JV at EuroBasket 2013 is Done, Lithuania Gets Silver

[Alfred]

Somehow he managed to play better pick and roll in all previuos years with same PG's exept Jasikevicius. (Kalnietis was on last mens team, Cizauskas was JV's main pnr guy for 5 years.....) It looks to me that you guys can't take critics.

Jasikevicius, you mean the guy JV came off the bench and played the majority of his minutes with? The only guard on Lithuania that was above average at running the pick and roll?

[theycallmeZZ]

I think that they were only giving JV good minutes because they were playing in Lithuania... they have to do it for the fans there.

Once they play elsewhere (especially since the tournament is in Slovenia) they will significantly lower his minutes

[RPzB]

Somehow he managed to play better pick and roll in all previuos years with same PG's exept Jasikevicius. (Kalnietis was on last mens team, Cizauskas was JV's main pnr guy for 5 years.....) It looks to me that you guys can't take critics.

Jasikevicius, you mean the guy JV came off the bench and played the majority of his minutes with? The only guard on Lithuania that was above average at running the pick and roll?

Calling Jasikevicius only above average pick and roll player is plain wrong.

[SkywalkerAC]

kid looked like AK47 there with the quick-dunk.

[SkywalkerAC]

Somehow he managed to play better pick and roll in all previuos years with same PG's exept Jasikevicius. (Kalnietis was on last mens team, Cizauskas was JV's main pnr guy for 5 years.....) It looks to me that you guys can't take critics.

Jasikevicius, you mean the guy JV came off the bench and played the majority of his minutes with? The only guard on Lithuania that was above average at running the pick and roll?

Calling Jasikevicius only above average pick and roll player is plain wrong.

that's not what he said.

[SkywalkerAC]

is it that hard to feed the post and NOT waste the possession?

[SkywalkerAC]

Is Kleiza playing without a contract? He's starting to look pretty solid and has some bounce in his step.

[UcanUwill]

Nonetheless, this LT team is pretty good. Both on paper, and the way they been playing, there are several contenders to win medals, Eurobasket is very deep, but if you listed 4 select favorites, Lithuania would be among them.

[Mototaupa]

Somehow he managed to play better pick and roll in all previuos years with same PG's exept Jasikevicius. (Kalnietis was on last mens team, Cizauskas was JV's main pnr guy for 5 years.....) It looks to me that you guys can't take critics. Nobody is crucyfiing JV or Raptors, but there are some things that might be done better, there are some things too fix.

Of course there are some things to "fix". He's a 21 year old C. He's still developing. There will be things to "fix" for the next 3-4 years.

The Raptors are trying to turn him into a franchise player. A guy that you can dump the ball to on an isolation play & let him go to work. To do that against NBA centers, JV needed to add more muscle/ strength. He also needed to work on his post game. That is all he focused on this summer.

Did you see JV running pick n' rolls in Summer League? No. He doesn't need to work on the pick n' roll. That is all he has been doing for years. He needs to add more to his game. Who cares about the damn pick n' roll. There are bigger & better things to come for Jonas. I want Jonas to become more than the next Amir Johnson.

The Lithuanian staff seem to be upset that JV's development this summer doesn't necessarily mirror the style of play that they want to play at this qualifier.

With all of the work JV put in with the Raptors this past summer, he will be a much better NBA player down the road because of it. That's the most important thing for JV is it not?

With all of the whining we're hearing, the Lithuanian NT seem to have their best interest in mind more so than JV's career.

JV is a much better player now than the player I saw last summer with the Lithuanian NT. Is that not a testament to his development with the Raps over the past year?

Great points you have there, made me rethink some of my thoughts.
But you dont see two things here
1) Lithuanian NT aint some club. Its free work here, wasting spare time, and basicaly all who gets involved have only theyr "inner" interests. So there are no big NT's interests, all players, fans, coaches, presidents only wishes best for teams players and pick best ones posible. Having this in mind uor NT's best and only interest is too make JV monster too, and as i said, guys with authority make some criticizm too hes play, that means they do that only to make him better, and they know much more about bball then you or me.
JV was better last summer then summer before that, is that not a testament of uor NT's and Lithuanian club Lietuvos rytas good work ? (actualy in that time he became from "white stiff" too "franchise hope")
2) Coach and Sabas gave theyr answers CONSIDERING JV's play for NT, not as player overal, or player for Raptors. Im pretty sure that "get him back to play bball" and "hes worse pnr player then before" were said having in mind hes play with NT

And he never was trash guy for us in NT, in juniors he was leader, in mens had smaller role because of xp and because Kemzura (previuos coach) was pretty lame. We dont put on 20meter posters uor trash guys, and dont say they hold keys too uor bball future.

[MEDIC]

No, I am not concerned how JV is being used, I think they been using him fine. The things they say doesn't match with their play.

Feel the same way.

I really like the way they have been utilizing him in game play. I just don't understand what all the complaining has been about. What they are saying in the media isn't matching what they are doing on the court (which is a good thing).

[SkywalkerAC]

That's true. Also, Jonas doesn't NEED huge amounts of minutes and touches to aid in his development. He'll get plenty in the 82 game regular season (plus preseason) soon to follow. No harm if the national program has him working on some new (or is it old) stuff and challenge him rather than force-feeding him like a star player.

[AK47MVP]

Jonas looks step slow today, gets blocked by some scrub on the dunk attempt. Just looks to me that he is not 100% in mentally today, like floating a bit.

[YoungG]

Is Kleiza playing without a contract? He's starting to look pretty solid and has some bounce in his step.

This happened every time he got injured during the season, not play much, go back to work with the national team, looks fantastic and then the the cycle would repeat.

[Jstock12]

JV's dunk attempt just got obliterated. It was a bit uncomfortable to witness.

[SkywalkerAC]

There we go. Easy dunk. Elbow at the rim.

[SkywalkerAC]

The knocking off the rim is so weird.

[SkywalkerAC]

Is that the last friendly?

[UcanUwill]

Is Kleiza playing without a contract? He's starting to look pretty solid and has some bounce in his step.

He signed with Fenerbache last month.

[Jstock12]

Jonas finished the game with 9pts and 7reb.

[AK47MVP]

I think Jonas might be a bit bored by all these friendlies. Especially playing in empty stadium. He needs some real game atmosphere to get going I hope. Still finished with 9pts 7 reb 1 blk today.