Official Thread: Donatas Motiejunas

[admin]

Donatas Motiejunas, PF/C
16 years old 7'0" 215 lbs.
Zalgiris Kaunas, International

Check out the complete profile at: Full Profile (http://www.draftexpress.com/viewprofile.php?p=1300)

[wardjdim]

It was about time someone wrote something on Donatas..

Upside is huge, fantastic size, lefty, smooth, athletic, great slasher, finisher with both hands, has ballhandling skills already, good range, quick release, fine rebounder, good post moves, though a perimenter-oriented pf, excellent footwork, good body-use, fine mobility, good passing game.

BUT, pretty bad mentality, ultra skinny, still immature (he was so afraid and shy in Prague 15 months ago and now he is a bully on court), unable to match-up with bigger opponents (like with Koufos yesterday), not a consistent inside defender in one on one, still has ways to go, although fundamentals are there.

Projection (though extremely early to tell): Potential top-10 pick. If he learns how to use his potential and upgrades his body and matures, then he'll be unguardable. If not, he'll be the next Skita, only a left-handed one.

[coachjon]

I think Donatas Motiejunas will be a top 5 pick in 2010 and has the potential to be a borderline franchise player in the NBA, but he will have to reach his potential to do that as he is very inexperienced and far from a finished product. He is a very versatile, athletic, and skilled lefty faceup PF that can score from the low post with basic post moves and counter moves because of his good footwork. He also can score from the perimeter where he has a consistent jumpshot out to NBA 3. In the halfcourt he is a good straight line driver that can finish and find the open man with his good court vision, but he could work on his ability to create his own midrange shot by being able to change directions. (remember he is a 7fter so this might be getting too picky lol) His ideal situation would be to land on one of the uptempo teams ( Mike D'Antoni, Don Nelson type style team) because he runs the floor so well and can handle and pass the ball in transition. Defensively he is a good weakside shotblocker, but must get stronger to guard the post. He rebounds the ball pretty well.

If he reaches his full potential NBA Role: Top player for his team and one of the top bigmen in the league that is an athletic versatile match up nightmare with his ability to score inside and outside. When you add his shooting touch with his ability to run the floor and handle the ball as a scorer or distributor he will be much tougher to guard facing the basket than with his back to the basket. He will be a good rebounder, but be average to below average on the defensive end.

[Hitster]

He wisely decided to wait another year and not enter the draft this year although given the lack of good bigs after Thabeet and Hill, he would surely have gone top 10 and maybe ahead of Hill even.

Next year he'll have Aldrich, Favours, Davis etc to compete with but he has been a potential top 5 pick on most 2010 mocks since they were first published and he could go very high.

He will be very closely watched as GM's are always a little wary of European Bigs but would not want to miss the next great Euro Big.

He may need time but has added some weight from 215 to about 224lbs so if he could get up to 235lbs it would help his defensive game.

[wombat6802]

How would gaining 11 pounds help his defensive game?

[Hitster]

Giving him more bulk would help with his inside and low post game. Trying to access what a 7 footer guy's ideal playing weight should be is always hard but if Donatas can get to 235lbs to 240lbs then he should have reasonable bulk to match up inside when required. Although he seems to be a more perimeter orientated player at the moment where his height can cause match up problems for smaller PF's.

[ecuhus]

^

Yeah, the scrawnier you are, the more likely and easily you will be forced out of your position on the block when playing man defense.

[wombat6802]

I was just wondering how adding weight would directly help his defensive game. It can certainly help. But without fundamentals, added weight just bogs you down. Just ask Sean May, Eddy Curry, Mike Sweetney, or for probably a more relevant example, Emeka Okafor. I was asking Hitster to clarify how, exactly, added weight would improve Motiejunas's defensive game based on what Hitster had seen.

[Hitster]

I haven't seen anything specific in Motiejunas's game where specific or extrem extra bulk would help him as his current game is perhaps more perimeter based like a lot of younger European Bigs. I'd noticed that he had initially been listed at 215lbs and was now listed at 224lbs so adding another 10 to 15lbs could possibly be expected in the next year or so as he continues to fill out without adding excessive bulk.

A lot of the players mentioned above maybe Okafor apart are probably natural 260lbs players who adding excessive bulk took them to almost Shaq type sizes. Some players who are good defensive players especially on the block do carry extra weight but often these are naturally muscular, bulky guys like Kendrick Perkins or Diop for instance. Having extra muscle can help you inside as Perkins proved against Dwight Howard in the play-offs when he and Davis to a lesser extent used their sheer bulk to make Dwight Howard the NBA's top C and himself a 265lbs guy from getting inside scoring chances. If KG had been playing then he would have probably used a different method just relying on his superb all round defensive game and knowhow from being the player he is. Perkins of course isn't KG so had to use a more physical but perhaps nearly as effective method.

[Mike005]

Donatas will join Pallacanestro (Benetton) Treviso. They already signed Cartier Martin, C.J. Wallace, and Daniel Hackett.

Benetton will be in the 8-team Euroleague qualifier in the fall. If they win their sub-qualifier, they'll be in the Euroleague. The move (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kZKV6ui60o) should get him (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7pZ-B7jSmU) into the bigger gyms (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_QYdbpnayI) where there isn't just a gambler, two buddies, and someone's cousin in the crowd (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN0ryDTNDXw).

[Hitster]

Donatas Motiejunas certainly made the right decision not to declare in the 2009 draft and as he is only coming off the bench for his new team whilst developing then even waiting until 2011 would do him no harm as maybe a year starting in a decent league is needed before he considers the NBA.

If he had declared this year then I doubt if he would have been in rotation but next year he could realistically look to be a rookie learning from the bench. Also his draft position falling a bit in the mocks takes a bit of pressure off him as NCAA guys especially those up to a couple of years older than him will always be much more on the radar. Donatas's draft position will always remain fairly strong given his intangibles of size and upside and the key will be how do NBA GM's compare him to NCAA players.

The likes of Aldrich is more NBA ready but doesn't have the upside, Ed Davis will be more NBA ready like Donatas as he has waited another year, Favours is younger than Donatas and is highly regarded. But whilst these players may well cross paths in the NCAA this season and scouts can see how well they prepare they have the bigger unknown in Donatas and whilst they are wary of taking a risk, they will also worry if they miss the big with the best upside.

At the moment I have Donatas a little behind the 3 guys mentioned above but his upside and his size will appeal to teams - Davis and Favours are both listed at 6ft 9ins whilst Donatas is listed at 7ft so if he measures out well compared to them this could be a huge boost for him.

At the moment Donatas is a top 10 pick for me in 2010 with the potential to go inside the top 5 and a top 5 pick in 2011 with the potential to go inside the top 3.

[coachjon]

I would probably add Patrick Patterson to that group of 4 above and rank the guys as of right now on their NBA career forecast in this order: Derrick Favors, Ed Davis, Patrick Patterson, Cole Aldrich, Dontas Motiejunas

[Hitster]

Patterson has been moved above Motiejunas on this site's mock and being an NCAA Junior who would have been drafted top 20 last summer at least then Patterson is again seen as NBA ready. The players I mentioned all maybe apart from Davis are listed as PF/C so to include Patterson in the list looking at them compared to a finesse European big wasn't really an accurate comparison.

Patterson could well become a Tyrus Thomas/Brandon Bass type NBA PF and being on a powerhouse team like Kentuckey will got loads of coverage and he would already have been on a lot of team's radar from last year so a top 10 draft position is well justified.

Motiejunas is already playing professionally and so can bide his time with the NBA but hopefully he won't get tied up long term in Europe as I'm sure he can have a good NBA future.