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Lithuania NT (Tokyo 2020 Olympic Cycle)
#1
The new era of Lithuania national team is set to begin as Jonas Kazlauskas left the national following expiration of his contract. It was successful Olympic cycle under Kazlauskas with two EuroBasket silvers medals and 4th place finish in FIBA World Cup 2014.

Now a new chapter begins. It is reported that current Neptunas Klaipeda coach Dainius Adomaitis is already chosen as the new head coach of the national team. Even though the new coach is supposed to be chosen by the national federation on 25 October. Reports suggest that Kazlauskas had a big impact in choosing his successor.

Based on coaching experience and success, Rimas Kurtinaitis (currently in charge of Cantu) is regarded as the best Lithuanian coach behind Kazlauskas. Though his relationship with the federation is not exactly great, despite the fact that his friend Arvydas Sabonis is the president. According to Kurtinaitis, he wasn't even asked about a possibility of replacing Kazlauskas.

These are just rumours but they are rather strong and it seems that Adomaitis is indeed the chosen one. Is ready for the national team? Should the federation consider appointing a foreign coach (a very sensitive topic in Lithuania)? Supposedly Sasa Obradovic was interested in the job but was told not to bother since the new coach is already selected.

The new Olympic cycle will have a different international competition schedule (EuroBasket every 4 years and no direct qualification to other competitions, World Cup qualifying windows etc.). Is it wise to appoint a young coach such as Adomaitis and let renew the team with more young faces for EuroBasket 2017 which will not impact qualification to World Cup anyway? And if he fails, bring another coach?
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#2
Adomaitis remains the favourite for the position but there are more and more people who will be voting for Kurtinaitis at the coming meeting where the new coach will be chosen. The talk is though that the voting will only be a formality as the coach is already selected.

According to Lithuanian media, a mini-poll was run among players before choosing the candidates and Adomaitis was overall choice number one.
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#3
As expected, it's Dainius Adomaitis who got 10 out of 15 votes of the Executive Committee. Your thoughts on his appointment?

http://www.talkbasket.net/23282-official...coach.html
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#4
By the way, apparently Saras was the first choice but he refused the job. So Federation moved to the second coach on the list which was Adomaitis.
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#5
Quote:New Lithuania boss Adomaitis: “We landed in a tough group”

KLAIPEDA (FIBA EuroBasket 2017) – The newly-appointed Lithuania boss Dainius Adomaitis was his usual calm and composed self after finding out the national team’s opponents in FIBA EuroBasket 2017.

Drawn into the Tel-Aviv based Group B alongside the likes of Italy, Germany, Georgia, Ukraine and the hosts Israel, the play-caller stayed away from loud declarations, opting for a cautious wait-and-see approach.

The country’s new man-in-charge could not attend the draw in Istanbul himself, with club obligations for Neptunas Klaipeda in the Basketball Champions League.

Instead, Adomaitis watched the proceedings live on his phone during the short trip from the hotel to the Ventspils Olympic Centre, where his team took on Latvian club Ventspils on Tuesday evening.

Lithuania already knew it would play in Tel-Aviv even before the draw, as Israel chose the Baltic country as its partner for FIBA EuroBasket 2017 last month.

“Judging by the results of the previous championships, I can say that we landed in a tough group. But we will only be able to assess the situation in more depth in the summer, when it becomes clear who will be on the respective rosters,” said Adomaitis, speaking of the national side’s opponents after the draw.

However, the draw did bring along one unintended inconvenience to Lithuania’s summer plans, which featured preparation games against the Georgian national team.

“We’ll now have to rearrange some things regarding our friendly games, so we don’t play with teams that will be in our group,” Adomaitis explained.

Appointed to fill the shoes of the country’s long-time head coach Jonas Kazlauskas only a month ago, the 42-year-old Neptunas head coach has already immersed himself into his new duties by reaching out to national team players and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

“It is the Lithuanian national team we are talking about. Everyone wants to play, everyone wants to win medals for their country. It is a great honour both for the players and for the coaching staff. There is no need to question the enthusiasm and investment of everyone involved,” said Adomaitis. “The most important thing now is for everyone to be healthy and to have certainty regarding their own future, contracts in hand.”

Juggling both club and country will not be an easy task for Adomaitis, but the play-caller says he’s ready for the challenge: “I love basketball. You can’t do the job you don’t like. And I like mine. I don’t know, I just can’t imagine that things could be any different than that.”

http://www.talkbasket.net/23653-new-lith...group.html
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#6
Quote:Lithuania announce 15-player squad for World Cup Qualifiers

VILNIUS (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers) - Lithuania head coach Dainius Adomaitis presented his squad for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers featuring a plethora of new faces, as well as some experienced veterans.

Having announced an extended list of candidates last week, the playcaller narrowed down the list to 15 players who will get together for training camp in Palanga before the first games.

Lithuania preliminary squad for FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers

Eimantas Bendzius
Laurynas Birutis
Arnas Butkevicius
Vaidas Cepukaitis
Mindaugas Girdziunas
Deividas Gailius
Rokas Giedraitis
Marius Grigonis
Adas Juskevicius
Evaldas Kairys
Arnoldas Kulboka
Ksistof Lavrinovic
Gediminas Orelik
Renaldas Seibutis
Sarunas Vasiliauskas

"There are a couple of players on the list with some health issues and their status and availability isn't clear to a full degree yet," Adomaitis said during a press conference on Tuesday.

"Other candidates were considered as well, but sport can be ruthless sometimes. We were considering Deividas Dulkys, but he got injured and you can never be sure in that regard."

Having last played for Lithuania at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2014, 38-year-old Ksistof Lavrinovic is ready to make his national team comeback and so is the 32-year-old Renaldas Seibutis, who decided to sit out this past summer.

"I have had the chance to speak with Ksistof. Like his brother, he is always fully devoted to basketball, the national team and their clubs. Devoted not just 100 percent, but 1000 percent. There are no questions regarding him," Adomaitis explained.

At the other end of the age spectrum, after an excellent start to the season with Capo d'Orlando in the Basketball Champions League, 19-year-old Arnoldas Kulboka has also drawn interest from the national team coaching staff and has been included on the list.

"It's great that he chose the right team, where he gets plenty of playing time both in Europe and in the domestic championship. It's a good experience for him. It will be interesting to see how he looks in training camp," Adomaitis said of the youngest player on the squad.

Eimantas Bendzius, Marius Grigonis and Adas Juskevicius are the only returning players from the team's FIBA EuroBasket 2017 roster, clearing the way for players like Mindaugas Girdziunas, Rokas Giedraitis, Arnas Butkevicius, Gediminas Orelik, Vaidas Cepukaitis, Laurynas Birutis and Evaldas Kairys to potentially make their official national team debuts.

Lithuania will play their first game of the European Qualifiers against Kosovo on the road in Prishtina on November 24 before hosting Poland in Klaipeda on November 26.

FIBA
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#7
Quote:Lithuania revealed the roster for September’s WC Qualifiers

Lithuania announced today the players that will compete in September’s WC Qualifiers against Croatia and the Netherlands.

The squad doesn’t include any players from the NBA and the roster is as follows:

Mantas Kalnietis, Lukas Lekavicius, Deividas Gailius, Renaldas Seibutis, Rokas Giedraitis, Edgaras Ulanovas, Mindaugas Kuzminskas, Eimantas Bendzius, Edgaras Zelionis, Arturas Gudaitis and Evaldas Kairys.

https://www.talkbasket.net/29956-lithuan...qualifiers
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