Before the Lithuanian derby in the Baltic Basketball League in Vilnius in the beginning of December Lietuvos Rytas head coach Rimas Kurtinaitis told that the game would be decided in the point guard department. The club from Vilnius won. Could that provide the evidence to say that Bojan Popovic is a better playmaker than Mantas Kalnietis? Or was it a one day splash?
The case of Mantas Kalnietis
| 2009-10 Euroleague | PTS | REB | AST | STL | TO | RKG |
| Mantas Kalnietis | 8,8 | 3,0 | 4,0 | 1,1 | 3,8 | 9,5 |
Mantas Kalnietis seems to be stuck between the positions of point guard and shooting guard. The Lithuanian combo guard would definitely be complimented by a more experienced playmaker in the team, who would put much more use of Kalnietis’ much-improved shooting skills, while giving the young Lithuanian more time at the two-guard position.
One thing can’t be left unmentioned as well – Mantas Kalnietis could not be considered a typical shooting guard as well. His shot is still not consistent enough to call the talented chap from Kaunas a good shooter, though as said before, Kalnietis has put a lot of work in the practice gym throughout the last year.
A good playmaker alongside Kalnietis would take the strain off of his shoulders, as from time to time it has proved too much to handle for the current Zalgiris point guard, especially at a higher level of competition. For Zalgiris playing a two-guard with fairly decent passing skills and court-vision would come in handy as well, as this might open up the floor and increase spacing, creating more opportunities for both the team’s shooters and slashers.
It shouldn’t be forgotten, that Kalnietis can indeed play proper minutes as a point guard, just as he had been doing for the most of his still short career. Kalnietis hasn’t got the skill-set of neither a playmaker, nor has he the ones of a shooting guard, but with a smart this could be used to an advantage. It looks like that the new Zalgiris coach Ramunas Butautas took on the challenge straight on, declaring that he could do exactly that in his first interview with Lithuanian media.
The case of Bojan Popovic
| 2009-10 Euroleague | PTS | REB | AST | STL | TO | RKG |
| Bojan Popovic | 11,6 | 2,5 | 5,6 | 2,5 | 4,1 | 14,9 |
One has to keep in mind the huge load of responsibility that Popovic has on his back whilst looking at the turnover numbers. Lietuvos Rytas, a team with a lack of individual talent and no particular player, who could create his own shots, except from Arturas Jomantas to some extent. The game relies on Popovic as the motor of the team to link up his teammates. Zalgiris, for example, has individually stronger players, who can go one-on-one and collect points this way.
Popovic doesn’t have the smoothest of shots, which he could rely on, but has learned to use his speed and quickness to get off of his defender, which usually results in free-throws. The player should work on improving his shot and keeping the turnover numbers as low as it is possible to make the best of the opportunity to showcase his skills at the highest level given by Lietuvos Rytas.
The statistics
The styles of both Popovic’s and Kalnietis’ offensive game is radically different. The Serbian playmaker prefers an aggressive mind-set, while Kalnietis looks to hang around the three-point line more often than not, looking for his own shots from downtown as well. The main reason for this is the shooting percentages – Zalgiris point guard’s shot has improved significantly, but is still far from brilliant, while Popovic’s shot accuracy depends too much on the weather on a specific day and is highly unstable.
|
Shooting stats |
2PM-A |
2P % |
3PM-A |
3P % |
FTM-A |
FT % |
| Mantas Kalnietis | 62-107 | 57,9 | 28-77 | 36,4 | 21-22 | 95,5 |
| Bojan Popovic | 39-91 | 42,9 | 21-70 | 30,0 | 94-113 | 83,2 |
Kalnietis seems to be either too confident in his shooting, or not confident enough in his ability to take on the defenders head-on. Knowing, that he does have the athleticism and the hops to both drive and finish over the rim, it’s dazzling why he doesn’t use this weapon more. If not in direct points, his tally will tower, as he hits free-throws, which he has been shooting at a perfect 9 of 9.Talking about free-throws, Popovic uses them to full extent, trailing only the most efficient Euroleague player Aleks Maric in drawn fouls and has attempted five times more shots from the charity stripe than his Lithuanian counterpart.
The aggressiveness translates into defense as well – Kalnietis commits only 1,4 fouls per game and leaves much room for interpretation. He should have an advantage, due to his height, but this must have been balanced out by a lack of speed and quickness to some extent. Popovic, once again, prefers a more in-your-face approach, committing twice as much fouls as Kalnietis, but for that he gets rewarded with twice the amount of steals at 2,5 a game to make him second in this category as well, only behind former Lietuvos Rytas player Mindaugas Lukauskis. On the whole, this leaves Kalnietis more room for improvement, stepping up his defensive intensity on his opponents and playing on the edge of a foul.
