Hopefully coach will get the best possible from that trio.

[Straight forward]

Such energetic version of Sedekerkis defensively is head and shoulders better than other Pf candidates.The men was flying all over the floor,it was impossible not to see that. Guarding everybody doesnt matter what position.I just hope it not just the case when is in basketball shape when others isnt.

No, it's not possible. He's only 22. He will have his first chance to show anything since 24 only...

About R. Giedraitis. You're making the same mistake. You're thinking about player's status, being age, club, stats or whatever and you forget that the head coach of NT is hired to build the best team. There's no doubt that Giedraitis can be cut. Maybe not much, but it's possible. Just like Ulanovas, EL player, was cut in 2016 for loser Kariniauskas, but Kazlauskas wanted to risk here and he needed PG. And it's not about will Giedraitis be cut or nor. I'm talking about competition for that actual spot at 2, for the back-up role at 2. Giedraitis made 2019, but he didn't snatch any role, he was glued to the bench. Now It's up to Maskoliunas if he sees him in his plans. Giedraitis will be Giedraitis after a year. I guy who can score buckets when you let him run and gun, but he won't feel very comfortable with the strict set offence. We'll see how Maskoliunas build the team. The way NT is playing and how NT is build, you throw players who has more defined skillset and can provide what team needs instantly. The way I see it, we will play more strict system BB, rather than improvised uptempo offensive basketball. Thus Dimsa with his D and more of guard skills has clear advantage against Giedraitis. Personally, I would love to see more extent of an idea to use 2 different lineups, or styles, one more of a set offence, other more of liberal offence, but in FIBA reality it's very tough to realise unless you have truly elite offensive roster as we had in 00's. If you throw a bunch of guys like, let's say, Lekavicius, R.Giedraitis, Brazdeikis, Bendzius, Sabonis, they may provide some nice offence and some buckets, but they might also lose any defensive grip, control of the game and the whole mental set up for the game might collapse. I think that's the reason why Adomaitis never unleashed this idea while he was actually talking during the camp.