The flight of Giedraitis, whose wings grew: from the end of the bench, direct to the five starters of the national team?

The Basques, who rely on the wind, lag behind the Saint Petersburg Zenit club in eighth place for a win, and in the next round they will meet the people of Saint Petersburg.

The most productive “Baskonios” player this season is none other than Rokas Giedraitis, 28, who woke up the beast.

An attacker who spends 29 minutes on the court, the longest of all Lithuanians in the Euroleague, scores an average of 11.9 points (53% from two points, 39% from 3-point, 80% from penalties) and has scored 10th more points. in nine of the last ten Euroleague games.

Only Marius Grigonis from Žalgiris, who averages 14.3 points, is ahead of him in terms of points obtained from his compatriots this year.

The wings of both sights grew on behalf of the ALBA team in Berlin. It is in the ranks of the Albatross where it can be said that both Marius and Rock first shone at this level with their most beautiful colors.

However, despite scoring almost 15 points in a European Cup match, LKL Kevin Durant, who for some time was called R. Giedraitis at the 2019 World Cup in China, traveled more than he played.

According to the decision of coach Dainius Adomaitis and his staff, in the failed planetary championship of the Lithuanian team, Rokas started most of the time on the bench, from which he got up in only insignificant minutes, when Senegal and Canada were crushed and a a meeting was held with the Dominican Republic.

D. Adomaitis himself, speaking with Delfi some time ago, explained that then R. Giedraitis was a completely different player than he is now, so he could not help the team in as significant a way as expected this summer.

“When the World Cup took place, Rock was still a little different. He is now after a very solid season in Berlin and plays an important role at the Vitoria Club. If we put current Rock on that team two years ago, he would definitely get more minutes and tasks. But then the situation was different and Rokas himself agreed, it was different, ”said the former national team strategist.

For his part, R. Giedraitis, while participating in the Delfi television program “Basketball Zone”, did not want to agree with this statement, although he did not revive his old grievances.

“There are coaches, they see better. Of course, maybe I was a slightly different player because every year I improve and add something, that’s normal. At least I really have more experience and understanding for over five years. But that something would be very different, I don’t know, maybe … ”Rokas thought.

Asked if he had already had contact with the new director of the national team Darius Maskoliūnas, who also works in Spain, R. Giedraitis assured that it is not easy to do so during the season.

“No, I have not talked about the team at the moment. I think it is too early to talk about this: summer will come, then it will be possible to start. Now both Tad (Sedekersky) and I just have to play, work for the club and then we will see when the national team starts. It will be interesting, “he smiles.

The fact that, unlike China, R. Giedraitis’ role in the national team should be much more important this summer, basketball commentator Vaidas Čeponis has no doubts either. He wouldn’t even be surprised if Rock, a former player on the 12th national team, was now in the top five.

“There are a lot of candidates for the slight advantage position, but I think Rock’s chances of getting a lot of minutes in the game are really great. After all, he can also play bravely as an attacking defender.

We saw the problems that there were in the world championship, when Lithuania was among the outsiders of the tournament in terms of three points. D. Maskoliūnas understands that the team needs snipers. I have had the opportunity to speak with him about it. For this reason, he appreciates both R. Giedraitis and Eimantas Bendžiai, because the defense against Jonas Valančiūnas and Domantas Sabonis is usually double, so we will need good throwers. And Rokas is currently one of the best snipers in Lithuanian basketball, ”says the expert.

R. Giedraitis himself did not get rid of the second number of the match, covering this position many times in Vitoria.

“For the last two months, I have been going to Duškas Ivanovičius as the second number and Tadas as the third. I started to play more two against two, although at first I felt very uncomfortable because I really did not know how to do it here. However, with Over time, I got more practice and understood everything. Everyone knows that I feel more comfortable in a game without the ball, but if you need it one day, no problem, “said Rokas.

All the conversation with R. Giedraitis is in the recording of the program “Basketball Zone”.