# Hornets Sign Lithuanian



## AussieWarriorFan! (May 30, 2005)

Hornets Sign Lithuanian
15th July, 2005 - 3:47 am
New Orleans Times-Picayune - The New Orleans Hornets have signed Lithuanian shooting guard Arvydas Macijauskas to a three-year contract.

His agent Marc Fleisher believes he will be a good fit for the team.

"We looked at a lot of teams, but we thought New Orleans is a great place where he will have an opportunity to hopefully contribute right away," Fleisher said. "I think he plays a very exciting flamboyant style of basketball, and I think he will be a huge crowd favorite."

"He's the best shooter outside of the NBA, and a lot of people in the NBA would tell you that he probably would be one of the two or three best shooters in the NBA," Fleisher said. "He's phenomenal at the foul line, and he gets there frequently. He drives very well, and he's much more than an outside shooter. He can put the ball on the floor and can go hard.

Macijauskas is expected to start for the Hornets at shooting guard with J.R. Smith moving to small forward.

http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/36655/20050715/hornets_sign_lithuanian/


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## Scipio (Feb 18, 2004)

I really like the trend nowadays when the best and experienced Euro players (Oberto, Macijauskas, hopefully Saras and Scola) will come to the league. They should be able to help teams right away. It's better for the league to get the proven players than 18 year old projects with potential.

Good signing by the Hornets.


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## RollWithEm (Jul 16, 2002)

It is an extremely good signing, but the idea of moving JR to the three sounds like the Hornets would now be inclined to pull themselves out of the free agents search. Macijauskas is a shooter with near unlimited range, but he could never defend all that well, and he's not all that athletic. The Hornets should not give up on finding an athletic wing to start at the 3.


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## KokoTheMonkey (Aug 4, 2003)

He's an upgrade in talent, that's for sure. 


I agree with what RollWithEm said above about still going out and looking for another wing player. I don't think Macijauskas (We got to get this guy a nickname) will start, but if his competition is Bostjan Nachbar than it's a no brainer. This also really helps out Chris Paul because a great shooter who knows where to be on the floor can really bail out a PG sometimes.


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## TheSportsDork (Jul 15, 2005)

I have to agree with all the above. Knowing pretty well what B. Scott did in Jersey, how does this signing fit in well with his system?? Where's the length on the perimeter? Who is going to trigger the fast break? Who is going to play defense at all? Or are they just going to scrap that whole Princeton philosophy and go with the Sonic Boom theory? 

If that's the plan, they're gonna need some better shooters...


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## kamego (Dec 29, 2003)

It's a very good sign but I hope they are not done this offseason.


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## Virtuoso (Jan 26, 2004)

KokoTheMonkey said:


> Macijauskas (We got to get this guy a nickname)


They call him 'Macas', like they call Sarunas 'Saras' or 'Sharas'.


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## Geaux Tigers (Apr 26, 2004)

I like the signing. We need the help and he knows how to play the game. He will bring good fire off of the bench.


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## HKF (Dec 10, 2002)

So the lineup looks like this? I like moving JR to the 3 for a season, because it forces him to rebound. He's going to have to become a better rebounder then he is. Plus, giving Paul JR and Macas on the wings to shoot the three means the Hornets should be able to give plenty of shots to Magloire in the paint.

I'll put Macas on the bench right now, just for depth chart purposes.

PG - Chris Paul/Speedy Claxton (?)
SG - JR Smith/Arvydas Macijauskas
SF - George Lynch/Bostjan Nachbar
PF - PJ Brown/David West/Brandon Bass
C - Jamaal Magloire/Chris Andersen/Maciej Lampe/Jackson Vroman

I still feel that Magloire is on the way out, just don't know who he will be traded for, but I expect a SF to come back this way for him. Trading him for James Posey might not be a bad idea.


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## Geaux Tigers (Apr 26, 2004)

HKF said:


> So the lineup looks like this? I like moving JR to the 3 for a season, because it forces him to rebound. He's going to have to become a better rebounder then he is.


I dont like JR at the 3 at all. I gave it some thought because I thought he could have some potential there as well. I would prefer to see better rebounding numbers out of him at the 2 before I would consider a move. Also I would like to see some better D from him before the move to SF as well. He already let Damon Stoudemire and Nick Van Exel torch him (for a combined 70+), but imagine what Tracy McGrady would do to him.


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## Jermaniac Fan (Jul 27, 2003)

Macas should definately start over Lynch at 2 or possibly at 3... I think he could be our scoring leader and I can't believe how anybody could want him come of the bench.. I LOVE that Hornets signed him!!

He is my favorite euro player and now he is playing for one of my favorite nba teams.. this is just great!


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## KokoTheMonkey (Aug 4, 2003)

Virtuoso said:


> They call him 'Macas', like they call Sarunas 'Saras' or 'Sharas'.


That'll work.


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## mauzer (Jun 7, 2005)

In Europe he is known as "kalashnikov", in Lithuania-"Macas", in Spain-"Maci".


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## FanOfAll8472 (Jun 28, 2003)

This guy can definitely shoot the rock. I'd keep JR Smith at the 2 and bring Macas off the bench.


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## Zalgirinis (Feb 18, 2003)

What a great signing  You know why? (not only because hes Lithuanian) because his European team Tau Vitoria was drawn into the same Euroleague group as my team Zalgiris. So that means we have chance at winning, Macas whenever we played always scored near to 30 points in the fashion and now hes gone 

As for real. Hornets seems as nice place for him as he wants to play and for undrafted Europlayer that would be harder to do in the contender. Seems even better situation than last year Bulls before drafting Gordon. And now he also improved and developed his game in the areas which were not that good before (penetration, passing, making better decisions when doubleteamed).


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## italianBBlover (Mar 5, 2003)

That guy is a shooting freak.

Great signing by the Hornets :eek8: 

And, IMO, he can be the starting SG, at least as test in the first games.


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## Geaux Tigers (Apr 26, 2004)

How old is he?


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## sheefo13 (Jul 13, 2002)

Good pickup for the Hornets.


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## arcade_rida (Jun 23, 2003)

Jsimo12 said:


> How old is he?


24/25


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## mauzer (Jun 7, 2005)

http://www.euroleague.net/plantillas/jugador.jsp?id=CBV


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## Crazy Fan From Idaho (Dec 31, 2002)

You guys are lucky, lucky, lucky.

Macas is my favorite currently playing Euro. Maybe sometime I actually can see him play now that he's in the NBA!

JEGA!!!!!!!!! (You guys need to learn this Lithuanian word! :yes: )


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## Skroblas (Jan 6, 2004)

I guess you might find interesting some highlights by Macas (his nickname we're used to over here in Lithuania... wonder how he ends up being called in the States? ). These are taken from the Euroleague 2005 Final-4 semi-final match between TAU Ceramica Vitoria and CSKA Moscow. 

Watch No. 7 in white.  I tried to put not only the positive stuff (like amazing shots, etc), but basically all the episodes when Macas was near the ball (including in defense), so that one can get the general feel of his game. 

( It's over 8 minutes long, about 50 MB in size. )

http://s25.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2KS9L4CTN55P63JXT94PTGV74M

Some observations:

- Macas didn't have a particularly good shooting night in that match, missing some rather easy treys. Nevertheless, he did find ways to score 23 points and be one of the leaders in the team - mostly via driving to the hoop, slashing, drawing fouls. Note several episodes of his flopping and provoking fouls - he's renowned for that. He played for my opponent team here in Lithuania (Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius, big rivals of my Zalgiris Kaunas) - I tell you, after several seasons of his antics and his killing triples, you gotta hate that guy. But when he's playing for our national team and all those things go in your favor - you feel that kind of mean satisfaction... You know, like rooting for Chicago and seeing Dennis Rodman tricks... 

- I'm not sure he can bring that slashing and driving to the NBA effectively, against bigger and more athletic opponents. (Actually, in the final match against Maccabi Tel-Aviv in that same Final-4, Macas was more or less totally shut out of the game by the opponents' defense - given good attention, not athletic enough, not able to create his own shot... But well - he was the focal point of all Maccabi's defense in their plan - he was hounded from the tip-off to the final horn, a guy was glued to him all the time... Guess he'll get more open looks and space in the Hornets.)

- Those sneaking baseline cuts are nice.  And of course - the superb buzzer-beater from the corner (at about 5:30 in the clip), which broke the game in Vitoria's favor (when Vitoria were inbounding the ball and had only 1 second on the clock)  I wonder what Macas yelled at the CSKA's bench after that shot...  (Vitoria and CSKA have a big rivalry in Europe in the recent couple of years - all the time the Spanish team would be beaten in the last seconds by the Russians, some times with controversies over the refs, etc. ... the emotions are always flying high... beating CSKA for the first time during this confrontation - in Final Four, staged in Moscow, in front of their crowd... man, what a moment... Vitoria leading, CSKA trying to come back, putting some screws on defense... and that kind of shot! that was Reggie-Miller'esque...  )

- A couple of times, when Macas was put on John Holden in defense (No. 10 in red CSKA shirt), he was burned badly (no surprise - Holden can destroy much better defenders). Most of the time, Macas was defending less dangerous opponents (like Antonio Granger for a lot of time). It's surprising that CSKA didn't try to exploit more the match-ups against Macas - excluding the couple of episodes when Macas covers Holden, there's basically none more where he'd be actively defending one-on-one. 

- The file will be available for 7 days. I guess it's possible to upload it to a more convenient location? :idoh:

- As a side-note... The accuracy and quick release time of Macas are well-known. One should also note his very high shooting trajectory - this helps to shoot over the hands of opponents. It's actually a natural thing for Macas - not that he changes his shot to go over the hands. When Macas was a teenager, he practiced this high-trajectory shot a lot, being aware of his not-so-big size. In triple contests, one can clearly see the difference - most of the participants are making "flatter" triples, while Macas shoots a much "higher" shot.


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## Zalgirinis (Feb 18, 2003)

Skroblas said:


> I guess you might find interesting some highlights by Macas (his nickname we're used to over here in Lithuania... wonder how he ends up being called in the States? ). These are taken from the Euroleague 2005 Final-4 semi-final match between TAU Ceramica Vitoria and CSKA Moscow.


Nice clip showing not only highlights but also player's mistakes and of course great notes too. Hornets fan who doesnt know Macas well should look into it as its very helpfull.


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## thekid (Apr 3, 2003)

How tall is this guy?


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## Vanapagan (Aug 21, 2004)

he is listed at 194cm, which means 6`4


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## HKF (Dec 10, 2002)

The cool thing about having guys like Macas in the league, is we get more Lithuanian posters. I wish they would tell us who some of the young guys playing there were though.


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## Crazy Fan From Idaho (Dec 31, 2002)

HKF said:


> The cool thing about having guys like Macas in the league, is we get more Lithuanian posters.


Nah.....Lithuanian posters are over-rated! 

LOL.....J/K. CFFI loves Liths!!


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