2020 Lithuanian NT: in a chase of Olympic dream

[Straight forward]

I'm not so sure about convincing win againts belgium anymore , now simple win will be acceptable too

It's pretty nasty how you (and many people in Lithuania) underrate some players and leagues. I remember you called Belgium players scub streetballers after the first game. The fact is that they swept Lithuania and it wasn't just a matter of attitude. It's not like if Lithuania starts to hustle it will be other way around and instant win The levels are rather similar. Belgium can play and it should be legitimate game. People who think that our B NT should be sweeping teams like Belgium, constructed from ACB, FR LNB and Oostende's players, simply have no clue about the levels and doesn't have ability to see objective perspective. IMO, now with add of Velicka and Girdziunas we became stronger, but it's something like 45/55 game in advance of Lithuania, not more. Mindozas made a correct point that offense will probably decide the game, but also individual defence will matter a lot and here Belgium probably will even have an edge. However, we should surely beat Denmark and our chances to qualify will be very solid if not secured. Since Maskoliunas was forced to add both Marciulionis and Velicka I'm satisfied, it won't be a useless windows and I will be looking the games more calmly. More depressing situation was in the first game against Belgium. Maskoliunas gathers mediocre roster without a single stud who might be relevant in long term, acts cocky and than gets swept.

[Straight forward]

I was about to put this in prospect's thread, but, IMO, 22yo players aren't prospects any more, they should be showing some serious BB already. Kulboka nailes 7 threes and drops 23pts. He has been too silent this season so far, maybe that will boost his confidence. Now scores 9,1ppg (42% threes) for Bilbao. Needs more consistency. The way I see it, Sabonis, Tubelis, Sedekerskis, Kulboka and Murauskas (if he's setting his mindset right, cause I hate some D-Mo's vibes around him no matter how damn talented he is) are 5 essential frontcourt players for the decade and each very unique on his own:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzBaTI3Mq04

[Shawshank]

For low iq street ballers from champions league level is dream game when no defenders can't stay in front of them and you get wide open shots .Like nobody could stay in front of Estonian student too with best ltu guards in roster.That simply can't happend over and over again when euroleague guards to get schooled like that and their teams lose games because of that.

For me as playoofs fan I really see red flags here.

Offensively on paper we have maybe most tallent guard rotation since 2008.

34 old Kalnietis,Lekavicius,Jokubaitis
Grigonis,Giedraitis

But defensively 3 of them are really just bad , 2 Grigonis,Jokubaitis so so on good days.

Kuzminskas is bad at defence and one Ulanovas cand defend everybody .But somebody will have to play seriuos defence againts Slovenians guards that's obviuosly is higher level than Belgium's 1 on 1 streetballers.

I don't trust team in playoofs when I see only like defensive minded player in main 9 player rotation.

Our recent guard defence is like 2010s Italy's they couldn't make no stops in 4 querters even if their lives would be in danger.How Manny semifinals they made having elite offensive guards and no defence in playoofs?

When it happening in all levels imaginable in euroleague, fiba championships,Estonian friendly game, qualification windows is not some bad luck that those guards beating our teams over and over, it's pathetic defence played by our perimeter players .

They must step up badly in this area or no seriuos achievements our teams will see in playoofs.

[Straight forward]

Lithuania never had great and deep defensive backcourt. Never happened. Our, IMO, best defensive backcourts happened in 1992 with somewhat still alive Chomicius and a beast Marciulionis and 2010 with young and athletic legs in Kalnietis, Pocius, Seibutis. But our basketball history is that we were snatching medals in 90s and 00s because of OFFENSE. In 10's there was more defensive effort, but it's not like we had a beast defensive NT in 10's We happened to win some with great draw, luck and solid coaching (again, we didn't stand a chance in both OG in 2012, 2016, real level check, no need to tell ferry tales about glorious D of 84 generation ). Offense gave us Olympic medals and EB title, that's Lithuania's history. With that said I would be very pleased to have a great 2 ways backcourt, it's just that it's very unrealistic to expect that, very tough. Basically, aside USA, none has it. Spain was dominating because of offense, Serbia was dominating because of offense, even such usually athletic NTs as France, Australia, Argentina were primarily offensive teams. It's more of a matter whenever you have elite guards to close the games or not, whenever you have the talent to match opponents talent or not. Tell me when defensive team won any title? Like obviously less talented team, but with great perimeter defence? Probably that never happened. Even us, when we got to EB finals with some legendary luck in 2013, we got our assess absolutely whooped, we got swept in finals. It's not like you can have average guards overall, but with great D, and to be snatching medals The only way for us to have realistic chances to snatch medals again is to expect our guards developing into elite guards. If that doesn't happen, all you can expect is some fluke and overachievement as it happened in 2013-2015 (with very good coaching as well).

[Hepcat]

Velicka and Blazevic IN! God may exist after all

Oh come on! Marek Blaževič is not nearly as good a player right now as is Gytis Masiulis. Blaževič has hardly played this year while Masiulis has been putting up respectable numbers for Lietkabelis. In particular Blaževič doesn't have a three point shot while Masiulis has drained 16/41 three pointers in Eurocup and LKL games this year which nicely helps to stretch defences at his PF position.

IMO, now with add of Velicka and Girdziunas we became stronger, but it's something like 45/55 game in advance of Lithuania, not more.

Arrrrggghhhh!

Yes, I was glad to see Šarūnas Vasiliauskas dropped from the roster since quite simply he's come up small for Team Lietuva every time he's been given a call so far. And I'd really like to see what Arnas Velička might be able to show at this level. But to say that replacing Paulius Valinskas with Mindaugas Girdžiūnas constitutes an improvement is unfathomable. Girdžiūnas has been simply mediocre since he left Neptūnas to join Rytas and that's including his stints in the WC qualifiers. And while I agree that Paulius Valinskas was worse than a non-entity against Belgium last February, he's younger than Girdžiūnas and is at least showing some promise. Consider. Valinskas seems to be blossoming this year and has an Efficiency rating of 14.7 in 25:25 of playing time per LKL game. Meanwhile Girdžiūnas has a rating of 7.6 in 20:54 of playing time. I would have been happier to see Laurynas Beliauskas getting a shot instead of Girdžiūnas.

And is Vaidas Kariniauskas currently (or still) persona non grata with the LKF? I see that Kariniauskas has a gaudy Efficiency rating of 20.3 in 31:33 of playing time in the LKL this year. He's also second in assists per game with 7.0. He seems to have gotten his head together to play basketball.

I'm happy to see Laurynas Birutis among the bigs though since I understand he was the September Player of the Month in the Spanish League. And Regimantas Miniotas who not only has a 24.5 Efficiency rating in 31:38 minutes of playing time in eleven LKL games but is a big who's a good three point shooter having hit 17/37 so far this year.

Here anyway is the most current player list:

Mantas Kalnietis, Krasnodaro „Lokomotiv“
Arnas Velička, Reimso ir Šampanės Šalono CBA
Augustas Marčiulionis, Vilniaus „Rytas“
Tomas Dimša, Las Palmo „Herbalife Gran Canaria“
Mindaugas Girdžiūnas, Vilniaus „Rytas“
Jonas Mačiulis, Atėnų AEK
Mindaugas Kuzminskas, Krasnodaro „Lokomotiv“
Deividas Gailius, Bonos „Telekom Baskets“
Eimantas Bendžius, Sasario „Dinamo“
Marekas Blaževičius, Kauno „Žalgiris“
Laurynas Birutis, Santjago de Kompostelos „Obradoiro CAB“
Martynas Echodas, Vilniaus „Rytas“
Regimantas Miniotas, Prienų „CBet“

[Straight forward]

Hepcat, Masiulis wasn't fully ready to join NT so Blazevic was taken instead of him as alternative.

As for Girdziunas comparison with Valinskas, both are almost equally crappy defenders, but Girdziunas is slightly more reliable offensive player, better decision maker and plays better without the ball. He's simply more reliable option, as Valinskas, you never know if he would drop three threes in a row or commit three turnovers. I assume it was already too late to ask either Beliauskas or Giedraitis to come from Spain at this point.

There might be some issues of attitude towards Kariniauskas, but, IMO, Kariniauskas isn't a better player than Velicka. Kariniauskas is balling, but in mid tier LKL club. Let's not forget that the same Velicka, last season had 12,2pts, 4.7as under such circumstances, playing much less than Kariniauskas is playing for Kedainiai and now velicka is much stronger. I doubt Kariniauskas would be able to do what Velicka is doing in France LNB, in the really physical and higher level league. It's close, but Velicka is the future and 27yo Kariniauskas is unlikely to ever play for the NT anyway.

Birutis already played great in previous windows, I don't know what people expect to see from him. He won't be better now coming from injury.

[Straight forward]

Plenty of losses in Belgium roster. No Tabu (Manresa), Serron (Bilboa), Maxime De Zeeuw (Hapoel). Maskoliunas can comfortably unleash another legendary press conference now, LOL.

[Hepcat]

I don't even think we need him(Brazdeikis) to begin with...
R. Giedraitis and Grigonis are better than him anyway and they are proven players in FIBA already, while Brazdeikis is still a cat in a bag to majority of us. That's not the position we should be worrying about, as we have more urgent matters on our hands regarding the PF and obviously the most important position in basketball the PG position....

I agree. Right now the team has some very good starters as well as lots of depth at the SG and SF positions.

[Hepcat]

I'm concerned. Here's Team Lietuva going into the European Qualifiers including a game against Belgium later this week:

Mantas Kalnietis - PG
Arnas Velička - PG
Augustas Marčiulionis - PG
Tomas Dimša - SG
Mindaugas Girdžiūnas - SG
Deividas Gailius - SG/SF
Jonas Mačiulis - SF
Mindaugas Kuzminskas - SF
Eimantas Bendžius - PF
Regimantas Miniotas - PF/C
Martynas Echodas - PF/C
Marek Blaževič - C
Laurynas Birutis - C

But this team below was better on paper at every single position but got absolutely waxed 86-65 by Belgium last February:

Mantas Kalnietis - PG
Žygimantas Janavičius - PG
Tomas Dimša - SG
Paulius Valinskas - SG
Arnas Butkevičius - SF
Jonas Mačiulis - SF
Mindaugas Kuzminskas - SF
Eimantas Bendžius - PF
Gytis Masiulis - PF
Donatas Motiejūnas - PF/C
Martynas Sajus - C
Laurynas Birutis - C

Returning players are in bold.

So what's going to make it different this time? Belgium being weaker as well? The game being in Vilnius as opposed to Mons, Belgium? Team Lietuva having a "warmup" game two days beforehand against Denmark? Or will Coach Maskoliūnas on his third try now have learned something about building a semi-cohesive team in short order with whatever odds-and-sods are available?

Thoughts?

[Mindozas]

Hepcat, don't be concerned. 3 teams qualifies from the group and 99% we'll be among them, 1% out is just cause there are no things in life 100% sure except death and taxes like someone said, and result-wise qualification is all that matters in these FIBA's idiotic windows.
That game in Belgium didn't show the real difference between the teams, its sports, such failures happens, nor they are that good, nor we are that bad. Current our roster is not weaker that it was in Belgium, simply cause some players improved like Birutis, Echodas, Dimsa, some got back their shape like Kalnietis and that's very important, such Velicka shouldn't be worse than Janavicius, while missing of some Motiejunas is not a bad thing at all, especially for chemistry, which is very important during such short windows. Coaching won't mean that much here, cause you won't create any strategic plan, any tactics, it's impossible, too little time, but Maskoliunas must inspire the team, add motivation if they lack some, I think that was missed in Belgium, at least I've made such impression back then. Good to hear that this time at least players seems to be very motivated for revenge

[Straight forward]

Didn't see Velicka in the first practice though. Maybe he was the last to come or waiting Covid test results. To me he's the biggest intrigue in this window by far. Also interesting who will look more convincing, Echodas or Birutis, but other than Velicka and Marciulionis I don't really see truly NT relevant youngsters or newcomers. OK, maybe Blazevic, even though he became the victim of media and crappy decision to join Zalgiris. He isn't that big of a prospect. He's talented, fundamentally sound, and one day can be third or at best second string center of NT, but, IMO, he's not NBA prospect, not legit, that's for sure. People talk to much about him. I cringed when Mindaugas Brazys named Blazevic as having the best NBA chances between Jokubaitis, Marciulionis, Blazevic. Complete basketball illiterate I mean, he knows coaching, some D and O schemes and shit, but he has no idea about global basketball, tendencies, perception, how NBA works, what's happening there, just lost old school puppy with his trivial local understanding and this breed is so common and so toxic in Lithuania. The biggest knight of such breed is Rutenis Paulauskas, I mean, duuuuddee, how super lost he is about global basketball and the NBA, it's a comedy all over to listen to him most of the times, and he continues to talk It's like he's living on the stereotypes about NBA from early 00's

The difference for Belgium will surely be missing couple of key players who can drop 20pts on a good day. And for Lithuania, to have Kalnietis in much better shape, Dimsa should look even more confident and reliable, Velicka is an athletic piece to mess around (if he's there), even super young Augis can give athletic and energy boost for 10 minutes, so we'll be much more ready for Belgium's athleticism and energy which was the key difference in the first game, IMO. They manhandled and outrun us in the first game.

[Hepcat]

Hepcat, don't be concerned. 3 teams qualifies from the group and 99% we'll be among them, 1% out is just cause there are no things in life 100% sure except death and taxes like someone said, and result-wise qualification is all that matters....

I'm not worried about failing to qualify. I just want Team Lietuva to win every game. And to go 0-2 against Belgium in these qualifiers would be an abomination.

...while missing of some Motiejunas is not a bad thing at all, especially for chemistry....

Yes. Sadly I think we've all noticed that the team for whatever reason underperforms when he's present.

...but Maskoliunas must inspire the team, add motivation if they lack some, I think that was missed in Belgium, at least I've made such impression back then. Good to hear that this time at least players seems to be very motivated for revenge.

Yes, that I think could be the key. I think there might have been more than a touch of complacency coming into the first game and now the players should be highly motivated to get revenge.

... in these FIBA's idiotic windows.

Actually I've found myself really enjoying these windows. Not only is there national team action outside the summer months, but we get to see players who wouldn't normally even be invited to the national team camp in action for Lithuania. And I'm sure the team coaches appreciate the opportunity to see how these newcomers mesh with existing national team stalwarts such as Mantas Kalnietis.

[Mindozas]

Actually I've found myself really enjoying these windows. Not only is there national team action outside the summer months, but we get to see players who wouldn't normally even be invited to the national team camp in action for Lithuania. And I'm sure the team coaches appreciate the opportunity to see how these newcomers mesh with existing national team stalwarts such as Mantas Kalnietis.

I get your excitement, Hepcat It's fun only to some degree, but I think it would last as long as we are not in danger to miss any big tournament cause of that, imagine us being in some Croatian or Slovenian shoes in previous qualies or let's say we would've lost against Czechs too, it was not that far away and only two teams from group would qualify Naaah, there are some tiny things where these qualies are ok, like you said, to test some newbies, but in general it's a bad thing to basketball

[Hepcat]

Interesting! To minimize travel and associated infection risk I see that all three of the other teams in Lithuania's Group C have elected to play both their games this week in Vilnius.

[Mindozas]

Interesting! To minimize travel and associated infection risk I see that all three of the other teams in Lithuania's Group C have elected to play both their games this week in Vilnius.

They didn't elect it it was FIBA decision to create bubbles for all the qualifying groups, it's everywhere in all qualifying tournaments around the globe. Let's say Canada decided not to go to such bubble, which will be held in Dominican Republic, they doesn't want to take risks due to ongoing pandemic. While Lithuania applied to host one and were given that right, it's quite possible that we might host next one too, if this one will pay-off

[Hepcat]

Okay. And now I see that Basketball Canada has elected not to send a team to the Dominican Republic for two qualifiers while Hungary has been forced to withdraw its team from Ljubljana due to a COVID outbreak. Sad. There's no really good solution.

[Hepcat]

How would you fellows compare today's team:

Mantas Kalnietis - PG
Arnas Velička - PG
Augustas Marčiulionis - PG
Tomas Dimša - SG
Mindaugas Girdžiūnas - SG
Deividas Gailius - SG/SF
Jonas Mačiulis - SF
Mindaugas Kuzminskas - SF
Eimantas Bendžius - PF
Regimantas Miniotas - PF/C
Martynas Echodas - PF/C
Marek Blaževič - C
Laurynas Birutis - C

Against this one which participated in Team Lietuva's mini camp in July?

Mantas Kalnietis - PG
Lukas Lekavičius - PG
Rokas Jokubaitis - PG
Tomas Dimša - SG
Marius Grigonis - SG
Edgaras Ulanovas - SF
Arnas Butkevičius - SF
Tadas Sedekerskis - SF/PF
Arnoldas Kulboka - SF/PF
Eimantas Bendžius - PF
Laurynas Birutis - C
Marek Blaževič - C

Returning players are in bold.

[LuDux]

Echodas won't play tonight, coach decision

[Hepcat]

Against this one which participated in Team Lietuva's mini camp in July?

Incidentally I've not been able to find player stats for the two games Team Lietuva played in the friendly tournament:


July 24

Estonia 92 Lithuania 85 (OT)

July 25

Lithuania 82 Latvia 59


Can anyone help me out with a link?

[Mindozas]

Incidentally I've not been able to find player stats for the two games Team Lietuva played in the friendly tournament:


July 24

Estonia 92 Lithuania 85 (OT)

July 25

Lithuania 82 Latvia 59


Can anyone help me out with a link?

https://www.basketnews.lt/rungtynes/...-rinktine.html

https://www.basketnews.lt/rungtynes/...-rinktine.html