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Sep 8, 2009, 9:06 pm
[url="http://www.eurobasket2009.org/en/cid_toT,ovGDH2EaLKL67XnPo2.gameID_6365-D-3-2.compID_qMRZdYCZI6EoANOrUf9le2.season_2009.roundID_6365.teamID_.html"]Lithuania 75-86 Poland[/url]
First of all congratulations to Poland. They were much better team today. I wouldn't be too surprised if they manage to win against Turkey tomorrow. This Eurobasket should be a big boost for them.
What a pathetic performance by Lithuanians! I don't know where to start. Butautas is an idiot! I wanted to say this long ago but my patience has expired. As much as it is painful to see the NT losing games like this the good side is that Butautas will be forced to quit. You can't put a coach who on team which is levels above him. And I am almost certain that the new coach will be Kurtinaitis who is an assistant coach right now. And honestly I am not sure if there's anything to be happy about that. He did a decent job at Rytas but I would only make conclusions after the coming season in Euroleague when he faces the best in Europe. Another con is that he is a member of staff at NT now and the atmosphere is obviously very bad there after these losses. In such situations a fresh blood is needed. Kazlauskas would be a perfect choice for us. But he is contracted to Greece. We will miss World Champs in Turkey unless FIBA gives us a wild card so wouldn't it be possible to wait till the autumn 2010 and then appoint a new coach? Kazlauskas could be available by then. NT won't play any competitive games until 2011 anyway so there's no need for a new coach until then.
Kemzura is another favourite out of the coaches available but hasn't impressed as a coach recently either. It all seems to go in the wrong away ahead of Eurobasket 2011 that we will be hosting...
Now back to the things on court. Butautas did a decent job in destroying NT during the three years as a head coach. If you look at the results then they might look quite good. Bronze in Eurobasket 2007 and 4th place in Beijing Olympics. But that's only if you didn't see the NT play. It was a clear downfall in my opinion.
In Eurobasket 2007 we had a decent squad and the final was a very realistic target and we nearly made it. Yes, the schedule was clearly against us as we had less than 24 hours to prepare for semi-final against Russia but I think that this was a consequence of the coach's work. Let me explain. Before Butautas was appointed as the head coach we always played attractive basketball. By that I mean that we used to shoot a lot (sometimes abusing that to be honest), ball was moving quickly, the game was fast and the payers were active on the court. Butautas is a defensive minded coach and he likes discipline and at first it looked like a good choice because our defence needed an improvement. We were also making too many turnovers under Sireika. Kemzura was a candidate too but LKF (or rather Garastas) had his favourite in other person. So Butautas takes over and tries to bring his style of play to the team. It's not easy to change the team completely during several weeks of training and playing. But his touch was visible. The team started to play slower. Even though we had Saras at PG position who excels in fast game but even with him on the court quite often the game was intentionally slowed down. However Butautas had too much respect for Saras or was afraid of his reaction if he asks him to play slow, so he let him play more like he's used to. As a result of slower pace each game became harder to us. And even though we were winning I used to say to myself that we make the games very difficult to ourselves. That was true as it appeared later.
The fact is that our players are more offensive oriented. Yes, we have a few defensive specialists of a high level but we are the most dangerous when we play fast and improvize. However Butautas had another vision which failed big time.
Sorry for going back in time but I feel that these events must be mentioned in order to show what's been happening with the team for the past three years.
In 2008 we got nearly best squad again and Butautas even promised to resign if we don't win a medal. It was the second year that he was a head coach and the team was used to his style more than the year before. That enabled him to force the team to play even more the way that he likes. So what happened? Hard games in group stage including a blow out against Australia (they beat us by ~30 points). Even though it was a meaningless game but it showed another problem of the team - psychological problems, inability to motivate themselves for the game and during the game. It must be noted that a coach is the main motivator of the team and he must find a way to make his team play to their best. So we went to the bronze medal game against Argentina without Ginobili (and maybe Nocioni too, can't remember exactly). And what happened? The team looked hopeless and had no chance to win. Players looked they didn't want to play but they still had to.
The game mentioned in the paragraph above (or maybe semi-final loss against Spain) had a big impact on players who refused to play this year in my opinion. It was a great chance for Butautas to prove what he can really do as he was put in not the best situation with no top level guards. The result? We all saw how bad Butautas really is. In years before Saras, Kaukenas, Siskauskas were allowed to make their own decisions on the court and yet the team slightly underachieved but because of them we still got quite good results.
Butautas shocked the fans by inviting Mazutis to the training camp. We have no good PG's but still there were better choices. But wait, Mazutis was Butautas player at the club. Oh that explains everything. Anyway, Butautas was telling to the media about his tactical schemes that he has worked on for several months and he's prepared for everything. In one interview he mentioned Messina, supposedly he's trying to learn from him. However Messina was a coach of CSKA and not ASK as Butautas was (looking at the paragraphs above it's a bit surprising to appoint head coach a man with no top level coaching experience, isn't it?). Doesn't this fact speak for itself?
So what was Butautas magical solution to the problem of missing Saras, Kaukenas, Siska and Macijauskas? The team has lots of quality big men so it is obvious that they must be used and likely become the main force of the team. But what about guards? Those positions must be filled anyway. And there are some average or above average level players available. Though Butautas was so not confident in his guards that he decided to freeze them. He made such "great" tactical schemes that killed the team. How? Well, he took away any freedom from the players. They had to play exactly to his "super" tactics. It doesn't matter that the opponents are not trees and they are moving on the court, analysing Lithuania's game and preparing for the match. The players were told to play according to his schemes so strictly that when a player accidently gets in a situation when he's open then he doesn't know what to do because there should be a couple more passes in the original play!
Slowly Mazutis become the starting point guard. And many people were blind to see how poor he was. In fact there appeared some supporters of him. What he did on the court was very simple. He takes the ball to the opponents' half court and stops. Then he either kills time by bouncing the ball for 10 seconds or gives the ball to the big man who is forced be a point guard! Butautas must have also told to Mazutis that a three-point line is cursed and if he crosses it then he dies as the player almost never crossed with or without the ball. He did absolutely nothing in offence. He never shoots (except of very rare occasions when he's open at three-point line and he's forced to shoot) and never makes assists. All of his passes and his whole game is outside 3pt line. Can such player even be called a point guard? Now I don't blame Mazutis as he obeys the orders of Butautas. He is also afraid to make mistakes and make the fans angry. But he was still a starter while Kalnietis who was unanimously touted as the started PG simply disappeared. Butautas's schemes was mystery to him. And now he doesn't even play.
As I said before our main weapon was big men. But if play through them all the time you can't expect success because your opponents will find a way to stop them. Yesterday and today (during friendlies too) we saw pathetic view. All players are throwing the ball to Petravicius of Javtokas even if he's surrounded by three players of he's in bad position. Why could that be? Are the players so stupid that they can't see that such pass will either in turnover or a missed shot? Of course not, but what can you do if the coach tells to play that way no matter what. The players are not allowed to think and find their own solutions. The coach knows best. And in fact I can't remember Butautas saying that he made a tactical mistake! It's always "the players didn't listen to our orders". It must be hard to be such a great coach with fantastic tactical knowledge and see your players fail to realize your plans.
Another thing that led to such results is slow game. Lithuanian NT become unrecognisable. We hold the ball for at least 15-20 seconds in almost every possession. The players are static. Even an idiot would be able figure it out that it is easier to guard static offence than a fast one when the ball is moving and any player could shoot or penetrate at any time. The funnies thing of all is that with this kind of play we were making around 20 turnovers per game during preparation period. When he had similar amount of turnovers a few years ago there concerns about that but no one really cared much because we were playing fast. And when you play fast you improvize and make mistakes. But how can you make 20 turnovers by holding the ball for 20 seconds per possession?
I should also mention that the big win against Spain was achieved because we played fast. NT looked more like a team that we are used to seeing. And Butautas told after the game that team didn't play according to the plan! Wait a minute, a team plays best and wins against World Champs when it plays it's own game and doesn't follow coach's plan?
And today Butautas put Mazutis and Javtokas in the starting line up. Both were terrible yesterday. When we were down 2-12 he subbed them and we got back in the game losing the 1st quarter by 2 points after the Poles hit a three pointer. Then the 2nd quarter starting line up includes Mazutis and Javtokas again! And guess what? We are down by 10 immediately.
In this Eurobasket Lithuania plays awfully in both defence and offence. Right now it seems like it would be best if we lose against Bulgaria tomorrow and don't get humiliated in the second round.
That's the end of my longest post ever (despite not writing everything I wanted to say). I'm not sure if anyone will read this but I had to let it out.
First of all congratulations to Poland. They were much better team today. I wouldn't be too surprised if they manage to win against Turkey tomorrow. This Eurobasket should be a big boost for them.
What a pathetic performance by Lithuanians! I don't know where to start. Butautas is an idiot! I wanted to say this long ago but my patience has expired. As much as it is painful to see the NT losing games like this the good side is that Butautas will be forced to quit. You can't put a coach who on team which is levels above him. And I am almost certain that the new coach will be Kurtinaitis who is an assistant coach right now. And honestly I am not sure if there's anything to be happy about that. He did a decent job at Rytas but I would only make conclusions after the coming season in Euroleague when he faces the best in Europe. Another con is that he is a member of staff at NT now and the atmosphere is obviously very bad there after these losses. In such situations a fresh blood is needed. Kazlauskas would be a perfect choice for us. But he is contracted to Greece. We will miss World Champs in Turkey unless FIBA gives us a wild card so wouldn't it be possible to wait till the autumn 2010 and then appoint a new coach? Kazlauskas could be available by then. NT won't play any competitive games until 2011 anyway so there's no need for a new coach until then.
Kemzura is another favourite out of the coaches available but hasn't impressed as a coach recently either. It all seems to go in the wrong away ahead of Eurobasket 2011 that we will be hosting...
Now back to the things on court. Butautas did a decent job in destroying NT during the three years as a head coach. If you look at the results then they might look quite good. Bronze in Eurobasket 2007 and 4th place in Beijing Olympics. But that's only if you didn't see the NT play. It was a clear downfall in my opinion.
In Eurobasket 2007 we had a decent squad and the final was a very realistic target and we nearly made it. Yes, the schedule was clearly against us as we had less than 24 hours to prepare for semi-final against Russia but I think that this was a consequence of the coach's work. Let me explain. Before Butautas was appointed as the head coach we always played attractive basketball. By that I mean that we used to shoot a lot (sometimes abusing that to be honest), ball was moving quickly, the game was fast and the payers were active on the court. Butautas is a defensive minded coach and he likes discipline and at first it looked like a good choice because our defence needed an improvement. We were also making too many turnovers under Sireika. Kemzura was a candidate too but LKF (or rather Garastas) had his favourite in other person. So Butautas takes over and tries to bring his style of play to the team. It's not easy to change the team completely during several weeks of training and playing. But his touch was visible. The team started to play slower. Even though we had Saras at PG position who excels in fast game but even with him on the court quite often the game was intentionally slowed down. However Butautas had too much respect for Saras or was afraid of his reaction if he asks him to play slow, so he let him play more like he's used to. As a result of slower pace each game became harder to us. And even though we were winning I used to say to myself that we make the games very difficult to ourselves. That was true as it appeared later.
The fact is that our players are more offensive oriented. Yes, we have a few defensive specialists of a high level but we are the most dangerous when we play fast and improvize. However Butautas had another vision which failed big time.
Sorry for going back in time but I feel that these events must be mentioned in order to show what's been happening with the team for the past three years.
In 2008 we got nearly best squad again and Butautas even promised to resign if we don't win a medal. It was the second year that he was a head coach and the team was used to his style more than the year before. That enabled him to force the team to play even more the way that he likes. So what happened? Hard games in group stage including a blow out against Australia (they beat us by ~30 points). Even though it was a meaningless game but it showed another problem of the team - psychological problems, inability to motivate themselves for the game and during the game. It must be noted that a coach is the main motivator of the team and he must find a way to make his team play to their best. So we went to the bronze medal game against Argentina without Ginobili (and maybe Nocioni too, can't remember exactly). And what happened? The team looked hopeless and had no chance to win. Players looked they didn't want to play but they still had to.
The game mentioned in the paragraph above (or maybe semi-final loss against Spain) had a big impact on players who refused to play this year in my opinion. It was a great chance for Butautas to prove what he can really do as he was put in not the best situation with no top level guards. The result? We all saw how bad Butautas really is. In years before Saras, Kaukenas, Siskauskas were allowed to make their own decisions on the court and yet the team slightly underachieved but because of them we still got quite good results.
Butautas shocked the fans by inviting Mazutis to the training camp. We have no good PG's but still there were better choices. But wait, Mazutis was Butautas player at the club. Oh that explains everything. Anyway, Butautas was telling to the media about his tactical schemes that he has worked on for several months and he's prepared for everything. In one interview he mentioned Messina, supposedly he's trying to learn from him. However Messina was a coach of CSKA and not ASK as Butautas was (looking at the paragraphs above it's a bit surprising to appoint head coach a man with no top level coaching experience, isn't it?). Doesn't this fact speak for itself?
So what was Butautas magical solution to the problem of missing Saras, Kaukenas, Siska and Macijauskas? The team has lots of quality big men so it is obvious that they must be used and likely become the main force of the team. But what about guards? Those positions must be filled anyway. And there are some average or above average level players available. Though Butautas was so not confident in his guards that he decided to freeze them. He made such "great" tactical schemes that killed the team. How? Well, he took away any freedom from the players. They had to play exactly to his "super" tactics. It doesn't matter that the opponents are not trees and they are moving on the court, analysing Lithuania's game and preparing for the match. The players were told to play according to his schemes so strictly that when a player accidently gets in a situation when he's open then he doesn't know what to do because there should be a couple more passes in the original play!
Slowly Mazutis become the starting point guard. And many people were blind to see how poor he was. In fact there appeared some supporters of him. What he did on the court was very simple. He takes the ball to the opponents' half court and stops. Then he either kills time by bouncing the ball for 10 seconds or gives the ball to the big man who is forced be a point guard! Butautas must have also told to Mazutis that a three-point line is cursed and if he crosses it then he dies as the player almost never crossed with or without the ball. He did absolutely nothing in offence. He never shoots (except of very rare occasions when he's open at three-point line and he's forced to shoot) and never makes assists. All of his passes and his whole game is outside 3pt line. Can such player even be called a point guard? Now I don't blame Mazutis as he obeys the orders of Butautas. He is also afraid to make mistakes and make the fans angry. But he was still a starter while Kalnietis who was unanimously touted as the started PG simply disappeared. Butautas's schemes was mystery to him. And now he doesn't even play.
As I said before our main weapon was big men. But if play through them all the time you can't expect success because your opponents will find a way to stop them. Yesterday and today (during friendlies too) we saw pathetic view. All players are throwing the ball to Petravicius of Javtokas even if he's surrounded by three players of he's in bad position. Why could that be? Are the players so stupid that they can't see that such pass will either in turnover or a missed shot? Of course not, but what can you do if the coach tells to play that way no matter what. The players are not allowed to think and find their own solutions. The coach knows best. And in fact I can't remember Butautas saying that he made a tactical mistake! It's always "the players didn't listen to our orders". It must be hard to be such a great coach with fantastic tactical knowledge and see your players fail to realize your plans.
Another thing that led to such results is slow game. Lithuanian NT become unrecognisable. We hold the ball for at least 15-20 seconds in almost every possession. The players are static. Even an idiot would be able figure it out that it is easier to guard static offence than a fast one when the ball is moving and any player could shoot or penetrate at any time. The funnies thing of all is that with this kind of play we were making around 20 turnovers per game during preparation period. When he had similar amount of turnovers a few years ago there concerns about that but no one really cared much because we were playing fast. And when you play fast you improvize and make mistakes. But how can you make 20 turnovers by holding the ball for 20 seconds per possession?
I should also mention that the big win against Spain was achieved because we played fast. NT looked more like a team that we are used to seeing. And Butautas told after the game that team didn't play according to the plan! Wait a minute, a team plays best and wins against World Champs when it plays it's own game and doesn't follow coach's plan?
And today Butautas put Mazutis and Javtokas in the starting line up. Both were terrible yesterday. When we were down 2-12 he subbed them and we got back in the game losing the 1st quarter by 2 points after the Poles hit a three pointer. Then the 2nd quarter starting line up includes Mazutis and Javtokas again! And guess what? We are down by 10 immediately.
In this Eurobasket Lithuania plays awfully in both defence and offence. Right now it seems like it would be best if we lose against Bulgaria tomorrow and don't get humiliated in the second round.
That's the end of my longest post ever (despite not writing everything I wanted to say). I'm not sure if anyone will read this but I had to let it out.
