when i see rubio, gallinari or batum I see kids, even r. fernandez body looks highly underdeveloped and is more similar to a teenager than a mature basketball player.
There skillset makes them special not some out of this world maturity.
I think this is lame excuse which is often used by underachievers.
When 1984/1985 team won World gold nobody was talking about maturity.
Do you realy need to watch at every italian talent? The fact is that Jasikevicius, Stombergas, Siskauskas, Songaila, Timinskas, M. Zukauskas had the best years being over 25. And this generation is one the strongest in the world. We are talking about lithuanian basketball talents and it's obvious that our players reach the peak later than players in western countries. Even Marciulionis (imho, phenomenal player which you could hardly find these days in european basketball) reached his peak being about 24. More over, people there can praise Rudy as much as they like, but all i know he wasn't the leader in Spain NT and his performance in Eurobasket was rather mediocre. He was gone somewhere in crutial games. As for me, Rudy isn't in the list of best players in Europe yet (the list is quite short though. i'm waiting for olympics).Originally Posted by Basketball GOD
Last edited by Straight forward; 06-02-2008 at 09:04 PM.
The flick from the future...
Jesus christ ... most players career years starts than they are older than 25. name me a player who was better at 22 years age than 27 years age and didn't have some freak injury?
Also from your players list only Jasikevicius and Siskauskas could be qualified as superstars on their time. And only Siskauskas could be qualified as a late bloomer (and of course when he was 22 years old he played very significant role on bronze medal team in Sidney) while Jasikevicius was always top notch talent just forgot because of his poor play in Maryland where he was used as SG. And others are just good players nothing extraordinary.
Also why you fail to mention Sabonis, Macijauskas, Kleiza, Kirilenko (same latitude), Nowitzki (not that far from Lithuania) and etc? These are players who dominated at youth competition or was already good to play professional basketball at young age. I think they clearly show that Lithuania isn't near some massive black hole, isn't affected by it's gravity and because of this time doesn't move slower.
Stombergas and Songaila aren't just ordinary players. They are huge players, specially when we talk about NT. Sabonis is phenomenon, more than just talent. Macijauskas is an exeption, though he had the best stats of his career in EL this year (...). Kleiza isn't that young, he's 23 now and i believe he will have his best years being 25-30. All i'm saying that players from east/north mature later (biologic books writes about that) and i see enough proves for that. Not saying that this is obvious like a rule, but you can't cut this out like you are trying to.
The flick from the future...
So once again what about Karnisovas, (Modestas) Paulauskas, Biedrins, Kirilenko? Other exceptions? LOL
BTW Kleiza was dominating youth competition at 19 years old and was considered elite talent then. Only today he looks average.
Let's talk only about Lith BB. How many talents we got who became stars since 24? Sabonis, Macijauskas. Debatable- Marciulionis, Karnisovas, Kleiza.
This is not majority, not even close. Most of our talents needs few additional years to show all their potential. Look at brothers Lavrinovic, aren't they pure talents? They just became matured, that's it.
The flick from the future...
Speaking of Lavrinovič brothers - who knows how their career would have gone, if they whouldn't have to take couple years off because of enprisonment.
Who said they took the years off? Maybe the prision helped them. They had the chance to think and practise.
So wait, why to stop only with Lithuanian basketball? Wasn't you who generalized in previous post and said that East/North people mature later?
And your example with Lavrinovics is so wrong ... First of all their origin comes from Poland and by your logic they shouldn't mature later and secondly when they were 17 years old they already were playing in LKL. Only their stupid heads prevented them from being even better players.
all posts about the shape of earth and puberty were moved here. thanxs guys for staying on topic.
BTW, i was thinking about this discussion and realised that Ilgauskas was completely deleted from Lithuanian talents list...It only shows how much NT means for Lithuanian fans.
The flick from the future...
Guys, speaking about Lithuanian-Talents...I've been in Lithuania this year in November 2007, and I've seen a pair of matches of Neptunas (one against Zalgiris Kaunas!). There's a guy who impressed me that I've never seen before, and of whom I've never heard neither before nor afterwords...! He should be of 1983, and the name is Vitalijus Stanevicious. What do You think about him? And what's happened to him?
Thx in advance for a kind reply!
He had leg injury in the middle of debut season (), returned after 1,5 season. Last season started having sinusitis problems and this season had to undergo surgery after ~10 games. Was ready to return for playoffs but something happened againGuys, speaking about Lithuanian-Talents...I've been in Lithuania this year in November 2007, and I've seen a pair of matches of Neptunas (one against Zalgiris Kaunas!). There's a guy who impressed me that I've never seen before, and of whom I've never heard neither before nor afterwords...! He should be of 1983, and the name is Vitalijus Stanevicious. What do You think about him? And what's happened to him?
Thx in advance for a kind reply!
What a pity...unlucky guy!
Thx LuDux!
I've heard about other very very young guys who have revealed themselves during this last year: a friend of mine from Trakai told me to keep an eye - in Nevezis - for Zalgiris' Butkevicius, a youngster with great promise. Also Z. Stankus. In Sakalai, to watch J. Sinica, tall SF with great shooting from beyond the arc...what do You think about them? Are these the best youngsters among all under-25?
Last edited by Silver Surfer; 06-19-2008 at 10:24 PM.
IMO Butkevicius resembles Maciulis few years back a lot. I do believe he'll play in Zalgiris or Rytas eventually.What a pity...unlucky guy!
Thx LuDux!
I've heard about other very very young guys who have revealed themselves during this last year: a friend of mine from Trakai told me to keep an eye - in Nevezis - for Zalgiris' Butkevicius, a youngster with great promise. Also Z. Stankus. In Sakalai, to watch J. Sinica, tall SF with great shooting from beyond the arc...what do You think about them? Are these the best youngsters among all under-25?
Z. Stankus is not young, he's 29 turning 30 in september, but he's pretty good and versatile player.
Sinica is quite a sharpshooter. He hit 48% of threepointers last season. Both Zalgiris and Rytas are interested in him.
IMO Sinica and Butkevicius are best right now. If you look for younger then there are Gecevicius, Janavicius, Motiejunas. Those three have huge potential.
Maciulis, Seibutis or Kalnietis are actually younger than Sinica.. Jomantas or Kleiza are only marginally older.. and so on and so forth..
stop russia
since all of your mentioned players have already been proven to be quite good prospect i didn't even mentioned them. the other three are 3 or more years younger, and they are the best there are at that age.
btw maciulis is not younger.
17 years old PG Ovidijus Varanauskas should be mentioned here. He rejected Lietuvos Rytas offer and decided to play for other Vilnius' team "Sakalai" where he'll get more minutes. Interseting rumour is that some other top clubs are interested in him, Real Madrid for example. Anybody saw this guy playing?
The flick from the future...
he was the main player in U16 last year or even 2 years ago. i've never seen him, but what i heard/read about him he suppose to be pretty good.
He's good,but if we're mentioning him,why doesn't anybody talk about Augustas Peciukevicius? He's clearly better than OV.
ZALIAI BALTAS
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
