Originally posted by Shawshank
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Originally posted by Shawshank
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It's not the farm, but you should be very sharp-sighted towards chances to improve your talent. If there's windows where you can throw some young standouts, I much rahter do that, than don't.
Originally posted by Shawshank
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No-one ever talking about tanking. Some youngsters are essentially at the same level as some veterans. Tell me the essential difference between Sirvydis, Giedraitis and Juskevicius, Gailius? They all would be completely irrelevant in the knock out stage of real tournament. What it has to do with tanking? When you ride complete mediocre veteran at the end of the bench is aiming for awards, and when you do it with (more or less) the same level youngster, is tanking? My point is, let's give 12th spot for talented youngster, not mediocre veteran, unless he fills very particular need. If not, let's go with talent.
F.e. Remember Gailius in 2015. The guy was no specialist of anything. Not a good defender, not a good system player, inconsistent shooter, ect. Maybe he brings energy from the bench, let's say. He showed up in three games, basically playing meaningful minutes only against Latvia. So that's 27yo snatches a spot and basically sits out all tournament. Now imagine we had current Sirvydis in 2015. Who would you choose to run those more or less meaningful minutes, like 30 minutes in entire tournament, Gailius or Sirvydis? The mediocre veteran, or the guy who has an upside to become one of the keys in the near future? I take Sirvydis and I wouldn't tank at all.
The different case was with 27 R.Giedraitis and Butkevicius in 2019. Both were specialists and their role was clear. One was shooter and scorer, and we badly missed shooting, and Butkevicius was a defensive bulldog for short stretches, who can guard big guards. It make sense.
It's not about necessary pushing youngsters, it's about knowing all your options and being completely sharp-sighted and flexible while building a TEAM, including the projections about the long term success. Big wins doesn't come from no-where, you also have to work towards those. Remember Kazlauskas words "we had to go through lot off losses, till Jasikevicius became Jasikevicius". Saras wasn't the guy who played consistently and spot on from the day one. He had to go through his mistakes in NT exactly, but it was clear he's a gem and he had to be in the NT. Nobody complained when we snatched a bronze in 2000 OG or champs title in Sweden.
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