Augustas Marčiulionis Scouting Report

I’m Kuzey, 20. I’ve been writing about basketball since I was 9. I worked in Eurosport Turkey for two years. I have written on various sites and magazines before. I’ve been working as a freelance scout for three years. I worked as a consultant. Yeah, I’m looking for a job. I have interviewed dozens of prospects such as Theo Maledon, Deni Avdija, Henri Drell, Paul Eboua, Aleksej Pokusevski, Arturs Kurucs, Yves Pons, and dozens of notable basketball people such as Luis Scola, Xavi Pascual, Jonathan Givony, Dimitris Itoudis, Ekpe Udoh, Pero Antic, Maurizio Gherardini, Georgios Printezis, Sasa Obradovic, Joan Plaza, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Derrick Williams also some general athletes such as Lando Norris, Daniel Ricciardo, Ken Doherty, Alex Albon… I live in Turkey, I go to all the Euroleague and Youth League games. My main areas are all of age group in Africa and from U12 to U20 European and NCAA. And my biggest goal is to be a real basketball scout. Anyway, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and feel free to DM!

Background

Augustas Marčiulionis was born on March 21, 2002, in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Marčiulionis, who is the son of the former NBA player and legend of Lithuanian basketball Sarunas Marčiulionis, spent his two years playing tennis. While he idolizing Roger Federer in tennis, also had some love for Manchester United, a team of the Premier League.

his path in sports as basketball. The Lithuanian guard started basketball at his father’s academy when he was in his second year in the school. But in those years, he did not know how famous his father was.

Before he made his highest-level professional debut this year, a 6–4 point guard was playing in youth events. AM played for Rytas’ U18 team in ANGT events, and also played for Perlas Vilnius in NKL and ANGT.

From the National Team window, he played in two junior events for Lithuania. Two years ago for U16 and a year ago for U18. He entered Lithuanian Senior Team’s roster this year’s EuroBasket Qualifiers but didn’t play.

The Lithuanian, who sees NBA’s Bogdanovic and Brandon Jennings as idols, has been interested in the NBA since 2011. Marčiulionis, whose biggest goal is to play in the NBA, received scholarships from several NCAA academies in the summer of 2020 but chose to play in Rytas’ senior team.

Marčiulionis made good use of the coronavirus era and 2020 in general regarding the “lack of strength”, which is one of the most important obstacles in career projection. Marčiulionis, which grew seven centimeters throughout the year, also gained a few pounds in the summer.

Sourced defined him as a hard-worker and cool. He isn’t the funniest or cheerful guy, but also doesn’t like to broke the team’s atmosphere. He is a little introverted and quiet, but very sincere when he is with friends, with whom he is very close. I’m impressed a lot by his matureness on the court, on the bench, and against the press. Looks like always willing to learn, coachable, and kind. But too quiet off the court overall.

Physical

Standing 6-foot-4 with a 175-pound lanky frame and average wingspan length, I think Augustas Marčiulionis’ not physically at even average levels negatively affects his entire NBA projection. His problems doesn’t revolve around length, like JJ Barea; I think all his problems are due to his lack of strength in his body.

He has a little bit popping on the biceps and triceps and looks good actually. However, the weight he has isn’t enough to create more muscle mass in the arms. The arms of the Vilnius native are at their best right now, but that’s not enough. To be enough, he needs to gain weight and convert the weight he gains to his arm muscles, which is a very difficult task to do in the short term.

About his hands, has impressive, pretty impressive sensitivity on the hands. Marčiulionis knows how to sets his hands to protect the ball better. And in this way, Marčiulionis can make up for the lack of strength when he dribbles to the basket. Marčiulionis, who takes very long steps while going to the basket and can skillfully use burst, go-stop-go, body fakes, hits the deadliest blow to his opponents in these positions by adjusting the speed and direction of the ball. He making the reactions of the entire defense line inefficient.

I have the same concern about his shoulders and torso as I have about his arms. Marčiulionis’ shoulders and torso are close to the best they can be right now. Width, strength and agility are perfect for his weight. But again, that’s not enough. I think he will have a lot of time to spend in the weight room even if he gains weight.

However, his body coordination and basketball knowledge about “stance and balance positioning and using” make up for lack of strength. He knows how to lowers his stance while dribbles to the basket to exploit the rim protectors and physical forwards. He can shift the body to the defender and creates free-space to make a bucket. Also, this harmony allows him split the screen/defense (also his long steps here) ability when the defense drops PnR — or ICE. Nevertheless, he should put a lot of work in the weight room.

Agility and speed in the lower body allow him to compensate for the lack of strength. Marčiulionis, which has a very good leaping ability (one foot and two-feet, does well on both) compared to his height, can move well both laterally and linearly. His wrists are naive and he knows how to use this naivety. As I have just mentioned, Marčiulionis knows very well how to get into traffic and rule out the defender (even shot-blockers) with long step tricks and how to make buckets with body coordination and runners. Quick with and without the ball all over the court and in any position. It is impossible to say that he is explosive in terms of athletics, but he has the fluidity that guards should have and can do good things by combining it with advanced tricks such as bursts and go-stop-go.

Offense

Playing s a facilitator and primary ballhandler, the most important weapon of the Marčiulionis’ offensive arsenal is his ability to playmaking, which catalyzed by impressive passing, handling, dribbling, game feel, and court vision.

Having various styles of passing, AM does the best job as a passer in drive-and-kick and drive-and-dish situations. Although Marčiulionis doesn’t have the strength he should have physically, he doesn’t hesitate to get into the traffic. While he creates his main difference as a passer, he uses the change of speed, changing direction, and stopping tricks very well. About his change of speed, he really does a good job changing step length. He doesn’t have much of the leg strength, which is one of the fundamentals of changing direction, but his high degree of coordination, good body balance, and proper footwork allow him to create drive-and-kick and drive-and-dish possessions (also zero-step). So, he can change direction with efficient footwork often be able to beat an opponent who is faster than him.

He doesn’t a good job on one-count stop but almost impossible to stop his two-count stop around the basket. In this case, he initially focuses on the first foot to land, with the knee bent in order to stop forward momentum. As the other foot touches the floor, he transfers the weight so that it is even between the two feet.

After doing all these and preparing the pass angle, the 18-year-old player of the Lithuanian legend can make facilitating passes to both the weak-side of the defense and the strong-sides where there is traffic. As he passes the strong-side, he pushes his opponent with his whole body, providing better mini-spacing for his catch-and-finish scorer. He is very comfortable to make the pass on one-handed or two-handed. AM can make the pass easily with both of his hands. AM also does a really good job at keeping his head up and knowing where his teammates are filling the lanes in transition. So, he is someone who makes advanced reads or manipulates the defense with fakes, handle, etc. My only question about his passing ability revolves around his self-confidence. While watching Augustas Marčiulionis, I have often seen him pass by heart. Passing by heart can sometimes lead to perfect sequences, but most of the turnover he has done so far this season is due to rote passing. He gives passes on lobs and some swing passes without paying attention to acceleration, angle, and timing, which is very easy to predict by the defense.

Dribbling speed and intensity and showing freaking good court vision (there was a sequence, where VEF Riga’s defense focuses on Rytas’ cutters. In the sequence, AM actually was ready to make the pass to the right-cutter but he saw that the all defensive line going to that zone. Then, he changes his direction with impressive ballhandling and goes to the basket) occasionally and solid court vision always, his finishing skill-set also revolves around his dribble penetration.

As I mentioned a couple of times, his zero-step is like a base for all of his offense, the same goes for his finishing around the basket ability. Impressive zero-step allows him first step spacing, good first step, can change his direction in the second step, absorbs the contact on the ground, leaps pretty good for his size, and moves to the basket very well with decent touch in the air. He is a quick leaper/finisher in the paint, but not someone who really explodes up. Sometimes, he does miss some clear layups he can finish but shows nice craft around the basket overall and solid burst allows him to put good pressure on the rim with getting low on his drives.

He has good versatility on his finishing arsenal, however, I don’t think the level of this versatility good enough. He does good jobs on runners, floaters, backboard layups, classical layups, etc. but lack of strength on the body hurts him a lot in all kinds of finishing styles overall. There have been several times this season when he was driving from wings and cut his drive around the nail and tried mid-range with reverse-spin (like Cole Anthony), but the percentage of hits in these positions is very low. Also, overall I can’t say he’s a good mid-range creator or pull up shooter (for mid-range). Last note about his finishing: he can’t finish over the nail defenders due to lack of elite soft touch and strength.

Taking a smart decision to shoot the ball, Marčiulionis still improves on this ability. Basically, the shot form seems to be fluent enough in every sense. Has quickness to alignment his knees, able to bend the hips and knees in coordination at the right angles and momentum, transfer energy from the lower body to the upper body but how strong this transfer is questionable, loading time is decent, above the head release with consistent elbow points and shot pocket, good arc on the shoulders, has a pretty soft touch from left-hand, good touching in the air with right-hand, and coordination. However, there are two bad habits: the heels aren’t always on the ground (in positions that he should have to step on) and he bends the hips too much in the shots he uses as a creator, both of which are negative things that lower the efficiency of his shooting form.

Good, but simple, PnR player. AM hasn’t many advanced techniques to his PnR game. However, occasionally, he shows his ability to split the screen against hedge, ICE, or drop with good change of speed and footwork of course. He does a good job going downhill off the screen, shows good awareness to protect the ball and his position, and is able to make floaters but inconsistent of course. As he gets stronger, getting snake moves and then exploding is something that can add another good dimension to his game. However, for now, limited PnR player. (nothing about 3 level scoring, etc.)

I think one of the most critical things to develop in his offensive repertoire is off ball activity. Lithuanian guard, who had the chance to play in a high-level basketball league for the first time in his career, cannot do effective work in off ball game because he is so used to playing ball in his hands. He is not a good cutter, and also because it’s not a killer CnS shooter, his effectiveness in the off ball is diminishing. But the best thing here is that after bringing the ball to the opponent’s court or starting the SLOBs/BLOBs as a passer, he is very good at using screens and retaking the ball and evaluating mismatch on zipper-shallow-stagger-based sets.

Defense

Although Marčiulionis’ averages on the defensive end seem (0.54 PPP) quite impressive, I don’t think he is an elite defender. However, being an average defender for a player who has strength problems is pretty good in my opinion.

I think he does his best job on the defensive end in pick-and-roll situations. Marčiulionis in Rytas’ system, which usually prefers drop against the pick-and-roll offense, does a pretty good job of using hip mobility and hop when adjusting the drop position. He usually leaves the baseline side open to the offense, on which side Rytas’ forwards that are suitable for sliding step in and stop the handler. In the general PnR defense, Marčiulionis, after sliding around the screen, usually puts his right foot back and pushes his left foot forward, putting pressure on the handler, but this is a big gamble. Because after a couple of times, the handler realizes that Marčiulionis has this habit, so the handler can use footwork tricks to neutralize Marčiulionis’ defense in every PnR attack played against him. Marčiulionis, who can barely slide around screens, sometimes focuses so much on where the screener will come from, leaving the handler free…

In my opinion, he has a decent team awareness on the defensive end but I would like to see him more active as a talker around the perimeter. Because he really slides around the top of the key, and while slides there, you should talk with your teammates always… However, he hasn’t this ability. As he does not have this ability, he sometimes makes unnecessary (out of order) help defenses, causing large holes in his team’s shell. Although his hands are always active and his head seems to be always in the game, I cannot describe him as an above-average team defender.

He is not a rim protector or shot blocker but he contests well on-ball defense. He uses the length well to contest the offense’s shot, which catalyzed by hip mobility, timing, footwork, hop, BBIQ, and leaping. However, he’s prone to make move to steal the ball instead of going up for a contest and he can be pushed off his spot on drives due to lack of strength.

Overall, AM does a good job closing-out. Sometimes, he can be prone to giving an angle to attack but generally speaking, he does a good job. I don’t think he has a specific technique or something like that but he does impressive things fundamentally. Knows how to be balanced to take good momentum to do a good closing-out. Two hands always active to close the angle. Knows how to turns his body to the offense. However, there are two adjustments I’d want him to make: is prone to overhelping at times and not able to dig drivers.

Not a good off ball defender and two reasons here: lack of strength (it’s hard to chase around screens for him) and watches the ball too much sometimes.

Last note about his defense. He did a crazy good post-up defense against Thomas Walkup, who is one of the most-sized guards in Europe, a couple of weeks ago in the Rytas-Zalgiris game. In this defensive possession, he did pretty good job on pushes Walkup on the chest and puts all the pressure with his body. Walkup turned to basket but AM’s quick hands and decent anticipation allowed him a steal. So if he can do it consistently, hmm, things can change very well.

Overall

I don’t think Augustas Marčiulionis is an NBA-fit player right now, but I think he definitely has an NBA ceiling. Although we’ve seen many times that the cons physically owned in the NBA are not of great importance today, things are a little different for Marčiulionis. Because Marčiulionis has a good length, he’s 6-foot-4 and he’s literally lanky on the court. It’s also hard to describe him as a clear spacing creator, as he’s not an elite shooter. It is clear that he is a facilitator and can translate things like passing, handling, dribbling, footwork trick, etc. to the NBA, but other cons are reducing his NBA projection a lot in my opinion. However, I know he’s a good kid with a good work ethic, so he’s likely to make a high effort to develop in every sense in the next two to three years and become a clear NBA player. That’s why it’s still important to follow him closely.