Zalgiris Coaching Clinic: “We went through a lot of questions and all of them are interesting“ 0

At the end of March, the Zalgiris Coaching Clinic was held in Kaunas for the third time. This year saw a large delegation of coaches participating, and the four-day clinic had presentations and practices from Zalgiris system coaches, employees and other guests, introducing participants to the whole Zalgiris pyramid.

Meanwhile, Zalgiris assistant general manager Paulius Jankunas also introduced the participants to the backstage of the main team.

“I think the main thing is to pass on our experience: how we work in the youth program, how we work with the main team. How the youth system and academy work, and the communication in between them. What percentage of players transition from one team to the other. How we organize our home games, how the arena operates. A lot of different questions, and all of them are important.”

One of the lecturers of the Zalgiris Coaching Clinic was Boston Celtics scout Benas Matkevicius.

“I tried to grasp things and experiences related to my career, with concrete examples of how the analyses were carried out, how we searched for draft picks, where I was stuck, where I learnt. I also talked about the talent search – which parameters are key, what are we looking for. I love to talk, to share knowledge and I don’t hesitate in such cases. All that information is my knowledge, my truth.”

Among the coaches coming into learn was a face that is recognizable in European basketball – American Darryl Middleton, who’s become a EuroLeague champion not only as a player, but also as a coach.

“It’s been great. It’s a first time being in an academy. They show these young guys what to do in game situations. They are very intelligent coaches, they do a great job. These kids are learning a lot and will be playing in higher level teams.”

Zalgiris-2 coach Rokas Kondratavicius had his debut as a presenter and shared his experience.

“It’s one of the newer experiences. I think it all went well, it’s high quality. The main goal. was to pass on our ideas, our system, what we teach our players every day, trying to get them ready for a professional’s career. There were plenty of questions which we broke it down in detail. It’s nice to see them questioning and hitting it right on topic. We managed to go further into detail, you can see the interest. They want to know the deeper levels of our system, and that encourages us as well.”