2021 Euro Qualifiers

[Straight forward]

Maybe you can answer me my question. Velicka was in U18 a really solid shooter and turned to a total non shooter. Do you have an explanation for that? The same goes for the french guard Juhann Begarin. Its very seldom that a player loses his shooting ability.

Velicka never was a solid shooter. 19.6% at U18, and 23.1% at U20. Always shoots with confidence, but always end up with bad % Mechanics are decent and he tends to be better in crunch time. Maybe you seen some great games and he surely can nail a three, sometimes 4 or even 5 in a game, but generally he never was a solid shooter.

[Dreamcatcher]

Maybe you can answer me my question. Velicka was in U18 a really solid shooter and turned to a total non shooter. Do you have an explanation for that? The same goes for the french guard Juhann Begarin. Its very seldom that a player loses his shooting ability.

Well, you have misleading impressions. Velicka wasn't and isn't neither a solid shooter nor a non-shooter. It always simply was his main flaw. He could make those shots well, but also bad so he was a damn inconsistent here.

I checked his u18 stats - 19% 3pt shooting. Indeed, a very solid one.

[Straight forward]

So Arnas Velička, Rokas Jokubaitis, Tadas Sedekerskis, Laurynas Beliauskas and Arnoldas Kulboka could indeed be ready to contribute to the qualifiers this fall and I'd like to see what they can do.

I agree, but not because of stats. You can't be serious judging players only by stats. I assume you may not ever seen Beliauskas playing for Nevezis this season, right? How can you seriously judge player's abilities on stats alone and never even observe him? Don't get this personal, please, but that just doesn't make sense. The same Beliauskas dropped those points for the dead end worse or second worse LKL team this season. There's a chance that some Lukosiunas would score a bunch there, let alone youngster studs like Sirvydis, Jokubaitis. There's thousands on of details in those stats and it means little on the paper alone. F.e. Sedekerskis is super unconfident and extremely passive while he's the MVP of Neptunas. You gotta dig deeper, your method reminds me a bit of teenagers's method - that is obsession on stats.

[Toruko]

Well, you have misleading impressions. Velicka wasn't and isn't neither a solid shooter nor a non-shooter. It always simply was his main flaw. He could make those shots well, but also bad so he was a damn inconsistent here.

I checked his u18 stats - 19% 3pt shooting. Indeed, a very solid one.

I just watched the EC U18 and he shot there very well and EC U20 last year some games. Your right not much imput. Never mind.

[Hepcat]

I agree, but not because of stats. You can't be serious judging players only by stats.... You gotta dig deeper, your method reminds me a bit of teenagers's method - that is obsession on stats.

I don't obsess with the stats. But when a quick comparison is needed, that's where you have to start. The coaches of Team Lietuva must then assess which players have the right skill set to be building blocks for the team.

Granted, I do end up checking the stats when I see you or any other poster waxing eloquent about any youngster's talent and potential. That's because I think it's critical that he's actually effective as opposed to just having all the tools. I don't care how he "looks" out on the floor; I don't care about his "mechanics". My concern is whether his shots (regardless of how they look) actually fall in and whether his team plays better overall when he's on the floor. And the stats are an excellent first indicator of those things.

[Dirtyh]

Any stream to game?

[Saip]

The win means nothing, it's still very bad play by team.

[ZaliaBalta]

The quality or Kalnietis + Motiejūnas vs. Jokubaitis + Birutis was so freaking different in favor of the youngsters. I don’t really know whether the lack of games during last month had any influence on DMO’s form, but it is really bad. Every attack of Czechs had been organised through DMO. And almost all of them were successful. Bendžius was lit tonight. But the best thing from today’s game was Jokubaitis’s role as a floor general. He needs to control those tough-early-crazy lay ups of his a bit bitter, but the on-the-floor management is fantastic.

[Shawshank]

Do we see change of guard our NT was searching for entire decade in PG position?

Marciulionis 1987-1996
Jasikevicius 1998-2008
Kalnietis 2010-2020
Jokubaitis 2021- ?

Lukas is not PG,he is combo professional scorer.


Bendzius show what can he provide for NT had really great game ,but still im not fan of him looking further.

[madmax]

So it looks like SF's beloved Bendzius is defying all odds and dragging lithuanian NT from the brink of disaster into yet another major tournament lmao... Seems like a guy is built for these B or C level NT games, he's pretty much GOATing out there scoring wise

(oh, and btw, let the three old musketeers Kalnietis, D-Mo and Maciulis finaly retire in peace for good - maybe don't shoot the old horses, but let them finally have their long deserved retirement holidays)

[Straight forward]

Do we see change of guard our NT was searching for entire decade in PG position?

Marciulionis 1987-1996
Jasikevicius 1998-2008
Kalnietis 2010-2020
Jokubaitis 2021- ?

Lukas is not PG,he is combo professional scorer.

Here's my projection. 20s will be by far the best decade of position 1. We have three world class material prospects players in - A.Marciulionis, Jokubaitis, Velicka + more of a combo Lekavicius. Lekavcius will peak in 20's, whoever he is. Jokubaitis will be best pure PG till 2025, about that time Marciulionis will prevail as by far the best PG in the country (around age 22). At this point, Velicka may even surpass Jokubaitis, as he will add decision making and team controlling skills. Jokubaitis will always remain inferior in terms of physical profile to Marciulionis and Velicka. To have these 4 pieces in 20's gonna be the luxury we never witnessed. Not to mention super universal SG - Dovydas Giedraitis - who's facilitating numbers went off charts together with Jokubaitis at U19 WC (while both being 17). That will be an mazing blossom of this position, IMO, which should be the the strongest with 5.

2 should also be stronger, even if a bit sort of nominal options. The most expressed and highest upside nominal option are Grigonis and D. Giedraitis. The latter has everything what Sg should have + D. Then goes Sirvydis, Brazdeikis - NBA upside tweeners and we surely mix here some 1 position player, Lekavicius in the first place, but the same Marciulionis in a long run won't have any issues to play 1-2 positions.

3 will slightly decline, IMO. Jasaitis, Kleiza, Maciulis, Kuzminskas (best position in 10's, IMO) is hard to
match. But Ulanovas, R.Giedraitis, Brazdeikis, Sirvydis should have a decent chance for a try and the position will remain solid at the very least.

4 should be an obvious decline. Kleiza, Jankunas, D.Lavrinovic (in a way), Kuzminskas. Sure, Sabonis is an all star, but he's essentially 5, so the weight goes on Kluboka, Masiulis, Sedekerskis. Unless Tubelis and Murauskas would leave a mark here (one is essentially 5, IMO, other too young) I see slight decline.

5 should be another improvement because JV will stick around in the 1 phase of 20's, Sabonis is an all star and Tubelis is NBA upside 5 + solid options in Gudaitis, Echodas.


Generally, the leap of talent should be outstanding. There's some real physical profiles with the package of skills. It's not some Gecevicius, Vasiliauskas, or one hand pony Janavicius as some serious prospects in the dawn of 10's. Completely different prospects upside and it comes as surprise with our declining market. The radical improvement of position 1 should entirely turn things around. I wouldn't dear to project us bouncing back to medal category (other teams like Canada, France, Aussies, Latvia are building massive rosters to make FIBA as competitive as never likely), but in terms of our perspective, my projection is this:

20's >>>>>10's

[Dreamcatcher]

To SF
At that time you considered Janavicius as NBA material, i think you remember. You even put him in final NT roster not so many months ago. But then time comes and he's somr sort of trash, even his potential became so that is not true eben if i didn't like him never.

[Straight forward]

To SF
At that time you considered Janavicius as NBA material, i think you remember. You even put him in final NT roster not so many months ago. But then time comes and he's somr sort of trash, even his potential became so that is not true eben if i didn't like him never.

I did it was 10-12 years ago. I had no strong critical judgment by my own in my early 20's and ignored 2 components in the first place - toughness and defence. Janavicius had rather impressive physical profile and some good performances in youth ball as 2 ways PG. His draftexpress page is full of data - http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/...navicius-1095/ But he never worked on his weaknesses, never added more skill and decision making. And, yeah, in 2016, 2017 Janavcius could be in, why not. It's not fair he never got a single tournament.

[Shawshank]

Straightforward

decade is only 2 months old he already can say that our tallen will be better wow nostradamus

If atleast 50% of your picked boys will achieve NT level it would good.But we already seen so manny lost tallents and obviuosly we will see more.

You were telling as like for 2 years how Motiejunas is the best Lithuanian player in middle of decade.He wouldnt even made top 10 decade team .So we can imagine alot of things,but lets not look more than 2 years ahead.Sport is changing rapidly.

If you want to talk about future so we can imagine next olympic cycle 2021-2024 there we can see some things developing already ,talking what can happen after that is just useless.Nobody knows.

Especially you when you never take in considerations players mindset psychology ,character,stamina,heart only look at raw talent.Without character and strong stamina just tallent wont win multiple medals thats is proven in all sports.



What 85 generations (1984-1986) players leaded team achieve ( 3 medals,4 semifinal apereances) in 2010s it will be very hard to repeat in 2020.That would be my only long shot guess what i see in world of basketball and our NT right now is happening.

[Straight forward]

Straightforward

decade is only 2 months old he already can say that our tallen will be better wow nostradamus

If atleast 50% of your picked boys will achieve NT level it would good.But we already seen so manny lost tallents and obviuosly we will see more.

It's a projection. I would be shocked if our talent wouldn't leap in 20s compared to 10's. It's more than obvious it's gonna happen. How much, it;s different question though.

What 85 generations (1984-1986) players leaded our team achieve ( 3 medals,4 semifinal apereances) in 2010s it will be very hard to repeat in 2020.That would be my only long shot guess what i see in world of basketball and our nT will happen in 2020s.

Comparison won't go in medal collections. To say that 10's NT was as competitive as 90's and 00's would be complete joke, I hope you will agree here, but we got three collections each decade. Not more not less.

Motiejunas screwed his career with back injury. Before it, he was elite 4-5 and was about to have huge 2015EB. After injury, he's irrelevant basically. Unless you mean some prospect will face some injuries, and that's interesting point.

Stamina and charackter? Good point! However, Grigonis is an ultimate fighter and the one who is carrying the flag at the moment since Kalnietis, Maciulis declining. Sabonis is a fighter, even if too humble a little bit. Marciulionis has father's genes, he's very vocal and you can see he's schooling older guys in Perlas already. Brazdeikis is cheeky and playing with huge swagger. I like gutsiness and solidness of D.Giedraitis, he was the captain of U19 this summer and was flat out leader till sprained his ankle. Some underrated silent generals as Lekavicius. His blood is cold in crunch time. We'll see, but I doubt we'll become soft mentally.