Lithuania move forward minus out-of-contract Motiejunas

VILNIUS (Rio 2016 Olympic Games) - Lithuania will not have Donatas Motiejunas at the Olympics, the country's basketball federation has announced.

Motiejunas, who missed last year's EuroBasket because of injury, is hoping to play in the NBA this coming season and has yet to sign with a team.

In an interview with 15min.lt, the 25-year-old power forward said: "The federation told me to give a final answer. But at this moment, there is only one answer. I don't have a contract and it is unclear where I will play next season. The Olympic Games have always been my dream but at this moment, I can't play with my national team."

Jonas Kazlauskas, the Lithuania coach, did not have Motiejunas last summer and nevertheless steered the team into the EuroBasket Final to qualify for the Rio Games.

He had hoped to have the 2.13m native of Kaunas, who played at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup, in this year's squad.

Kazlauskas has accepted that it's time to shape the team with the players he has at his disposal.

"All of us perfectly understand what a good player he is and how he is capable of giving the team a lot," Kazlauskas said. "All along, I said that we understood the situation ... But the time is coming when we have to give the (list of the) final twelve ..."

Kazlauskas and Lithuania will not be short of options heading into the Rio Games, where they will play in Group B against Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Nigeria and Spain.

One of the players who could receive more playing time with Motiejunas out is Domas Sabonis. The 20-year-old, taken with the 11th overall pick in last month's NBA Draft by the Orlando Magic, has been playing big minutes with the national team in their warm-up games for the Olympics.

In their most recent friendly against the Netherlands this week, an 84-61 Lithuania win, Sabonis logged 24 minutes and 32 seconds and had 8 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

Lithuania host Belarus on Thursday night in Kedainiai, a city that's about an hour's drive to the north of Kaunas.

FIBA