Jonas Kazlauskas named 25 players who will be invited to training and will compete for a spot in Lithuanian national team. The list includes a whole bunch of new names as well as return of EA7 Emporio Armani forward Linas Kleiza who missed last year’s FIBA World Cup.
The full list:
1. Deividas Gailius (SF-SG, 27, Neptunas)
2. Martynas Gecevicius (SG, 26, Lietuvos Rytas)
3. Rokas Giedraitis (SG-SF, 22, Siauliai)
4. Mindaugas Girdziunas (PG, 26, Neptunas)
5. Arturas Gudaitis (C, 21, Zalgiris)
6. Zygimantas Janavicius (PG, 26, Lietuvos Rytas)
7. Paulius Jankunas (PF, 31, Zalgiris)
8. Robertas Javtokas (C, 35, Zalgiris)
9. Adas Juskevicius (SG-PG, 26, Lietuvos Rytas)
10. Mantas Kalnietis (PG, 28, Free agent)
11. Vaidas Kariniauskas (PG, 21, Zalgiris)
12. Linas Kleiza (PF, 30, EA7 Emporio Armani)
13. Antanas Kavaliauskas (C, 30, Lietuvos Rytas)
14. Mindaugas Kuzminskas (SF, 25, Unicaja)
15. Darjus Lavrinovic (C, 35, Grissin Bon Reggio Emilia)
16. Lukas Lekavicius (PG, 21, Zalgiris)
17. Jonas Maciulis (SF, 30, Real Madrid)
18. Arturas Milaknis (SG, 28, Zalgiris)
19. Donatas Motiejunas (PF, 24, Houston Rockets)
20. Gediminas Orelik (SF, 24, Lietuvos Rytas)
21. Martynas Pocius (SG-SF, 29, Galatasaray)
22. Domantas Sabonis (PF-C, 19, Gonzaga University)
23. Renaldas Seibutis (SG, 29, Darussafaka & Dogus)
24. Edgaras Ulanovas (SF-SG, 23, Zalgiris)
25. Jonas Valanciunas (C, 22, Toronto Raptors)
There’s a big uncertainty whether Donatas Motiejunas will be able to fully recover after a back surgery which ended his NBA season before the playoffs. Kazlauskas himself is not very optimistic about the chance to have the Houston Rockets forward on his team in EuroBasket 2015.
Despite having a rather poor season in Italy, Linas Kleiza, who rested last summer, is back on the list. Especially with Motiejunas’s situation in doubt. Though it’s still not clear if he will be available. Kleiza told Kazlauskas a few weeks ago that he has some injuries and wanted to wait for the season to end before giving a final answer.
There are quite a few players who have never played for national team who were invited to the camp (Gailius, Giedraitis, Girdziunas, Gudaitis, Janavicius, Kariniauskas, Lekavicius, Milaknis, Orelik, Sabonis and Ulanovas).
EuroBasket 2013 silver medalists will start their EuroBasket 2015 campaign in Group D in Riga alongside Latvia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Belgium and Ukraine.
