Olympics are over and a new thread should be created. Some latest news from NT.
Head coach Ramunas Butautas said he's staying with NT despite promising to resign if the team don't bring medals from Beijing.
Ramunas Siskauskas announced his retirement from NT. He made his international debut in 2000 Sydney Olympics. Siskas was a real disappointment for me in Beijing. It looked like didn't have enough time to be fresh after a season in CSKA Moscow.
I think there will be more retirements announced soon. Saras will probably be next.
(Aug 26, 2008, 1:39 pm)Vilius Wrote: [ -> ]Olympics are over and a new thread should be created. Some latest news from NT.
Head coach Ramunas Butautas said he's staying with NT despite promising to resign if the team don't bring medals from Beijing.
Ramunas Siskauskas announced his retirement from NT. He made his international debut in 2000 Sydney Olympics. Siskas was a real disappointment for me in Beijing. It looked like didn't have enough time to be fresh after a season in CSKA Moscow.
I think there will be more retirements announced soon. Saras will probably be next.
Well, Butautas did a good job with this group, I think he deserve another chance. These are retirements definitives or only for Eurobasket 2009?
Siskauskas said that he made this decision after Euroasket 2007. When asked wether it is just a break, he said that he won't return.
I can see the bright side of these retirements. They would most probably make as less serious contenders in Eurobasket 2009. But we are hosting Eurobasket 2011 and even now it is declared that we must win it. There's lots of talented youth in Lithuania. They must be introduced to the men's team and get experience. Wether players like Siskauskas or Jasikevicius stay with NT or not, it is clear that they won't play in 2011. New players must be called up and play together. Because it will be hard to expect good results if you bring new players for the championship.
Ramunas Butautas said in an interview that he thinks that Ramunas Siskauskas could still change his opinion (regarding retirement) in the future.
I would like that starting five will by : C D.Motiejunas
PF P.Jankunas
SF J.Maciulis
SG A.Macijauskas
PG Z.Janavicius
Sorry for speaking in LT ( Igautu patirties ir butu labai gerai ,ypac tiku Motiejunu ir Janavicium)
(Aug 26, 2008, 1:39 pm)Vilius Wrote: [ -> ]Ramunas Siskauskas announced his retirement from NT.
Well he's 30 but he still had plenty to give to the NT. Šiškauskas would probably become the sole leader of the NT if he had continued (I think Kleiza will have that role from now on). A pitty also for those who like watching him with the Lith jersey.
(Sep 1, 2008, 9:56 am)InTRo Wrote: [ -> ]I would like that starting five will by : C D.Motiejunas
PF P.Jankunas
SF J.Maciulis
SG A.Macijauskas
PG Z.Janavicius
Sorry for speaking in LT ( Igautu patirties ir butu labai gerai ,ypac tiku Motiejunu ir Janavicium)
Where's Kleiza, Javtokas, Lavrinovic bros, Saras? I think that Motiejunas could be included in the team but maybe for 2010 World Champs. Jankunas is not that good either. Maciulis' main weakness is that he can't control his body. If he tries to penetrate to the basket it's either an offensive foul or a foul against him. Janavicius is promising but way too unexperienced to be a starting PG and get many minutes. If he has a great season in Zalgiris which I can't see happening then he might be considered as a potential addition to the team.
Since Garastas said that the team should have its best players next year, my starting five would be Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Ksystof Lavrinovic, Linas Kleiza, Arvydas Macijauskas, Sarunas Jasikevicius. Then the bench Rimantas Kaukenas (he can be starting SG if Macas is not in a good shape), Simas Jasaitis, Robertas Javtokas, Darjus Lavrinovic, Jonas Maciulis, Mindaugas Lukauskis (if he has a good season again), Donatas Motiejunas (also if he has a good season), Zygimantas Janavicius or Rolandas Alijevas or Mantas Kalnietis (yet again it depends on their performances at their clubs).
That's my list if Songaila and Siskauskas don't change their minds about retirement.
The problem is that Butautas doesn't have faith in young players. So even if he chooses someone like Motiejunas and keeps him on the bench then he won't gain much experience.
The plan of the federation is to have the best squad in 2009 and start introducing new players from 2010. So once again we will have a weak team in WC.
As for Kleiza becoming a leader of NT, I am not so sure. I mean he's hot headed and often receives unnecessary technical fouls. Opposite to Siska, Kleiza is always arguing with the refs. He will be a leader though if he continues making progress so fast. The others will be either too young or too old to keep this status.
Preliminary schedule of Lithuania NT for the summer 2009.
August
Lithuania vs. Latvia in Kaunas Sports Hall (celebrating 70th years since the Hall was built. It will also be a replay of Eurobasket 1937 final)
Lithuania vs. Latvia in Riga
Series of friendly games in Spain
Lithuania vs. Spain
Lithuania vs. Croatia
Lithuania vs. Slovenia
September
Lithuania vs. Spain in Vilnius on
September 1st
Lithuania vs. Russia in Vilnius
I hope to go to a game vs. Spain. It will be the first time that they play a preparation game away from Spain. Hopefully they won't be bring their own referees
The dates were announced of all friendly games.
August 12, Kaunas
Lithuania â Latvia
August 14, Riga
Latvia â Lithuania
August 18-20, Tournament in Madrid
Participants: Spain, Lithuania, Slovenia, Great Britain.
August 24-26, Athens. Acropolis Tournament
Participants: Greece, Lithuania, Russia, Serbia.
August 31, Panevezys
Lithuania â Russia
August 2, Vilnius
Lithuania â Spain
As for NT news:
There are plenty romours about Darius Songaila. Lithuanian BB federation says that he may play in Eurobasket 2009, while Songaila seems to deny these reports. I guess, this question stays open.
Macijauskas could be easily put into the roster of expectants, cause he mentioned that he would like to play for NT once again.
Butautas left ASK Riga and seems to be concentrated on NT.
Speaking about Eurobasket 2009 I would call such roster of expectants:
PG: Jasikevičius. Kalnietis. Janavičius. Vasiliauskas. (I don't see a place for Prekevičius, for sure. And to decide what should be PG nr.2 will be hard issue again).
SG: Macijauskas, Kaukėnas, Lukauskis, Delininkaitis, Gecevičius
SF: Kleiza, Jasaitis, Mačiulis, Jomantas. (I would say all of these guys have a good chances to be on the team)
PF: K. Lavrinovic, Jankunas, D. Motiejunas.
C: D. Lavrinovic, Javtokas, Petravicius.
I listed that having in mind that Ilgauskas, Songaila and Šiškauskas most likely won't play for NT.
First of all welcome to the forum. I'm glad you finally decided to sign up
When Songaila left NT last summer I felt like it wasn't just an injury that made him leave or in other words the injury wasn't that serious. And what a coincidence that he announced his retirement days before getting injured. Just my thoughts.
I agree with your list. My previous post included Alijevas but it seems that he might not be anything special. He had several chances to prove himself at club level but he never delivered. Once again our backup PG will be a weak spot unless the one who will be chosen surprises all of us.
All three Žalgiris' young PG's are worth to be called up for the training camp at least. Janavičius had a nice start this season but Kalnietis took over his role and his playing quite solid.
I am disappointed with Prekevičius, Gecevičius and Petravi?ius this season so far. Prekevičius is not a fast PG and he's not the best passer either. His main weapon is shooting a three-pointer from time to time. I wouldn't say that his performances is a shock but I thought he would do better.
Gecevičius seemed to be a rising star. His game in LKL finals against Žalgiris where he had 20+ points was a sign that he could be a decent player. Gecevičius was quite good under Trifunovic but this year he can't find his game. Even his usual three-point shot after coming of the bench doesn't go in.
And finally Petravičius. As a center he was always limited as he is unable to play with his back to the basket. He has a good sense when to make a run when playing 2 vs 2 and can score lots of points if the opponent doesn't wake up. We saw that in Euroleague very well with the opposing players being unable to do anything. Unfortunatelly Petravičius can't create opportunities for himself even against weaker opponents. However he had one advantage among centers. His free-throw shooting was quite good until last summer when he joined NT. From being one of the most reliable shooters he's now coming closer to Javtokas.
(Jan 3, 2009, 7:37 pm)Vilius Wrote: [ -> ]First of all welcome to the forum. I'm glad you finally decided to sign up
Thanks, I guess you know me from other well known forum
I realy injoyed to find out that this place became really alive and I think is still progressing.
(Jan 3, 2009, 7:37 pm)Vilius Wrote: [ -> ]All three Žalgiris' young PG's are worth to be called up for the training camp at least. Janavicius had a nice start this season but Kalnietis took over his role and his playing quite solid.
Yes, Kalnietis really made a step forward, though I'm not sure if his position is PG. If we talk about TOP level PG which is needed for such team as Lith NT than I'm pretty sceptical about Kalnietis. Anyway, he seems to be the most solid option after Šaras. Unless, Gustas and Ginevicius would come what I think won't happen.
(Jan 3, 2009, 7:37 pm)Vilius Wrote: [ -> ]I am disappointed with Prekevicius, Gecevicius and Petravicius this season so far. Prekevicius is not a fast PG and he's not the best passer either. His main weapon is shooting a three-pointer from time to time. I wouldn't say that his performances is a shock but I thought he would do better.
Gecevicius seemed to be a rising star. His game in LKL finals against Žalgiris where he had 20+ points was a sign that he could be a decent player. Gecevicius was quite good under Trifunovic but this year he can't find his game. Even his usual three-point shot after coming of the bench doesn't go in..
Prekevicius wasn't worth to play for Lithuanian NT. He's obviously too slow. He's not even talanted at all, if you would ask me. As for Gecevicius, it's all different story. He was one of the best players in U-20 EC this summer and is reputed as one of the best SG prospects in Europe. He had a pretty nice start of the season in Lrytas, but now he's struggling a bit. I think it's very frequent for such young players. When we talk about Gecevicius, we talk about 19 years old guy who already droped into the highest level. He's not Prekevicius or Jomantas or Maciulis who are 23-24 years old. In other words, Gecevicius is still very young and already showed that he's something special. Despite some obvious limitations, he's realy a guy to keep an eye on even if he's struggling at the highest level at the moment.
Thanks we are trying our best to become the best basketball forum around. If you ever want to to help us out, check this thread
http://www.talkbasket.net/forums/viewtop...f=3&t=1851
Yeah, I guess you right about Gecevičius. Hopefully he will find his form again.
This season is a good opportunity for many players to show their skills and progress at the same time since the number of foreigners is limited in our top clubs.
(Sep 2, 2008, 5:47 pm)Vilius Wrote: [ -> ]The plan of the federation is to have the best squad in 2009 and start introducing new players from 2010. So once again we will have a weak team in WC.
That might be true in the sense of the idea that there's no way such players as Šaras, Šiška, Kaukenas could be replaced easily. So yes, most likely we won't have a team which would be appreciated among favorites. In other hand, we already had that "raw" experience in 2006 WC and it's logical to think that we will have way stronger team in 2010 WC than in previous WC. For example, Linas Kleiza is way different player ATM, the same goes with K. Lavrinovicius, Jasaitis, Jankunas, Lukauskis, Kalnietis. Macijauskas (hopefully) could still play in WC 2010. No one knows, how these NEW PLAYERS as Janavicius, Motiejunas will look in 2010 WC. They might be pretty solid. My point is, that the metagenesis this time might be even easier that it was after Sabonis era.
Darius Songaila: "My plan this summer is not to play for NT"
I think he made it very clear that he won't play for NT and won't be convinced to play in any way. At least we're not short of good bigs in NT. Songaila would be definatelly very useful if he played.
Since this hasn't been posted yet - Ilgauskas said that playing for NT would extremely difficult. That is basically a "no". Though he keeps his tradition of never saying a clear "no".
What worries me more though is that Šarūnas Jasikevičius could follow Songaila, Šiškauskas and Ilgauskas.
Macas should be a great addition to the team. He will have plenty of time to get used to the team and playing basketball again. Especially if joins the training camp earlier than the others.
A nice interview by Paul Nilsen with Linas Kleiza.
Paul Nilsen Wrote:If there is one warrior in particular that Lithuania can rely on to put some real heart and soul into their pursuit of a gold medal at EuroBasket 2009 in Poland then surely it is Linas Kleiza.
The 24-year-old Denver Nuggets player definitely talks and plays a tough game and is preparing to emerge as one of the new leaders of the National Team.
An uncompromising physical player who wears his emotions on his sleeve and pushes that temperament to the limit, Kleiza is renowned for his durability and competitiveness. Add to this his ability and pride in the Lithuanian team vest and it becomes clear just why the Kaunas born forward is determined to be a big hit in Poland.
Kleiza has continued his hugely impressive form in the NBA this season, continuing where he left off in his breakthrough season last year by averaging near to 11 points and over four rebounds per game.
That kind of contribution has left the Nuggets riding high on top of the Northwest standings and while the going was good, I caught up with the multi-lingual NBA star before he headed off for an exhausting eight game road trip.
FIBA Europe: Hi Linas, you have had plenty of time now to reflect on what happened in Bejiing. How do you look back on the Olympic tournament and the display of yourself and the team?
Linas Kleiza: Looking back, it was a special event and will be one of those things that I will cherish for the rest of my life. We had a great tournament and it came down right to the end. We had some tough luck at the end and lost, but we still did very good. You know, being one of probably the smallest countries in the tournament and still playing all the way to the end with a chance to win it, that's all we would hope for. We missed a couple of our good players, but basketball-wise we did very good.
FIBA Europe: There seems to be some talk of several guys from the Lithuania national team retiring or missing the tournament such as Siskauskas. How will that affect the team going forward and do you talk to any of those guys about persuading them to play?
Linas Kleiza: I think everybody is so caught up in the season right now that we're not really thinking about the national team yet. But, you know, some guys just need their rest and some guys are getting older and they just can't play anymore. It's a national team, and some of these guys need to worry about their careers as well. But we've still got a lot of good players who can step up and do the jobs if the other guys don't play.
FIBA Europe: You could be expected to be the on-court leader of the team at EuroBasket 2009 in Poland. Is that a role you would welcome?
Linas Kleiza: Definitely. We've got a lot of good guys on the team and I think we can be very competitive. We still don't know who's going to play and who's going to not play, but I'm definitely looking forward to being one of the leaders of this team.
FIBA Europe: What do you make of the draw of Turkey, Poland and Bulgaria? We guess that you will be big favourites to win the group but those teams might be capable of an upset?
Linas Kleiza: You know Turkey is going to be good because they've always got really good players. And playing in Poland, you've got to be ready for anything from the Polish team because they could definitely be one of those upset teams in front of the home crowd. We just have to get ready to play and not overlook any of those teams. With us being one of the favourites and having that great basketball tradition, every team we play brings their best game. They all enjoy beating us, so we've just got to be very careful.
FIBA Europe: Do you talk to any other guys in the NBA from other countries about the tournament and will it be the usual suspects in the likes of Spain and yourselves or can you see any national team springing a big surprise?
Linas Kleiza: You know, we talk about it a little bit. There are just so many guys that aren't sure if they're going to play yet that it's tough to get a feel for what to expect. I see a lot of other good teams besides us and Spain making some noise though. You can never write-off Greece, and Russia's going to be tough because they're the defending European champs. They had a tough run in the Olympics, but they're a really good team still. Slovenia is going to be good, I'm sure France will be a lot better this time around, and Croatia is always good. There are a lot of good teams and just a lot of really even teams, so it should be a very exciting tournament. We'll see.
FIBA Europe: Lithuania is such a great basketball country with a great tradition I guess you are expected to be challenging for medals in Poland this year and in the World Championships next year. However, as a proud Lithuanian, is a little part of you fighting not to look too far towards EuroBasket 2011 in your home country? That should be pretty special?
Linas Kleiza: I don't think that's possible. I mean Poland is very close to Lithuania, so we're going to have a lot of fans. The two countries are both right there and we have a lot of travelling fans, so it should be a lot of fun. We're all very excited to be hosting the tournament in 2011, but we'll have guys who might be playing their last tournament for us in 2009, so they won't let us look past this year. It's going to be very special having the tournament in 2011. A lot of people are already looking forward to it, especially with the love that Lithuanians have for basketball. Playing back in your home country, in front of your own fans and your family, it's just one of those things you dream of while growing up.
FIBA Europe: With some NBA players moving to Europe such as Childress, Delfino and Garbajosa for example, is there more of an interest in European basketball now in the USA? Do the guys talk about it more and can you see there being more interest in this EuroBasket?
Linas Kleiza: It's changed a little bit, but I don't think there's a ton of interest in European basketball. For one thing, it's very hard for people in America to follow because of the time difference and it's hardly ever on TV here, except for a couple games on NBATV every now and again. I think it's definitely made people notice European basketball a little more though. With those guys going over there and getting those big contracts, they got a lot of coverage in the media over here. So you definitely hear more guys talking about international basketball because money is a big factor. When it turns out there is a lot money flowing around overseas, there is definitely going to be some guys willing to check it out a little more than they would have in the past.
FIBA Europe: Denver still looks to be a good situation for you. Tell us about playing for this team and being in the city.
Linas Kleiza: I love playing for Denver. It's definitely a great situation for me. And having a great team, a great coach and a lot of good players makes it easy. We always have fun on the court because we play that style of ball where you get a lot of freedom to just go and play. The city of Denver is great. The people are great and they've been really good to me so far. It's a very good situation.
FIBA Europe: Most people view you as a pretty tough player who is fearless and can't be intimidated and someone that works hard on his game with real passion. Where does that come from? Is that generally you as an individual or do you think part of being Lithuanian and the great tradition that exists?
Linas Kleiza: It comes from just me wanting to succeed and wanting to be successful. I am very competitive, you know, I want to win and I always want to get better. In the city I grew up in, you couldn't be intimidated by anyone and you just had to be tough if you wanted to stand out. I'd say the best part about being Lithuanian with my development was that we had a lot of really good coaches when I was growing up.
FIBA Europe: Finally Linas, we understand that cyclist Lance Armstrong is somebody you admire greatly. If EuroBasket 2009 proves to be tough, we guess that you still wouldn't swap it for riding a cycle up mountains in France?
Linas Kleiza: It's not a question of âif' Eurobasket is going to be tough. We all know it's going to be tough. Either you win or you don't and our main goal is always to win the tournament. If riding bikes up mountains was something I was good at, I'd think about it; but that's definitely something that I don't enjoy doing!
The list of the candidates was announced:
Šarunas Jasikevičius (Panathinaikos)
Mantas Kalnietis (Žalgiris)
Giedrius Gustas (Kavala)
Žygimantas Janavičius (Žalgiris)
Šarūnas Vasiliauskas (Žalgiris)
Rimantas Kaukėnas (Montepaschi)
Arvydas Macijauskas (Olympiacos)
Tomas Delininkaitis (Budivelnik Kyiv)
Mindaugas Lukauskis (Lietuvos rytas)
Simas Jasaitis (DKV Joventut)
Jonas Maciulis (Žalgiris)
Arturas Jomantas (Lietuvos rytas)
Linas Kleiza (Nuggets)
Paulius Jankunas (Žalgiris)
Mindaugas Katelynas (Armani Jeans)
Donatas Motiejunas (Aisčiai)
Darjušas Lavrinovicius (Dynamo Moscow)
Kšištofas Lavrinovicius (Montepaschi)
Marijonas Petravicius (Lietuvos rytas)
Robertas Javtokas (Dynamo Moscow)
As you can see Ramūnas Šiškauskas, Darius Songaila and Žydrūnas Ilgauskas were not even included in the list and none of them will play for NT.