By Panos Katsiroumpas / info@eurohoops.net
Lukas Lekavicius is the first new arrival for the Greek double champions and will keep playing in green, but having descended from Kaunas to Athens.
This is Xavi Pascual’s personal choice, one that clearly shows he wants to add more intelligence and perception in the team he’s building for the new season. As a name, Lekavicius might not be a top-shelf player or established on the stage of European basketball, but he’s a guy who is evolving and last year he had some excellent games under the guidance of Sarunas Jasikevicius.
His reward is his transfer to Panathinaikos and the chance to prove that he can do amazing things in a team with greater demands.
Who he is
The young guard belongs to the new generation of Lithuanian basketball, which has the difficult task of holding high the flag of a country that is crazy about the sport, but also has a very strong tradition. Last March he turned 23 and, in terms of his club status, he has only played in Zalgiris.
Of course, aside from the team from Kaunas, he has played in his country’s national team from a young age and also the men’s team recently. On his record of achievements with the national teams he already has a silver medal from the 2015 EuroBasket, while he has another three medals with the younger national teams (two silver and one bronze).
Player’s profile
Before we present some of Lekavicius’s features as a player, I would like to express my personal opinion. I believe that the Lithuanian’s addition is one of those we call “value for money.” He’s a very smart player with great audacity in the game. A well-meaning audacity that helped him become more aggressive on both ends of the court this season. He played like a real general on the court in many games and was a catalyst for his team. The fact that he’s still 23 years old is very positive, as he still has to improve things in his game and is a team player that works hard.
His advantages
As the first and best, I’m going to mention the one that made a big impression on me from his performances last year. He looked like he was ready and very audacious competitively. Even though his size doesn’t help him, he improved his aggressiveness to a great extent, and for a player who hardly went close to the paint he now seems like he’s not afraid of it.
He has improved his floater a lot and, aside from that, he’s more efficient in his finishes, even when he reaches deep in the paint against much bigger opponents.
In this way, he has introduced greater variety in his offensive game and has become more unpredictable. He has improved his numbers in terms of execution, with his greatest weapon still being his mid-range shooting. And a good mid-range shot is a great weapon in modern basketball, since it makes things difficult for any defense in the pick-and-roll game. The three-pointer is not his strongest point, although he attempted more of them in the season that just ended than he had in previous years.
He’s pretty fast with the ball on the floor and he can attack with great success against switching defenses. He’s good on the open court, while he’s also an excellent passer, both in pick-and-roll situations as well as with the way he reads the game and his movement away from the ball.
When he has the ball in the central lane he prefers to move to the left, as he feels more comfortable from that side since he executes with his left hand.
In defense, he can press hard on the ball, he’s a hustler as he can keep chasing after opponents behind screens as well, and in some cases this year, he also played some amazing switching defenses in the post, despite his small size. Generally, he’s not afraid to sacrifice his body and plays for the team first.
His disadvantages
We would certainly include his size in this part. Teams that can read the game well can create many problems for him with guards who can take him to the post.
Aside from his size, another disadvantage is that he almost doesn’t use his right hand at all; even in drives from the right lane he prefers to finish plays with the left hand. Also, with screens, he prefers to go left since he doesn’t have the same ability attacking the basket from the right. Despite this, in execution from mid-range he’s as effective from both sides.
In closing, it’s very important to see how the player is going to react in the new environment. We shouldn’t forget that he’s leaving to play for a team outside of Lithuania for the first time and this may require a little more time to adapt. Overall, we’d say that he’s a very good back-up solution for Calathes, offering elements with which he can complement the Greek guard.