Marius – the knee-deep lagoon: Grigonis, who is bathing his rivals, has he already grown a “Žalgiris” shorts?

After such a speech from Kaunas, it was easy to suspect that the defender, who is considered the leader of Žalgiris this season, will soon turn his speech into action.

That is what happened. Named Grigulica, Žalgiris improved two career records in the Euroleague (performance and utility) this week and became the Most Profitable Round Player (MVP).

M. Grigonis scored almost a third of all Žalgiris points in Vilerban’s ASVEL basket: 25 of 83, accumulated 27 utility points and gave the impression that this is not the limit, because he is only gaining momentum.

It is symbolic that Nikola Mirotičius of the Barcelona club, the only one currently not second behind Žalgiris in the tournament table (5/1), has also accumulated 27 utility points in this round.

However, the forward, who brought the nickname “Threekola” from the NBA league, lost to Lithuania both in terms of performance (18 points) and plus-minus indicator (+4 to +7).

M. Grigonis, who improved in the substitutes of “Žalgiris” a few years ago, and later in the second Spanish league, advanced so much and reached such a level that he is now definitely on the radar of the powerful of Europe.

“The unique characteristic of Marius is that he is an intrepid player who has absolutely no emotion, no matter who he plays with. He doesn’t seem to care who the contestant is, if there are spectators or not.

Maybe it’s a bit of a paradox that he doesn’t have great sharpness, athleticism, and a good first step, but he still bathes his opponents. He has a very high basketball intelligence and a good arsenal of tricky moves, allowing him to outrun his opponents. And if the opponent retreats a bit, Marius immediately raises a three-point stick. He also has a great view of the court and can turn off the pace, ”commentator Vaidas Čeponis praised Euroleague of the Week winner Delfi on the Basketball Zone TV show.

It is true that he fears that this season in Kaunas could be the last for M. Grigonis, who plays like this.

“Is it not the case that this is his last season in ‘Žalgiris’? I think his value could grow even more this year. Marius is already a very good player at the level of the entire Euroleague”, he added.

Masterfully provoking fouls, M. Grigonis (average of 5 each) is one of the tournament leaders not only in terms of this component, but also in terms of fruit picking: he accounts for the fines at 100 percent (21 /twenty-one).

Whether Marius will take over the number 13 and the captain’s bandage from Paulius Jankūnas, the symbol of “Žalgiris”, next season, or perhaps even a year from now, will depend on the Kaunas team’s financial capabilities and level of Euroleague interest.

And so far, the resident of Žalgiris, who wears the number 40, continues to force his talent and his impressive statistics to drip both the salaried “Barcelona” of Šarūnas Jasikevičius, the Vitorija “Baskonis”, who is making the Lithuanian colony grow, and other European basketball giants.

Already next week, M. Grigonis will be able to remind Spaniards about himself even higher: the Real Madrid club will arrive in Kaunas on Friday.

Incidentally, another green-white representative, Thomas Walkup, who achieved a career record with 26 utility points, was included among the five most useful symbolic players of the sixth round of the Euroleague.