Lithuania NT 2009

[TalkBasket]

Ramunas Butautas was interviewed by 'Kauno Diena' ( http://kauno.diena.lt/naujienos/sportas/...rta-225418 ) here are some of the most interesting quotes:

- National team with Sarunas Jasikevicius, Ramunas Siskauskas and Darius Songaila is totally different than the team without them. Don't you think that NT should have lower aims?



- The fact that we lost three leaders makes our mission more difficult but I can't be ridiculous and say that it is enough to play in the final round for NT. Our and our fans' ambitions demands us to always fight for the medals. That's we are going for it. We will fight with everyone. Lithuanians can't say that we are going to test young players and that change of generations is taking place. It is very important for us to qualify for World Championship so that the next year is not empty. In my opinion, the higher aims you have the higher results you may achieve. If you go [to Eurobasket] just to reach quarter-finals, watch out that you don't finish 12th. Besides, our players are sacrificing the summer to win medals, not just to play. It is very difficult to us and the task became three times harder but we will fight.



- Have you talked to Rimantas Kaukenas when returned from Italy? Maybe there's another shock coming?



- The situation regarding him is not clear. If Rimantans is not on the team then our problems with the guards become even harder. But the life goes on, the change of generations will start sooner or later, every team faces that and we shouldn't cry because of that. We must look for new players, leaders who could play in that position. And look for new playing schemes so that our playing quality does not drop.



- So which point guard has most chances to become a starter and how many point guards you plan to take to Eurobasket?



- I'll take all three candidates to China with the reserve squad - Mantas Kalnietis, Giedrius Gustas and Andrius Mazutis as I want to test them all. At first I planned that Mantas would join the main camp but then I decided that it would be a good practice for him to play with me coaching. Mantas is great guy - he changed his summer plans immediately.



I think that tactical decisions might help to cover the lack of a strong point guard. I have prepared many different schemes already. But first of all I am considering how many point guards to take to the final squad. There is an option to take only one while the other would a shooting guard - Rimantas Kaukenas, Tomas Delininkaitis or Mindaugas Lukauskis. They aren't point guards but have played in that position episodically. I have a plan to test Arturas Jomantas in that position too. Having a tall point guard is an advantage, Ettore Messina and Croatian teams like to play that way. In that case you can use height advantage. Arturas has played as a point guard in teams - youth NT and Siauliai, though these words of mine would be a surprise to him as I haven't talked to him about that yet. When he reads this interview he may start to get used to that. Nobody wants to play out of his position but we need to find a solution.



We will have to be very aggressive in defence. I have several schemes in my mind how to defend depending on the players that we have on the floor. What does the active defence mean? Firstly - rebound and a fast break. We are definitely going to use so-called transition play - an early two vs. two play. I think we will be playing through our big guys a lot. We have some strong defensive players, fast players and players able to play 2 vs. 2.



- Will the tactic of NT change much this year?



- Yes. We will change our offence completely. There will be no combinations from last year. There will be some serious changes in defence as well. This year's NT will be almost completely new so might leave some questions for our opponents.



- Probably you have the least headache regarding the offensive line?



- There is a headache but a different one - how to use everyone. Robertas Javtokas, Marijonas Petravicius, Paulius Jankunas and Lavrinovic brothers - all had a great season. The competition among big men is huge just as it is among small forwards. I will be hard to choose from them. Four power forwards and centers should be enough but we have more than that. What if we add Linas Kleiza to this group? It is impossible to use six big men in a game.



- Which position is planned for Linas Kleiza?



- He plays more time as a small forward but his favourite position is power forward. He always ask us to put him in that position.



There will be a competition among small forwards too - Jonas Maciulis, Arturas Jomantas, Simas Jasaitis and Kleiza himself. We will be forced to puch one of them to the shooting guard position. I can't see much difference between these two positions, moreover, our small forwards can defend against shooting guards.



- Which of the young NT players have chances to become leaders?



- I think that this year's Eurobasket will answer this question. I am a bit concerned that we don't have such a pure leader as Jasikevicius or Siskauskas. Though we will play many preparation games and I hope that our attacking force will reveal itself.