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Donatas Motiejunas is one of the most promising young centers in Europe so I think he deserves to have his own thread where we could follow his progress.

Birthdate: 1990-09-20
Birthplace: Kaunas, Lithuania
Height: 2.13 m
Weight: 97 kg
Position: center



Motiejūnas was a member of both U-18 and U-20 NT's last summer winnning European silver with both.

At the moment Motiejunas is playing in LKL (Lithuanian Basketball League). And he is doing very well so far. He is a member of Aisciai Kaunas.

He is the top scorer in LKL with 21.2 points per game.

Donatas Motiejunas LKL stats

Points Per Game: 21.2
Minues Per Game: 32:20
Rebounds Per Game: 7.4
2PT %: 49.2
3PT %: 50

Donatas Motiejunas BBL (Baltic Basketball League) stats

Points Per Game: 17.1
Minues Per Game: 31:29
Rebounds Per Game: 5.1
2PT %: 45.0
3PT %: 35.7

It will be nice to see him and Aisčiai in LKF cup final 4! He played great against Alytus and I persuaded how mobile this guy is while being 2.13 cm. Now, the question is how fast he'll be able to improve physically, though It's obvious he's already good for LKL. Varnelis was realy pissed of about his hard play

Yeah he was to hard to stop for Alytus front line. It was a nice start for him with 11 points in just a few minutes. He seems to be very consistent as he had 20 points and 8 rebounds.

What was going on with all that poor free-throw shooting by both teams yesterday?

He didn't play well at all against Žalgiris, but was back on form again against Šiauliai in the 3rd place playoffs. Really unlucky to lose in OT, though, after coming back from 17 down.

I read he's not looking to enter the '09 draft. Does that mean he'll be going to Žagiris? Or do you reckon he'll move abroad somewhere?

Welcome back Andrius! It's been a while.

If Žalgiris wants him I guess he will accept their offer. His performances are really impressive for his age. But the main question is wether he is ready for the top level. I don't see the point in going abroad and sitting on the bench. Unless of course he gets a guranteed time which I doubt.

We shouldn't rule out the possibility that he could move to another Lithuanian team like Šiauliai or even Rytas.

He's not ready for the highest level. The game against Žalgiris showed that clearly. Jankūnas didn't let him to move, he's too weak physically. But he's still amazing! I have no doubt that after few years he'll start to dominate in highest level as well.

He belongs to Aisciai at the moment. He could easily go the top clubs if he would want that. But I think Žalgiris would be really proper challenge for the next year.

Thanks, Vilius

I thought he still belonged to Žalgiris and they loaned him out to Aisčiai (not that I read that anywhere, I sort of assumed that since he played for Sabonis school). I definitely agree that he's not ready to dominate at the highest level, but he is certainly a regular performer, since he is top scorer in the LKL.

If he went to Žalgiris, he would probably be a starter, right? I think next year, WITH Motiejūnas, Žalgiris would be a very strong team. If they can keep the current players. Which is, I suppose, unlikely to happen with the financial situation.

(Jan 25, 2009, 12:32 pm)Andrius Wrote: [ -> ]If he went to Žalgiris, he would probably be a starter, right? I think next year, WITH Motiejūnas, Žalgiris would be a very strong team. If they can keep the current players. Which is, I suppose, unlikely to happen with the financial situation.

I don't think so. If Jankūnas would stay, he would be a starter surely. Motiejūnas is not so strong yet that he could be a key player for Žalgiris. And no way that he could put enough muscles trough one year. In other hand, I would agree that the next year Motiejūnas could play 10-15 minutes in Euroleague.

Donatas Motiejūnas, 18 years old, 2.13m, F/C

He already is a big thing actually

One of the leaders of the Lithuanian league - stats.

Quote:Draft Watch: Who's hot, who's not?

Who's Hot

[...]

Donatas Motiejūnas, F, Lithuania

Every year NBA GMs fly around the world looking for the next Dirk Nowitzki. There have been lots of pretenders -- from Nikoloz Tskitishvilli to Vladimir Radmanovic to Andrea Bargnani (who actually looks pretty good this season) to Danilo Gallinari -- but the next Nowitzki has proven to be pretty elusive. This year's Dirk wannabe is Motiejunas -- a 7-foot, 215-pound forward who, you guessed it, runs the floor, has a pretty jumper and can play multiple positions.

Motiejūnas has many of the same red flags as those other guys. Scouts say he is soft, needs to add a lot of strength and is playing against watered down competition in Lithuania. However, he's averaging more than 20 points and shooting around 50 percent from 3-point territory -- that's not bad for an 18-year-old in any league in Europe. While it's highly likely he stays in Europe for another season, a couple of international scouts are telling me there are rumblings he might leave.

Said one NBA executive who watched Motiejūnas this year: "He's the closest kid I've seen to Dirk coming out of Europe. Honestly. I know what you're thinking. But this kid could be really good."

Somewhere, Bill Simmons is licking his chops for the third round of our annual draft debate.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2009/...tch-090227

D. Motiejūnas scored 21 points and grabbed 8 rebounds in 12th Nike Hoop Summit while World team beat USA 97: 89. Motiej?nas had a pretty bad shooting %, but he managed to score 12 points in 4th quarter.

The bad thing he missed the semis of BBL challenge cup and his team lost it.

Can't wait to see him play in tougher competition.

Motiejunas' highlights from the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E37MBYJ-w7k

Another good game by Motiejūnas as he played 27 minutes, scored 21 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in Benetton's 96-92 win over Cantu.

(Jan 31, 2010, 1:19 pm)Vilius Wrote: [ -> ]Another good game by Motiejūnas as he played 27 minutes, scored 21 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in Benetton's 96-92 win over Cantu.

He had great two games and the bad one against Bamberg. Not a big deal for a young guy. The positive note is that he's starting to feel comfortable at this level and showed what he can. Repeša even put him in the starting line. He needs one more year in Benneton. It appears to be good place for him to progress.

Motiejūnas had 32 points (13/17 2PTS, 2/5 3PTS) and 21 rebounds as Benetton crushed Napoli 169:29.

Meh, empty stat line since Napoli are playing with their kids on the court. Can you give a good scouting report on Montiejunas, Vilius? Or do you not know him well enough?

It's hard to give a scouting report since I saw him play only several times last time being in summer 2009 I think. I could try to list the main aspects of his style of play. Despite being 2.13 m he's more like SF or PF. That's mainly because he's skinny. Therefore he rarely players under the basket as a real center. He can't push his opponents in most cases. Usually he takes mid-range shots and sometimes three-pointers. Motiejūnas has a soft shot which makes him dangerous in almost any range. His main weakness is defence. I don't know how much he improved this year in Italy but he needs to seriously work on that part of the game. Rebounding is weak as well. Also his personality is often quoted as being too lazy and not working hard enough. Just to illustrate that I could mentioned the fact that last year he said he won't play for any youth NT's anymore despite still being eligible because he's too good for that in his opinion. Some people compare him with Dirk Nowitzki.

Doesn't sound too great. There are lots of sweet-shooting big men out there. So, advantages: tall, good shooter. Disadvantages: defense, rebounding, work ethic, post game, strength. Sounds like another NBA bust in the making. How's his dribbling and passing?

(Mar 28, 2010, 6:52 pm)kobimel Wrote: [ -> ]Doesn't sound too great. There are lots of sweet-shooting big men out there. So, advantages: tall, good shooter. Disadvantages: defense, rebounding, work ethic, post game, strength. Sounds like another NBA bust in the making. How's his dribbling and passing?

IMO, shooting isn't his main weapon. His quickness and great foot work is. To put it short, he can do almost anything at the offense (at least he could that at LKL).

Motiejunas is going to participate in 2010 drafts. Way to soon IMO.