2020 Lithuanian NT: in a chase of Olympic dream

[madmax]

IMO, the best way to defend Doncic is to trap him and double team him as soon as he crosses the half-court line, and make his clearly inferior slovenian teammates beat us instead of him raping our whole team...can that be achieved with the personnel we have on the defense at the moment? I doubt it, and with this current amateur coach it's even more a mission impossible lol

[Hepcat]

Brazdeikis not comming and want to prepare better for summer league to get NBA contract.

Doesn't make sense to me. I'd think that the Olympics would be a better place for him to showcase his talents than some bush summer league.

[mojo13]

Doesn't make sense to me. I'd think that the Olympics would be a better place for him to showcase his talents than some bush summer league.

He won't play for Lithuania until his career takes him to Europe or he has a long term comfortable contract in the NBA. At this point former is more likely than the latter.

[Straight forward]

Doncic sends us a message - https://twitter.com/TheSteinLine/sta...55874927693826

This will be a must watch TV. How do you prepare for Doncic? Well, there is actually one flaw I noticed with Doncic (which really isn't the flaw but a product of situation where you have to do everything) - he gets extremely tired by the time fourth quarter begins. His FG percentage in the series vs Clippers were by far the worst during fourth quarters. Of course, that is result of great spending throughout of the game and the fact that he has to do a lot of stuff for his team. Luckily for you, he will be in similar situation with Slovenian team. So, the question is - do you make Luka do everything by himself and try to wear him out? Or you do everything to keep other players in check while he scores the bunch. He will score bunch of buckets in either way but the key might be to wear him out as much as possible and stay in the game by the time fourth quarter begins. There is really no clear plan against such players other then just to do everything to make it harder and hope it will eventually catch up to him especially in situation where everything heavily depends on him. His biggest flaw is that he still isn't in the best condition of his career and that is his biggest weakness right now.

Yeah, good point. To me it's not an aim to get Doncic off the ball, but to make him work in every inch of the court and to pay the price of energy of every more. Let him operate with the ball, let him do a lot, but let's be super hard on him. IMO, we won't have problems offensively, not only we have way superior frontline, but we have some scoring from the perimeter as well this time. The key will be 4th quarter as you say. If the game will still be on the line till the crunch time and Doncic is still alive, Lithuania is done. That's the scenario we should be avoiding by any cost.

Brazdeikis not comming and want to prepare better for summer league to get NBA contract.

To me it's a loss. He could be useful offensively in some stretches, I think he showed enough with Magic that it's realistic possibility. Losing both Ulanovas and Brazdeikis would be a hit to our Olympic ambitions, but hopefully not too hard.

He won't play for Lithuania until his career takes him to Europe or he has a long term comfortable contract in the NBA. At this point former is more likely than the latter.

I think you are a little bit too preoccupied with this conception and I know he's Canadian so you may be right, but it's more like he's skipping this off season and the chances to see him in Eurobasket 2022 are huge no matter his contract status. Prior this decision our head coach had private conversation with Brazdeikis and he was about to come, he was planning to come. Obviously he changed his mind, but it was very very close even this summer. It's indication that with Brazdeikis is different than with average Canadian NT candidate. He was born and lived in Lithuania for 3-4 years and his family are huge fans of NT and it's seen on how high he speaks about Lithuanian NT. If it's not how I say, he may very well lose credibility if he would decline couple of invitations in a row. We have a little bit different standards. If next summer he would sent the same message it would be pretty much the cut of ties or at least obvious raise of mistrust, IMO, and I don't think it's happening.

[Shawshank]

Doesn't make sense to me. I'd think that the Olympics would be a better place for him to showcase his talents than some bush summer league.

Brazdeikis is fighting to stay in nba. For him to work all summer in nba league atmosphere way better chance getting somebody notice him than play in qualification tournament that nba clubs dont even watch. Nba world watches and respects only main Olympic tournament.

That Brazdeikis would have big role on NT or LTU NT would make Olympics thats not given to ale showcase himself.

One Podcaster said there is vibe that Brazdeikis as first time rookie wasnt preparing comming early or anything like that to adjust himself with our NT.

He would have come to camp even late as some lock player from nba. I dont like this vibe at all.

Overall i dont believe he would have helped our NT this summer either way and in 10 days its hard to do anything with player from diffrent basketball world that have no clue about fiba tournaments or other lithuanian NT players.

Atleast in 2022 summer camp will be normal 1,5month preparation not 10 days like in 2021.

If Brazdeikis really want to play for our NT and not just sending nicely written official letter by his helpers. Right start for him would be in 2022 when new Olympic cycle begins. With normal preparation and normal adjustment time.

[Hepcat]

One Podcaster said there is vibe that Brazdeikis as first time rookie wasnt preparing comming early or anything like that to adjust himself with our NT.

He would have come to camp even late as some lock player from nba. I dont like this vibe at all.

Overall i dont believe he would have helped our NT this summer either way and in 10 days its hard to do anything with player from diffrent basketball world that have no clue about fiba tournaments or other lithuanian NT players.

Well we're in full agreement on that point anyway. I'm not at all sure that Ignas Brazdeikis could have made the roster. Straight forward I think has been his most ardent backer on this board.

[Hepcat]

Buckle up. Doncic should be coming now. IMO, this will be much harder to do it than in 2012 for us. We never had such huge obstacle in our way as Doncic when it comes to Olympic qualification I think.... 8th consecutive ticket to Olympics is at stake.

Well nobody ever promised us it had to be easy. What it amounts to is that in order to play with the best Team Lietuva must demonstrate that it's capable of beating a tough team with some real talent on the roster.

[Straight forward]

If Ulanovas out, I think Maciulis should come in and likely make the team. Maciulis is still physical and pretty good defender. I don't think we have to take any of really meh 4/5 player in Masiulis or Miniotas. Again, as a small center Sedekerskis can play, maybe even Maciulis in some cases as Maskoliunas already tried it. If we lose skill and talent in Brazdeikis and Ulanovas, then we should bring on defensive bruisers and Mačiulis as forward is probably more important piece in the puzzle of stopping Doncic. We have to use all possible advantages of more rigid FIBA BB (we should push it to the boundaries and test the limitations, maybe even drawing couple of technical fouls, if that will get Doncic frustrated) and should be really hard and as tight as possible at the defensive end. Masiulis is pretty meh, even though he at least had a good do or die experience already against Denmark, but Miniotas to me doesn't make sense while he's an offensive player primarily.


Kalnietis, Lekavicius, Jokubaitis
Grigonis, Giedraitis
Kuzminskas, Butkevicius, Maciulis
Sedekerskis, Bendzius
Sabonis, Valanciunas

[Shawshank]

wow today is special day i agree with players STF wrote i had same players in mind if Ulanovas and Gudaitis cant play.

When Maskoliunas change Sg/Sf player with PF/C and you had Maciulis still ale waiting this looks strange to me.

If Ulanovas will say officially he cant play and Maciulis still is not comming it means only one thing:

Maskoliunas burned bridges with Maciulis when didnt include him in 15 men candidate list.

Because i dont get what is the point replace Brazdeikis with totally diffrent position player Miniotas ?

[Straight forward]

The reason is that if Ulanovas in, there's no need of Maciulis. We still have 3 defensive forwards bruisers in Sedekerskis, Ulanovas, Butkevicius. If Ulanovas out, I think it's natural to take Maciulis in. We will need to beat the c***p out of Doncic anyway if we want to qualify and Maciulis seem to be spot on for this physical task. Maybe Maskoliunas also don't really want to even touch Maciulis if he's not sure whenever he's 100% want him in the team. Let's not forget that. If Maciulis is invited, he's a lock. He's not some Masiulis, Miniotas which you would cut without a blink.

[Shawshank]

Maybe you are right there are some agreement betweem Maciulis and coach if Ulanovas really cant play u are comming.

But for me smells something fishy here inviting Miniotas.Player that wasnt even registered for main Denmark game.

I still dont understand how exactly Bendzius at PF is helping NT with anything playing Slovenia.

I rather have Maciulis at PF for 10min and let him give some elbow to Doncic and remind him it europe basketball its allowed to touch you up a bit.

[Straight forward]

I still dont understand how exactly Bendzius at PF is helping NT with anything playing Slovenia.

I rather have Maciulis at PF for 10min and let him give some elbow to Doncic and remind him it europe basketball its allowed to touch you up a bit.

Bendzius provides very particular service - elite shooting at 4. None other PF in the country (Kulboka in the waiting room though with more athletic and tougher body hopefully, but that's future). If he's hot, he can give us a heck of stretch offensively, he would stretch the floor for Domas and JV as well. The last sentence is very correct, but Sedekerskis is very able to provide those elbows in his own right (and even Ulanovas, Butkevicius can play some 4 in small ball unites surely).

Our chances will depend a lot on how much refs will allow the bruisers to operate. Hopefully we'll see a good old FIBA dogs fight ball game. Hopefully no p...ssy Euroleague's referring. The last thing I want to see is Doncic shooting 20 free throws and refs making it ugly FTs fiesta as EL final was. If that will be good old anarchistic, physical, open fight our chances increase significantly cause we have size and muscle advantage as well as much deeper and more equal roster.

[Hepcat]

When Maskoliunas change Sg/Sf player with PF/C and you had Maciulis still ale waiting this looks strange to me.

If Ulanovas will say officially he cant play and Maciulis still is not comming it means only one thing:

Maskoliunas burned bridges with Maciulis when didnt include him in 15 men candidate list.

Every other national team coach declared a broad candidate list in May for precisely that reason - candidates suffer injuries, they change their minds, etc. Coach Maskoliūnas took the easy way out because he wanted to avoid as much as possible the difficult decision of which players to cut after they get to training camp. (And I'm not talking about inviting 20+ players to camp; 17 or so to engender some competition would have been enough.) Well now the chickens are coming home to roost and Maskoliūnas is casting around desperately for candidates at the last minute.

With respect to Regimantas Miniotas though, he may very well be a viable option in comparison with Gytis Masiulis and Eimantas Bendžius.

[LuDux]

Every other national team coach declared a broad candidate list in May for precisely that reason - candidates suffer injuries, they change their minds, etc.

I think all teams have full 24(25?) people lists, some announced them full, others only camp invitees

[LuDux]

Ulanovas will undergo tests on Monday. In worst case Maciulis will be invited. basketnews.lt