ORADEA (Romania) - Despite never having played for the youth national team, there was plenty of hype surrounding Danielius Jasikevicius before this year's FIBA U16 EuroBasket started.
If that last name rings a bell, it's because of Danielius' uncle, Sarunas Jasikevicius - a former FIBA EuroBasket champion and MVP with Lithuania who also went on to become one of the most successful coaches in Europe.
Danielius came into the tournament with high expectations, and he has delivered. He ranks third in assists per game, showcasing an elite level of passing vision and basketball IQ throughout the tournament, while also leading Lithuania to their fourth Semi-Finals appearance in the last five years.
As Lithuania prepares for a Semi-Finals matchup with France, this Player Spotlight looks at how Danielius Jasikevicius has started carving his own path in basketball and what his play in Oradea can tell us about his projection to the next level.
Offense
Despite a statistical profile that suggests that Jasikevicius is a pass-first guard, in my opinion, it all starts with his ball-handling ability. The Zalgiris prospect has really good speed with the ball in his hands, which he utilizes to attack in transition and in the early offense, creating advantages for his team.
Jasikevicius combines that open-court speed with a quickness that allows him to change speeds and directions, keeping defenders constantly on their toes.
While he has a solid, though not killer, first step, he's masterful at accelerating and decelerating with tremendous quickness, while also having the footwork and polish as a ball-handler to have an effective counter to everything the defense throws his way, keeping his dribble alive through traffic and defensive pressure.
This consistent ability to create advantages off the dribble generates passing opportunities, and this is where his passing ability really shines.
Jasikevicius is currently averaging 7.0 assists against only 2.4 turnovers per game, but even those numbers fall short of illustrating how advanced he is as a passer.
On a basic level, Jasikevicius is a reliable floor general who keeps things simple and consistently makes the right play.
In transition, he consistently advances the ball, finding teammates running ahead and connecting with them through accurate long-range passes that generate easy looks time and time again.
He is similarly effective in the half court, making simple drive-and-kick passes once he creates an advantage off the dribble, as well as making good reads and deliveries in the pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop games.
There is, however, another layer to his passing, and that is his ability to make high-level reads at very high speeds. Jasikevicius has excellent vision, allowing him to scan the floor, read the defense, quickly recognize advantages and execute accordingly, delivering passes on time and on target.
This is how the 16-year-old is able to consistently find teammates who are seemingly two passes away with skip passes and long-range passes, while also being masterful threading the needle in the pick-and-roll.
Jasikevicius is not just a volume passer; he is a high-quality playmaker for others who consistently delivers accurate and timely passes that generate wide-open looks for teammates, leaving defenders in a difficult spot to recover and contest.
With his passing ability, Jasikevicius can find plenty of open shots for himself from beyond the arc, and there are reasons for optimism, as he's shooting 32.5 percent from three-point range on 8 attempts per game, while also shooting 80.6 percent from the free-throw line, which is generally a strong indicator of future shooting potential.
This is also coming on a rather difficult shot diet, where a majority of his attempts are off the dribble: generally more difficult, lower-percentage shots. These self-created opportunities have come mostly in the pick-and-roll, where defenders choose to cover the roll man and go under screens, giving him space to shoot coming off the screen.
There are, however, reasons for concern as well. Jasikevicius started the tournament well, but has made just 5 of his 23 attempts over his last three games. Some of those struggles with shooting consistency are also seen in the quality of his misses, particularly off the catch.
The 16-year-old made only 33.3 percent of his wide-open catch-and-shoot attempts. He shows a lot of left-right variance in his jumper and has had some air balls, making it difficult to identify whether this is about a specific mechanical issue that needs to be corrected or if it's related to an issue of shooting touch.
The question of touch becomes particularly important when evaluating the next area of his game: his finishing around the basket.
Jasikevicius has attempted just 16 shots at the rim and made only four of them, resulting in a concerning 25-percent conversion rate around the basket.
The obvious factor here is his size. Standing at 1.80m (5ft 11in), Jasikevicius does not have elite size, nor the explosive vertical athleticism to finish over opponents.
Not getting a tremendous amount of lift on his drives and having difficulty creating separation against defenders at the rim through sheer physicality can lead to him having to take tough, contested shots around the basket.
This is where developing an in-between game, particularly floaters, could become extremely important.
It's something that we haven't seen much from him in this competition, but it could be the key not only to developing into a versatile finisher, but also to ensuring that the passing lanes that are currently open for him continue to exist at the next level.
If Jasikevicius develops into a threat to finish around the basket, defenders will need to collapse the paint on his drives, making his job as a floor general easier.
Otherwise, if defenses are able to consistently defend him one-on-one as a slasher, those passing windows will become smaller, and some of the value he currently generates as an elite passer could be diminished at higher levels of competition.
Defense
While Jasikevicius' size could eventually become a limitation defensively, that has not been the case in this tournament. He has emerged as a tenacious perimeter defender who is particularly effective at reading opposing offenses, anticipating passes and getting into the passing lanes.
He is averaging 2.8 steals per game, tied for fourth in the tournament, but the most impressive part is not simply the volume of takeaways, but how he's able to anticipate what opposing ball-handlers are going to do and position himself accordingly to intercept passes on time, turning those takeaways into quick offense for Lithuania.
As an on-ball defender, he is also far from a negative despite his lack of size. He has been able to stay in front of opponents with his quick feet, contest shots and generally make life difficult for opposing ball-handlers through quickness rather than physicality.
There could be more concerns as he moves up levels of competition, particularly if he does not grow a few inches and ends up being limited, from a physical standpoint, to defending opposing point guards.
This is what makes his ability to make an impact as an off-ball defender particularly encouraging, as this could give him some defensive role versatility that could mitigate his limited on-ball defensive skills, making him a potentially neutral-to-positive defender.
Outlook
Despite not returning a single player from last year's silver-medal team, Lithuania is back in the Semi-Finals - a familiar place for the country over the past few years, as the team has reached this stage of the U16 tournament in four of the last five years.
After falling short in last year's Final, Jasikevicius is giving Lithuania an opportunity to avenge that loss and win their third title at the event.
With his performance in Oradea, Jasikevicius has emerged as one of the top floor generals in his age group.
His elite vision, accuracy and timing as a passer, combined with his quick ball-handling and ability to consistently create advantages that he can exploit through his playmaking, are tools that should allow him to run an offense at virtually any level of competition in the future.
There are certainly limitations, particularly physically, as well as clear areas for improvement in his finishing and shooting consistency.
But Jasikevicius has shown in Oradea that his talent goes beyond his family name, and that he has all the tools to create his own path and make his own name as a future standout floor general at the professional level.
FIBA