Kasparas Jakucionis

Jakucionis loved to have the ball in his hands – sometimes even too much and made too many dribbles without creating anything. A few times he was also too selfish and wanted to score more than make the right play. His slashing skills were great though and he could beat the first line of defense and get to the rim quite easily. At the rim, he showed good finishing ability, drew many fouls and often went to the free throw line. Showed the scoring skills but I would love to see more playmaking from him.

Statistics: 17.7 PTS, 10/14 2FG, 27.3% 3FG, 75% FT, 3.7 REB, 5 ASS, 1.3 STL, 3.7 TO in 32:36 MIN

The Lithuanian earned a spot on the Finals all-tournament team in his home country with a strong playmaking and transition high pace performance. Jakucionis is a big-bodied ballhandler whose best attribute to his game is his passing and game control. He was again a great processor of pick-and-roll situations. As a scorer, he has yet to develop a more consistent shooting form, but he knew how to get to his spots on pick-and-roll situations with drives but also constantly finding his open teammates. In addition, he has shown some good touches on one-on-one actions from the three-point line and catch and shoot. 

In general, he is an enormously mature player for his age, who exploited weaknesses in the opposing team, made smart decisions and led his team confidently. In the decisive last game to reach the final, he showed this a little less, but it was mainly the defensive side in the second half that was the sticking point here, which is still also his biggest weakness. Due to the fact that he doesn’t have excellent lateral speed, he had problems defending fast guards or controlling close-outs. Nevertheless, another strong weekend at the ANGT for Jakucionis.

Being the main initiator of the Barcelona offense, he shot above-average from three-point territory (including pull-ups, catch and shoot and in movement) and showed some solid finishes at the rim as well. Another big strength was his constantly aggressive on-ball defense (3 steals per game), which often led to easy fast-break points for him. In the set-play he regularly knew how to set the scene for his teammates and at the same time knew how to use direction and tempo changes on a high level. One doubt should be mentioned on future ball handling at senior level when he must deal with higher pressure, which is also reflected by his high turnover numbers (4.5 per game).

Why he anyways deservedly became MVP is confirmed by the performance of his team while he was the leader and also his strong individual statistics: 19,2pts, 7rebs, 4,5ass, 3stls, 4,5to, 11/16 2FG, 41,4 3FG% – 12/29 3FG, 90,5 FT%, 28.29mins