Lithuanian talents.

[LuDux]

Metrikis dislocated shoulder

[Dreamcatcher]

Disagree. If U18 and U19 don't clash, I would include best talents possible. Marciulionis maybe, but Tubelis and Kancleris are ready to go surely. Actually I think Marciulionis would do well too in terms of facilitating and playing great D. It's national teams, it shouldn't be the aim to take scrubs or average ones just according to age group.

And how Velicka is not available for U19? He's 19 and will be so at the summer.

You don't count in a right way. It's about year of birth, not about age exactly. It will be WC U19 in summer 2019, so 2019-19=2000. It means in that tournament can play 2000 y. born and younger players. Velicka is older - he's 1999 y. born. He was born in December 1999. If he would be born one month later then it would be January 2000 and he would be available, but he's not and will be able to play only in EC U20. I hope now it's clear.

2000 y. generation has enough talent in 1,2,3 positions: Jokubaitis, Vilys, Giedraitis, Adomavicius, Sirvydis, Jarumbauskas, Arlauskas. It's already a full squad. I don't think some Marciulionis would be very needed for this team to substitute Jokubaitis at the best or Kancleris sitting on the bench if Sirvydis and Jarumbauskas are available. Who would play then in U18 EC? it's a rare thing when players take part in 2 champs in summer. It's not a good thing for a health. So them playing in U18 champ looks more real if not some injuries happen.

[Recp]

Talking about Velicka, what are your expectations and hopes regarding him?

[Dreamcatcher]

Talking about Velicka, what are your expectations and hopes regarding him?

I didn't have good feelings about him earlier in spite of the fact he looked solid and had a good game IQ. He reminded another promising lithuanian prospect Cizauskas because of a strong pg body and poor shooting and unfortunately it looks like it had sense. I haven't seen him this season though.

[Straight forward]

Talking about Velicka, what are your expectations and hopes regarding him?

What's your opinion about him? Did you watch some of his games in Estonia?

OT:

Perlas pleasured us with great guard performances this season. Who impressed you the most and how do you see these players developing? Giedraitis 36pts, Sirvydis 36 and 33pts, Jarumbauskas 39pts, Vilys 31 and 30 pts games, Marciulionis 21pts and 9as games.

I would see things like this:

Sirvydis. Probably the most gifted, maybe only Marciulionis can beat him in a long run, but lacks a little bit of quickness, ballhandling and midrange game to be absolutely elite.
Marciulionis. Showed some amazing strides this mid season, but now kind hit the rookie wall of NKL, burned out because of many minutes and games. His basketball IQ is great, he has some skills. Those will make him a baller. What does concern me however, how tough and quick he can be (he doesn't posses father's athleticism, let's face it, even if has very strong and long arms and legs) and his scoring abilities is suspect at the moment. Yet I still believe he has a very good shot at becoming world class PG.
Giedraitis. Maybe the most complete individual talent, yet I'm not convinced that travels to the higher level. He lacks toughness and athletic tools. But he has IQ, great game around the basket (much as his father and Seibutis in a sense) and good midrange game, he can also hit a three even if the shot is a bit flat to me. Looking forward to see how he will look in LKL.
Vilys. He is the guy who has good athletic body. Currently he's a bit thin and soft, but he has athleticism, motor and good scoring insticts. Now I see that he really developed nicely and I have little doubt he will be a solid LKL player. His ceiling however is intriguing. If he can put it all together, he might be a real PRO. He can shoot, he can get inside, he can hustle, he can pass a little bit, pretty explosive. He's a dark horse in the list.
Jarumabauskas. Wish I could put him higher, but at the moment he has issues with reading the game, consistency and identity. Also he's a tweener. His body is more of SF, but his skillset is guard like. It will be interesting to see how he will develop.

[Straight forward]

This video made me LOL. Lekavicius (looks like a baby out there) crosses the half court line and gives the ball to Grigonis (his hair is so ginger here) who bravely and foolishly dribbling the ball between the legs just beside baseline in the clutch and than goes for a hero shot 7 years past and those 2 can might be the best guards we have today in NT:

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

[LuDux]

Metrikis dislocated shoulder

Already playing. False alarm?


Tubelis almost 20 minutes, 27 points, 2 - 9/9, 3 - 3/3

[Dreamcatcher]

Another great performance from Perlas player. Tubelis with a career high - 27 pts just in 19 min without any missing shot and he will be only 17 this month. So many of them individually performed this season: Jarumbauskas scoring 39 pts and showing some good skills, Vilys playing so well in the 2nd half of the season and having some 30 pts games, Giedraitis averaging a lot (about 18 pts with a huge 36 pts game) and going to LKL, Sirvydis playing few games that was more than enough for a career high performances scoring 36 and 33 pts, Marciulionis being not great offensively but still showing some good performances and potential, Tubutis showing up being an interesting player not being any serious talent in the past and moving to Rytas to end the season. Blazevic should have spent a season here as well as it didn't end up well sitting on the bench in Rytas.

[Straight forward]

I think Perlas is the first club who seriously adopted new style of basketball allowing best youngsters to play a lot of one on one and ISO. Gronskis never tries to slow down players who gets it going particular day. Giedraitis was going ISO all season long till he went to Lietkalbelis. Zalgiris 2 is a bit more strict and I think Šaras wants a little bit more system to the game which reflects his own attitude. I think it's good we have 2 different schools, we will have different kind of players. However, I believe young players should have a lot of freedom and later to improve their BB understanding. First you need skill, than knowledge.

[Recp]

What's your opinion about him? Did you watch some of his games in Estonia?

He's been doing quite well. Good at P&R, has very good scoring instincts, although I am not entirely sold on his shooting yet (up and down three-point shooting). He tends to take a lot of three-pointers, some of them are questionable shots and seem a little bit forced. Also, his defense must improve if he wants to become a top level PG (needs to toughen up physically). Other than that, he seems like a very good prospect to me, he has a nice change of rhythm and seems to possess a good basketball IQ. Very good court vision and ball distribution.

Tartu has a really young team this season (there are only 5 players with 20+ years of age, one of them has already ended his season due to injury), so naturally Velicka has been the main PG of the team. He spends a lot of minutes on the court and has the permission to make mistakes without the fear of being benched (their back-up PG is 18 years old) and I think such role has unleashed him a bit.
Having said that, there have been some matches where the stronger rivals have done their scouting well and have managed to shut him down quite successfully. For example, Kalev/Cramo has not had much problems with him so far (13 points with 4-15 FG in the first match and 8 points with 3-9 FG in the second match).

As for the overall league level, I’d say that the big three (Kalev/Cramo, Ventspils, VEF) are more or less on the same par as Rytas and Neptunas and would challenge for a silver or bronze medal in LKL. Then there are group of teams (Ogre, TalTech, Tartu, Jurmala, Rapla, Parnu) who I’d say, on their day, are probably at the same level with lower-tier LKL teams (with shorter bench though). Other teams (LU, Valmiera, Jekabpils, Valga, Liepaja) in the league are probably at the similar level with some of the NKL teams. LuDux's assessment was pretty precise in my opinion: top half teams are at LKL level, bottom half are probably more likely at NKL level.

When compared to Cizauskas (albeit different players), Velicka even at this age just seems on a different level to me. Velicka makes the team click better and in overall just seems a more special player with a higher ceiling.

[Straight forward]

Thanks for great reply Recp. I admit I used to see Estonian league lower. Still for a talented youngster, knowing that Velicka was playing successfully in NKL as a 16yo, it is a bit of wild west playing among bottom teams since some of our youngsters (18-20yo) goes for 36 and 40 points games in NKL this season. Those youngsters are really talented though. So generally it's nice to know it's pretty nice level and Velicka now badly needs playing time, a lot of.

When compared to Cizauskas (albeit different players), Velicka even at this age just seems on a different level to me. Velicka makes the team click better and in overall just seems a more special player with a higher ceiling.

That's what I've been saying. Not that I'm sure Velicka will become a good baller, but Cizauskas comparison is not accurate. FOA. Cizauskas can shoot and Velicka not really (at least yet). Second, Velicka can control the team and can change tempos and has much better basketball IQ. Cizauskas has serious issues with BB IQ, never been able to improve at this point year after year. However, I've seem little improvement by Velicka since he was 17yo and now he's 19. Hopefully after bunch of playing time we'll see the changes.

[Straight forward]

I hope out federation is not sleeping on Brazdeikis. He's legit. I like that he's aggressive and the tough guy. Could be one of emotional leaders for us in upcoming decade as well.

[Dreamcatcher]

To Recp
I think you exaggerate the level of top Latvian and Estonian teams saying they are on the same level with Rytas. When the latter doesn't struggle it can compete against way stronger rivals than Baltic teams. It's hard to judge the level of Latvian and Estonian teams though since you rarely see them in Europe. Ventspils that is leading in Latvian-Estonian league didn't get out frome the CL league that is weaker than Eurocup. Kalev and VEF are out of the play off zone in VTB league. Those results aren't solid. I believe that Kalev is coached well by Kairis and can play nowadays but i was never impressed by the level of Latvian and Estonian teams overall. When Baltic league was created it was long years about Zalgiris and Rytas. When they left it was won only one time by Ventspils and three in a row by Siauliai that ended as a 3rd Lithuanian team a few years before that. I liked a crowd in Estonia, other stuff but the level was a thing i wasn't impressed let's say like that.

Anyway, it's good for Velicka to play a lot and to have a freedom even if it may be too much as no one would let him to shoot so many threes on a serious level as he's far from being a good shooter. He performed well in NKL at the very young age and it was promising but then he mooved to Spain and it ended fucked up as a result he lost much time.

[Dreamcatcher]

I hope out federation is not sleeping on Brazdeikis. He's legit. I like that he's aggressive and the tough guy. Could be one of emotional leaders for us in upcoming decade as well.

It's not about federation, but about Lithuanian laws that don't allow a double citizenship. He's 20 years old and i don't think he won't play for Canadian NT (he already played in youth NT) just to wait until laws in Lithuania change.

[Hepcat]

Hopefully the LKF has made the Lithuanian government and Seimas aware of this problem. Basketball I understand resonates even with government bureaucrats in Lithuania. Maybe the Seimas could pass an exception to the law for fellow NATO countries or something.