2020 Lithuanian NT: in a chase of Olympic dream

[Mindozas]

Hehe, I like your explosions like this regarding social media

Anyway, if you talk about bnews poll "Should Motiejunas be in NT", it's a joke, look at options:

- Yes, all the best players should represent NT
- No, with JV, Domas and Gudaitis, there is no place for D-Mo
- Yes, but only if some other center won't be available

If I think that all the best players should represent NT, but I'm not sure if D-Mo is among them, which option should I choose? It's inaccurate as hell. If you force me to choose, probably first one is still closest to what I think, and you probably know my opinion about D-Mo all these years. At least put the obvious one - "Yes, if he'll prove that he deserves it". Now basically nobody has a clue in what kind of shape he is and what he is capable of to vote in such poll. It's too random

Regarding voters, you'll need to give me a good proof that older people votes the most, as I'm more than sure, that the most active ones in such sites like bnews or knet are exactly younger generation.
Regarding bball community, of course grey masses rules in LT, but you really think that in some USA or anywhere else is that different? Everywhere its the same. Just numbers are different, but I guess percentages shouldn't be.
Regarding coaches, we had schools back in the day, few decades ago, then in Soviet times, I think in former KKI university, you could've get coaching diploma, but now not (probably). Until some moves were made earlier this year. Will it change smth - hard to say, unless federation and university will put some serious work on it, like seminars with respected coaches, coaching clinics, here and abroad for the best and etc. It should have been done years and years ago.
And finally regarding journalists, Kazlauskas is good, I agree, his knowledge about the game is really good, from historical point of view, which is deep one to current hot topics, that's why it's interesting to listen to him in interviews, he has smth to say, good questions to ask, maybe he just doesn't talk about it too much in media (yeah, podcasts), but I don't see it as a problem - quality over quantity is always better. But saying that Urbonas is good, you exactly point at a journalist who is the most populistic out of all and oriented to exactly these grey masses, guy has very primitive understanding about the game, very limited knowledge about historical stuff, just knows how to hide it all behind loud words. Clickbaitor at its best, like basicall all of 24sek crew. Strange that you buy it

[Straight forward]

In that Paulauskas, Rimkus, Urbonas podcast crew, I found the latter most up to date knowledge about basketball. He's the guy who would sneak into the NBA scouts courses (most of them are not free these days), he's the one who can read articles in English and to say his opinion. Also he's pretty bold, he doesn't afraid to write harsh article about Sabonis and in next press conference to ask a direct question to Sabonis. He may be failing with some projections or opinions, but at least I found him refreshingly up to date to current BB changes, trends, issues and so on. It's so pitiful to listen how R.Paulauskas brags about Birtutis as some huge prospects while it's clear that his ceiling is a tiny role EL player, he literally has no ideas about NBA ball and doesn't even bother to get to know and says "I would love to pick the best Lith player from Euroleague's players", and that comes from serious BB critic. In that perspective, Urbonas is pretty good, he's also active, can get to NBA summer league, can talk with Brazdeikis manager, ect. Regarding market thing, sure, that's the trend. NBA commentators also talks about things which trending, but they also are highly informed. It suck when Rimkus doesn't know that Lithuania played against Dirk also in 2007EB, not only in Sweden and 2011. Or that some Marciulionis is 17yo and not 18yo, it just shows people are not ready. I don't even talk about Paulauskas, to me he's an example of "old school" experts, guy's who have so outdated understanding about BB, who always have the lack of information and riding on their own "common sense" judgments. To me Urbonas isn't that bad, but not perfect, I find him true enough. I also ok with Rytis Visniauskas, sometimes he's too formal and lacks a bit of more deeper take regarding some players, but basically always spot on generally and never says extremely stupid things which constantly happen with Rutenis Paulauska, LOL Good old current Rytas' crew guy, a la Jarutis and others.

[Svajunas]

Funny about the pool, I did't find an answer that suits me neither.

[Mindozas]

You mentioned what's good with Urbonas, is that he interviews interesting people - the same Brazdeikis agent you wrote about, that was really good job, or some other good interviews he did with agents, bball related people. Thėse podcasts are the ones I'm trying not to miss, even some basketball fundamentals are lacking, maybe some questions are missed, but its still good. Then goes his analytics, when he tries to talk about some hot topics, tries to talk about history, to make some connection, that's what really bad. The same federation stuff you wrote about, I think I wrote about his podcast before - he and his colleague tried to look deeper at that stuff, jeez, it was horrible. False historical facts, lame ideas, blaming without second thought or giving a clue what should have been done, which solution would be better. Nothing. Just pointing a finger and that's it. That's pure populistic opinion. It was not brave or bold at that time when to bash federation was trending big time, all the media was on it, dozen of articles, harsh comments. The same bnews podcast about the same issue was miles better, also critics, but at least reasonable, that's what discussions should be about and how it should look, even Tiskevicius made some good remarks.
In that crew with Rutenis and Rimkus he might look as the wisest, but I'm not wasting my time listening to it anymore as I simply don't care about their opinion. Rutenis was goon back in the day, when he just started to share his opinion on TV, had some interesting remarks, but when he started to show up on the screen more frequently - it became bad. Rimkus, well, just ignorant guy. I have no clue what he is doing there, how he managed to become a boss in 24sek. Probably the same like Pulkovskis from knet, created his own podcast, just to show that he is doing smth, better he wouldn't. While Vysniauskas became better at everything when he got back to earth

[Straight forward]

Here's how I rank youngsters readiness to join NT at the moment, from what I have seen this season and some of my projections changed in last month or so:

1. Masiulis, Kulboka. Any of those added would be more as a timely transition than forced action. Offensively I think Kulboka is much more needed for his ability to stretch the floor at nearly elite level already, but Masiulis brings more nominal PF presence and I guess the timing more suitable for Masiulis to join Sabonis and Kuz at 4.

2. Sirvydis. D.Giedraitis. Both are showing tremendous ability to deal mentally with the transition to higher level. D. Giedraitis stepped into ACB court like it's just another ball game.

3. Jokubaitis, Velicka. I had Jokubaitis much higher, but he blew his chances in Euroleague which was a surprise to me and it showed the pressure caught him. Also he struggles with three point shooting and surely is wors defender than both guys above. While Velicka I think could very well be one step above if not his crappy shooting, really crappy, 25,8%. Nevertheless he shows tremendous confidence, playing with poise.

4. Brazdeikis. I see this guy only this low unfortunately now. The guy is completely ISO player, would be absolutely lost in FIBA and while showing tremendous potential as scorer, he'll need time to develop into such. At the moment I don't see what he can bring. He's not good with short stretches for Knicks and his G league campaign is very up and down. I think we should start adjusting him to FIBA ball with the new cycle. Let the kid work this off season individually.

5. Sedekerskis, Jogela. I like both, but both will need time and both don't have killers mentality. They need strong coach and time.

[LuDux]

Masiulis brings more nominal PF presence

But not actual PF presence. I'd say Ulanovas' style is more PF-like than current Masiulis'

[Straight forward]

But not actual PF presence. I'd say Ulanovas' style is more PF-like than current Masiulis'

I see what you mean. But I disagree. Masiulis has that wide frame and stands at 207cm and while being rather thin still, he already knows what it takes to bang inside at 4. His rebounding rates still higher than some Ulanovas and you can throw him against some bigger PFs. The thing that Ulanovas posting up and Masiulis not so much, is rather irrelevant. I would exclude this component as soon as possible from both Zalgiris and NT. IMO, it's outdated and not working any more, EL figured this out. Zalgiris trying to fill the lack of talent this way, but as NT goes I hope soon we want see such thing as Ulanovas' post game.

[Straight forward]

Man, I love those D-Mo's headlines in Lith BB sections. I don't particularly blame them, because they want to get clicks and feed their families I guess, but they also feed idiots and naive people, thus some still think he's some sort of an elite baller or whatever who actually has to be in the NT. F.e. D-Mo dropped 35pts tonight and here it goes "fantastic game". Really? It's a good game yes, but Dominique Jones, an NBA scrub, who never ever had even a decent stretch in the NBA is averaging 38 ppg. Now D-Mo scores 35pts with 28 shots and 10 FT attempts, and Lithuanian boneheads get the message "D-Mo dominates in China". No, he doesn't dominate and even if he would, it's freakin' China league. D-Mo is only 29th in scoring, lower than Raduljica who is a joke and shouldn't even had been in Serbia's roster. He's 16th in efficiency which is pretty nice, but a lot of NBA scrubs are above him like Ty Lawson who probably wouldn't get a job in Euroleague these says. "Fantastic double-double" and shit...

If D-Mo was ever relevant last 4 years for Lithuanian BB is by winning in media and snatching clicks for local basketball sites. That's all what's left from him. Let's just leave him alone, IMO. Dude, would find ways to screw Euro quallies somehow as well, like playing zero D and jacking off threes and FTs. I don't blame him, he didn't screw his back to screw his career intentionally, but he became another bubble in some Lithuanians minds and in D-Mo's mind himself, IMO. "I'm ready to play". Yeah, we saw that in 2017 and we see that in China. Zero D, nightmare at the FT line, night of the living dead, China's league that is.

[Shawshank]

Zalgiris systems works with good pg creator and good shooting.This season zalgiris management failed with team contrucktion and its game over

I dont believe 33,5 old Kalnietis is better than Walkup is today ( other 2 main guards is the same).And i dont believe our NT is good shooting team ( we were dead last as a team in 3 made pointers in 2019 champ)

We can have same problems as zalgiris having this season,if Maskoliunas stubborny will try to put same sharas system and not adjusting what advantages we have on the roster.

Thats zalgiris systems works sure,but with suited players .This season zalgiris problems is literally same as NT teams had since 2015.We cant score,we cant make 3pointers againts elite top teams defences +PG position is very questionable as playmaking comes.

NT/Zalgiris 2019 put enormoues pressure on your defences to hold if you usually cant score 70pts.

[madmax]

Man, I love those D-Mo's headlines in Lith BB sections. I don't particularly blame them, because they want to get clicks and feed their families I guess, but they also feed idiots and naive people, thus some still think he's some sort of an elite baller or whatever who actually has to be in the NT. F.e. D-Mo dropped 35pts tonight and here it goes "fantastic game". Really? It's a good game yes, but Dominique Jones, an NBA scrub, who never ever had even a decent stretch in the NBA is averaging 38 ppg. Now D-Mo scores 35pts with 28 shots and 10 FT attempts, and Lithuanian boneheads get the message "D-Mo dominates in China". No, he doesn't dominate and even if he would, it's freakin' China league. D-Mo is only 29th in scoring, lower than Raduljica who is a joke and shouldn't even had been in Serbia's roster. He's 16th in efficiency which is pretty nice, but a lot of NBA scrubs are above him like Ty Lawson who probably wouldn't get a job in Euroleague these says. "Fantastic double-double" and shit...

If D-Mo was ever relevant last 4 years for Lithuanian BB is by winning in media and snatching clicks for local basketball sites. That's all what's left from him. Let's just leave him alone, IMO. Dude, would find ways to screw Euro quallies somehow as well, like playing zero D and jacking off threes and FTs. I don't blame him, he didn't screw his back to screw his career intentionally, but he became another bubble in some Lithuanians minds and in D-Mo's mind himself, IMO. "I'm ready to play". Yeah, we saw that in 2017 and we see that in China. Zero D, nightmare at the FT line, night of the living dead, China's league that is.

and despite all of that, he's still our best big after our two NBA centers...you could say that maybe Gudaitis is a better option for a NT at the moment, yet talent wise he's nowhere close to D-Mo

[Straight forward]

and despite all of that, he's still our best big after our two NBA centers...you could say that maybe Gudaitis is a better option for a NT at the moment, yet talent wise he's nowhere close to D-Mo

He's not. Gudaitis is by far better, because of D alone. Hopefully he's 4th best big at the moment, but I'm not even sure about it. We didn't see him playing at some real PRO league. In 2017 EB he badly sucked. Against Houston in preseason he looked like complete black hole at D and his team was ridiculously swept.

[madmax]

He's not. Gudaitis is by far better, because of D alone. Hopefully he's 4th best big at the moment, but I'm not even sure about it. We didn't see him playing at some real PRO league. In 2017 EB he badly sucked. Against Houston in preseason he looked like complete black hole at D and his team was ridiculously swept.

well, it's up to Maskoliunas and his coaching staff now to decide whether we need D-Mo's scoring and versatility in these upcoming qualifiers. If D-Mo is available and willing to help, we are not in a position to refuse his services just because he's supposedly a team cancer and a headcase - we can still use him in certain situations and against certain opponents

[Straight forward]

I'm starting to see the spot for Kulboka after watching couple of recent games, including tonight's. I thought maybe Masiulis would have an edge defensively, but now I think Kulboka is more flexible, agile and better defender than Masiulis. Off course, Masiulis would be better option against bigger PFs (but we can throw Sabonis and Gudaitis against such), but Kulboka really holding his ground, not only that, he is quick and flexible enough to provide some help defence, covering p'n'r like a stud, can switch everything basically. I really surprised how solid he looks at D. He's a flat out better defender than Kuz, let alone Bendzius. When I think about Masiulis, I have a harder task to imagine his role offensively. He's not a great, even if decent stretcher of the floor, shoots 30% both LKL and Champions league, so you don't particularly want him to stand outside the downtown, and he's not a good fit to either Domas or JV. Kulboka shoots tons of threes and makes 40%. Not only that, he is a nifty passer and driver at 4. We need shooting and a good fit for Domas and JV, and I'm starting to see Kulboka making a team. I also think Kuz should play more at 3, he can deal there defensively a little bit better maybe, and offensively he feels more comfortable there. What I like about Kulboka, he seems rather comfortable with strict role. He's no Kuz who has to mess around and run to get it going. Kulboka can patiently move around the corner, or to nail a three of the screen. Thus he is solid system player as well. His role is rather strict, but he provides in his 22minutes which indicates he may be a pretty good player with small stretches. To sum up, looking forward to him in Euro quallies and I kinda would love to see him starting at 4 and Kuzminskas at 3 in these games.

[Straight forward]

So D-Mo in for Euro quallies. Well, I guess it's a decent idea to test him. However, I found it rather crazy notion by Maskoliunas that D-Mo can play at 4 and can stretch the floor. Sure he can...

Here's post injury D-Mo threes stats:
15-16 28% (NBA)
16-17 23% (NBA)
17-18 35% (China)
18-19 32% (China)
19-20 33% (China)

In 2017 Eurobasket he shot 3 single threes. Like in 6 games he launched 3 threes playing at 4.

That's the guy who's gonna stretch the floor for us? Come on, Maskoliunas, you're better than that. Hell, even JV as a stretch 4 would be way better idea, way better. I'm serious here. Guy in the NBA shoots solid career 37% and this season thus far 42%. Let him stand in perimeter and allow Sabonis to mess inside. Freakin' D-Mo will be stretching the floor for us, what a joke. He can't hit a freakin' FT, how the hell he will shoot threes? D-Mo shoots 45% FTs this season, that's worse than Shaq and Javtokas. Last season he was shooting 52% and in 17/18 he shot 57% (EB 2017 40%). So he gradually declining.

Now, I like how Maskoliunas said you can cover one crappy guard at D, but not more. Thus at least we won't see such a joke as we seen in 2017EB with Mailaknis, Gecevicius, Juskevicius.

The only thing current D-MO has at the moment is good post game and good passing. That's all. His shooting declined, his agility declined, his D declined. Personally, I'm more than 100% sure we don't need him if there's Domas, JV, Gudaitis in. Plus, he's a nut case.

I guess Maskoliunas just doesn't want to put the same shit on his back as Adomaitis' got while cutting him for good. But that's scary if so, a coach shouldn't give a f... about stupid masses opinion.

[Shawshank]

Who could believe 5 years ago that biggest Dmo fan here will trash him like that

I was always againts this primadona, but never was nowhere close to this kind of trashing

Maskoliunas firstly says he don't see JV+Domas together, now he sees them together.Maybe after looking more closely he realised that there is simply nobody to put in pf position in our NT. Only Domantas can defend other elite teams powerforwards.

Zalgiris playing system and 4 possible centers in final roster have nothing in common.Strange Maskoliunas answers overall.