Lithuania's next point guard has arrived: meet Rokas Jokubaitis

MANILA (Philippines) - Think Saras Jasikevicius. Think Mantas Kalnietis. Think Rokas Jokubaitis. The 22-year-old has arrived, ready to take and carry that heavy crown of being a Lithuanian point guard.

There were plenty more, make no mistake about it, but over the last 25 years, two figures dominated the ballhandling duties with the national team. Jasikevicius started playing for the national team at 22, and saw his first World Cup as a backup point guard in 1998, helping Lithuania to a place among the top eight.

Kalnietis made his major event debut at the World Cup in 2006, starting as a 20-year-old and orchestrating proceedings so well, Lithuania got back into the top eight again.

Jasikevicius played for the national team from 1997 to 2012

After Kalnietis' recent retirement, the question was: who is next?

Fast forward to 2023, and coach Kazys Maksvytis doesn't mind if the knockouts come courtesy of southpaw spikes. Rokas Jokubaitis' left hand has been the right call for Lithuania.

His teammates couldn't agree more.

"I think years in Barcelona under coach (Saras) Jasikevicius gave him a lot. He started the World Cup with a bad first game, but like this (editor's note: he snaps his fingers) he changed his mentality and now he's doing a great job," teammate Mindaugas Kuzminskas said after Rokas' third TCL Player of the Game performance in a row.

Jokubaitis' aforementioned bad game was against Egypt, when he had just two points and missed all six of his shots from the field. The finger-snapping moment came with 15 points and 7 assists in 20 minutes against Mexico, then continued with back-to-back 19-point, 6-assist games against Montenegro and Greece.

When he gets going, especially when he's going downhill, it's fun to watch. He can stop and pop, he can go all the way, he can lob it up for the big guys, and blast one of his laser passes to the shooters outside.

"It's a lot of fun," Ignas Brazdeikis said. "He's a great point guard, he sets up the game well. I told him early, just be aggressive, draw the defense, and when he does that and kicks out, he makes the game easier for all of us."

Sky's the limit?

"Yes, sir!"

Brazdeikis is just 24, and only recently started playing for Lithuania, so it's hard for him to attest to how good Jokubaitis really is on the Lithuanian scale of point guard greatness. Kuzminskas is about to celebrate his 34th birthday, he's a better candidate for historical perspective.

"I remember myself when I was his age, I wasn't even close to playing at this level. I want to show all of my respect to him because he's doing an amazing job being our first point guard on the team, knowing that if he's gonna play bad, we're probably going to have some trouble."

Rokas Jokubaitis is a smart man. He definitely knows what Kuzminskas is talking about with the troubles up  here, and he feels the weight of the nation on his back. It doesn't change now that he's done the same as Kalnietis and Jasikevicius in their first World Cups, booked a Quarter-Finals ticket.

If anything, the pressure of the fans, the media, the country is going to get even bigger now, because a medal is just two wins away.

"Of course I'm feeling the pressure. Lithuania is a small country, but everybody lives with basketball," Jokubaitis shared his feelings.

"You can feel pressure even if you're not following the social media or whatever. I feel the pressure, but when I go on the court, this pressure comes off of my shoulders and I'm enjoying every second playing here."

It certainly looked that way in the second half against Greece. Lithuania were down by eight in the first, struggling to get anything going, but the second half was close to perfection. The Baltic side got it going by putting up 53 points offensively, allowing just 24 defensively, storming to a comfortable win and then spending some 10 minutes on the floor after the game to celebrate with the fans.

"Perfect is a very difficult word to say. We were very good, like two different teams in the first and the second half. I was enjoying every moment, every second in the second half. If we manage to play like this for a longer amount of minutes, we can be even better."

Even better? Okay, here's a perfect test for you, Rokas. You get to take on Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Haliburton on Sunday, in your country's fourth World Cup duel with the United States. Lithuania won against the no-NBA players lineup in 1998, while USA claimed the last two games, in 2010 and 2014.

Aside from a 1-2 record in World Cup history, Lithuania have a 1-6 record against the United States at the Olympics. Jasikevicius was a part of both those wins, maybe his student gets his first in Manila.

FIBA