Breakthrough season in Germany puts the sharp-shooting Lithuanian on the NBA radar

At home, Mindaugas Sušinskas can be proud of its solid legionnaire’s bread, which tastes good in the first year.

27-year-old dzuk immediately established himself in the German basketball league and arrived there after a refreshing 2020-2021 season. Season in Prienai when he became one of the top five players in the LKL.

In Germany’s top division, the 204 cm tall striker scored 11.4 points, 3 rebounds and helped Chemnitz to the best season in the club’s history.

In 2020, after playing for 240,000 in the second tier, the locals’ city side made their Bundesliga debut in 14th place last season and are now sixth.

Mr. Sušinskas did much to help the team coached by Argentine Rodrigo Pastore win 22 of 32 regular league games.

The Chemnitz basketball season ended in the quarterfinals, where they lost 3-0 to FC Bayern Munich.

– Mindaugas, how do you spend your days after the end of the season? – 15 minutes asked Mr. Sušinska.

– I went on vacation right after the season, but now I’m in Lithuania and I plan to spend time in my home country.

– You went to Germany last year after a successful season in Prienai, where you and the team played successfully. Why did your professional career lead you to Germany?

– Among the most serious proposals I would consider is a Lithuanian team (15 minutes as far as I know – Panevėžys “Lietkabelis”), there were also offers from other Turkish and German clubs.

But I don’t regret going to Germany at all. I think I chose the right path.

– What were your goals for the season in Germany?

– Yes, I was happy with everything, I talked to the team coach, I also liked the team’s vision. When I came in I thought we could make the playoffs. We achieved that, I’m happy about that, because the team’s results are the most important thing for me.

– What personal goals or ambitions have you set yourself?

– I’m kind of not the goal setting type, I just went to the games with the mentality that every game should be played as well as possible. It’s always possible to play better, but I’m happy with the personal and collective results.

– You started your career as a legionnaire. What was the hardest thing about adjusting to a different status?

– I wouldn’t say something was very difficult on the basketball side, maybe human life wasn’t on the basketball side, different country, language were things to adapt to. In my area, people speak less English, so it was a bit more difficult. Also, I didn’t have my family with me, which was really a bit disappointing at first. But as the season progressed, I got into it and just played basketball.

– How do you rate the city of Chemnitz itself and the fans?

– I could compare it to Alytus where I’m from myself, only Chemnica is like a bigger Alytus. A very quiet and green city.

I liked everything very much, because I’m such a quiet person myself, so the city was very suitable.

And our fans really were among the best in Germany, so it was surprising how much support we had.

– How do you rate the level of the German Basketball Championship?

– Really a very strong league. If you enter the field a little blurry or underestimate your opponent, chances are very high that you will lose. It’s really a very strong and unpredictable league because even the last teams can bite the best teams free.

– Everyone sees nothing but bare points, but the fact that strikes me the most seems to be that the three-point shooting percentage has reached 49%. Is it the result of constant work or increased self-confidence?

– I personally don’t emphasize this, I just worked hard over the summer, I’m like a pronounced pitcher, so I throw a lot of shots, I don’t force events on the field. It’s just that my teammates find me free and all I have to do is hit.

– It was a successful season both for the team and for you personally – what do the team bosses say about the season in which you finished sixth?

– In the beginning it was obviously very disappointing. We lost our last game of the regular season, resulting in a drop to sixth place. A win would have put us fourth and had home advantage in the playoffs.

But it came as it came, managers and fans rated the season very positively, but it’s a shame that the Munich team didn’t manage to resist the better “Bayern”.

Photo “Scanpix”/Mindaugas Sušinskas and Vladimiras Lučičius.

– On the “Basketnews” channel, the former coach of the Prienai team Marius Leonavičius said that you received the attention of the NBA. How would you rate such a career leap and talk about the NBA?

– Yes, although I had to talk to the coach from Germany, he also got a call about me, it’s good that someone from the top teams in the world league is interested. It’s really nice but I’m not overdoing it, I’m just doing my job and that’s it.

– Is it realistic to see you play in the NBA Summer League?

– Well, that’s very difficult to say because there haven’t been any concrete discussions about it, so it’s not very realistic at the moment. In Germany we discussed with the coach that it would be logical for him to invite us to try out, we’ll see.

– What do you think – what basketball skills would be the most useful to get onto elite teams?

– Physics, I think. If you could physically strengthen your body even more, maybe it could open the door to an even higher level.

– Are you a bit sad that you didn’t see yourself on the list of candidates for the Lithuanian national team, at least for the World Cup qualifiers?

– I don’t care much about it, but it was really a bit strange when I didn’t even see my name among the extended squad players.

However, I didn’t have high expectations, so it wasn’t a big disappointment.

– What are your future plans? Maybe this summer you are in no hurry to wait for the best option?

– I have one more year of contract with the German club, but there is a condition in the contract that there is a possibility to go for ransom until July.

So few things depend on me today. If I stay in Chemnice I’ll be very happy because it’s a wonderful place to play basketball.