By Lukas Kucinskas

Once Edvinas Seskus (’95) was considered to be top prospect in Lithuania. He made his debut in Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) when he was 14 years 8 months and 11 days old. He played in Jordan Brand Classic event. When he turned 16, he signed a contract with Lithuanian powerhouse Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius.

However, scouts did not find Seskus interesting because he dominated youth competition mainly because of his physical advantaged – he simply matured sooner than others. The player who plays shooting guard and small forward positions never lived up to expectations.

One of the reasons of that was as simple as you could think of. For past couple of years Seskus had almost none playing experience as he was injured. But this season he came back to the court fully ready and there are couple of signs showing that he is not a lost case yet.

Lietuvos Rytas’ player spent 64 minutes in 6 LKL games he played. To see his current status, I watched all 64 minutes when he was on the court and took few notes on his play.

Offense

• In the past the most of his scoring came from drives to the basket but at this level he has no physical advantage so he has to get the most out of his shooting. He shoots with confidence but does not feel comfortable shooting off dribble. On other hand, spot-ups is where he thrives.
  
• If he is open enough, he will shoot. If defense gets too close to him, he uses his decent penetration ability and finds open lanes to drive hard and finish. He does not use his left hand while finishing so that might some problem in the future if he gets to higher level.
  
• Speaking of penetration, he is good at penetrating by the baseline. Even though he does not use his left hand much, he is able to score from both sides of the basket.
  
• On offense Seskus shows good footwork and basketball IQ. His court vision is decent and he finds right angles to make passes and his involvement in plays is what you want to see from player as young as he is. However, if he sees opening and drives sometimes passing difficulties occur as he does not stay aware of opponents’ movement.
  
• As for now, Seskus is the most efficient playing off ball since he does not have to dribble ball in what he lacks confidence.
  

Defense

• It is clear that defense must be improved. If at this level (playing against worst LKL teams) he can keep up with his opponents, higher level requires bigger consistency and effort on the defensive end.
  
• What gets straight into mind when watching him play, Seskus faces some difficulties because of his poor lateral quickness. Opponents who are not considered to have quick first step gets Seskus out of position and he loses his balance. After that crossover is enough to get an opening and make something.
  
• His lateral movement is the reason why the 194 cm tall forward has trouble getting through screens.
  
• Besides that, on defense Seskus keeps his eyes on action and the ball. That’s why he loses his man if the opponent makes a fast cut towards the basket.
  

Few other notes

• 64 minutes is not enough to judge player who barely played in two years. But right now it seems that Seskus still can improve and be decent player, even though he does not have high upside and is pretty limited in many areas.
  
• One thing to take notice: Seskus played only garbage time. The games he played finished by average margin of 26 points. On other hand, the player did not make a negative impact for sure.
  
• He averaged 10 minutes a game, scored 4.8 PPG (73% 2P, 38% 3P, 80% FT) and got 1.5 RPG.

Photo: fotodiena.lt

 

Twitter of the author: @Lukas_Kuc