Jonas Valanciunas Summer Discussion Thread (Olympics!)

[clockwork]

jasaitis is definitely more versatile and better three point shooter. no way is he worse than gecevicius, tomas too.

[Hero]

JONAS VALANCIUNAS!!!... man I cannot wait till this guy comes over... that's the one thing Im excited about next season.. hes' going to be the best C in Toronto Raptors history.

Who's his competition o_O

[darth_federer]

Has this been posted yet? TZ is amazing

[ballislife]

JONAS VALANCIUNAS!!!... man I cannot wait till this guy comes over... that's the one thing Im excited about next season.. hes' going to be the best C in Toronto Raptors history.

Who's his competition o_O

lol AD? But seriously... he's going to be the best big Toronto's ever had. The closest thing to a "big" was CB... eff him.

[EZA23]

I feel as if people are hyping up JV way too much. Last year people absolutely hated him, and now they love him? The guy hasn't even played a game yet and people think he's going to be the saviour for the Raptors.

[redred9]

I feel as if people are hyping up JV way too much. Last year people absolutely hated him, and now they love him? The guy hasn't even played a game yet and people think he's going to be the saviour for the Raptors.

who hated him? A lot of us have loved his game since following him in the Under19s. Since then he has gotten better and actually looks like he has somewhat of an adult body now so why not optimism?

Not that I think he will be an immediate high impact player, but long term he is an outstanding prospect if he stays relatively injury free (which is a rarity for big men these days).

The only haters i can recall were the people on draft night who had never heard of the guy and wanted Kemba freakin Walker.

[Volcano]

I feel as if people are hyping up JV way too much. Last year people absolutely hated him, and now they love him? The guy hasn't even played a game yet and people think he's going to be the saviour for the Raptors.

The dumbasses who wanted trash like Kemba initially went mad at the pick, but most fans ended up supporting it. It was more like 3 days of hate than all of "last year".

I agree that people need to calm down and temper their expectations. I have a feeling some fans are gonna go nuts when they don't see a young Sabonis playing.

[EZA23]

I feel as if people are hyping up JV way too much. Last year people absolutely hated him, and now they love him? The guy hasn't even played a game yet and people think he's going to be the saviour for the Raptors.

who hated him? A lot of us have loved his game since following him in the Under19s. Since then he has gotten better and actually looks like he has somewhat of an adult body now so why not optimism?

Not that I think he will be an immediate high impact player, but long term he is an outstanding prospect if he stays relatively injury free (which is a rarity for big men these days).

The only haters i can recall were the people on draft night who had never heard of the guy and wanted Kemba freakin Walker.

I was referring to the draft and weeks after when people hated the pick. Personally I really wanted Brandon Knight who is looking really solid and the future of the point for Detroit. All I'm saying is for people not to get their expectations so high on him. Don't get me wrong, I like JV, I just don't think he's going to the next coming of Gasol or Sabonis. I expect him to average maybe 10 ppg and 7.3 rpg in his rookie season which is solid

[lothy]

Toronto fans were begging for a hero for a long time, and at last you'll get one. Superman is underway.

[UcanUwill]

Second game tomorrow, 12.30 versus Greece.


Qualifying tournament schedule is :

July 3rd. Lithuania vs. Venezuela
July 4th. Lithuania vs. Nigeria

i dunno what to believe.. its funny cause espn lat commentators say latin teams have great chances to make Olympics.. the guy was kinda smiling, so i guess he was just being homer...

Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Dominics. PR is a well know team, biggest flip flopers in basketball, can beat super national teams when hot, Domincan rep. has solid roster, NBA players, and Venezuela play at home.
All those teams are solid. But at the end of the day, Russia, Lithuania, Greece and probably even Macedonia with Bo McCalebb are favorites to win. There is a chance Latin teams wins it, but after all, if 2 final teams will not be Euro ones, it will be a surprise.

As a Lithuanian fan, I dont worry about Venezuala at all, their roster is by far inferior, their best player gotta be Greivis Vasquez from NO, and I dont know what to expect from their local fans, I doubt it will be a factor.

It's because US media and the NBA marketing make the claim that any player from Europe that is drafted by the NBA was "one of the best players in Europe" and "dominated over there".

Yeah, I know. F that.

Gecevicius is way better than players like Jasaitis and Delinininkaitis, that are apparently making Lithuania's team.

Thats just not true. Well, he is probably better than Delininkaitis, that guy is below average IMO, but he still can do more things. Gecevicius is just a spot up shooter, thats it. Team needs to work for him to make him affective, not the other way around. In inferior competitions, he can dribble the ball, play some point, create for himself, but not in FIBA. And its gotta be mental, but he sucks in Lithuanian jerseys, he cant put it together.
And talking about Jasaitis, He had a terrible shooting season and I dont even know what to think about him, he is definitely a inferior shooter, but he is defender first, he 6'8 who can stay in front of any SG and thats a big deal. That attribute alone makes him more valuable player.

[rmnts]

Gecevicius is way better than players like Jasaitis and Delinininkaitis, that are apparently making Lithuania's team.

Jasaitis is offensive rebound machine. Compare him to gecevicius is just stupid. Jasaitis is the most stable player on the roster. When you have him you know you will get defence, 3pts, off rebounds and so on...

delininkaitis and gecevicius for me are playing exactly same game, but delininkaitis can play a bit of PG, so automatically he's better than gecevicius.

[Kastas]

who's giving out viruses?

kilpin's avatar links to some nasty place:



The user is probably a bot.

[kiriux]

Video from last game
http://youtu.be/Mik_ej53mWs

[trenekas]

Video from last game
http://youtu.be/Mik_ej53mWs

there is no Jonas V...

[Los Manos]

Video from last game
http://youtu.be/Mik_ej53mWs

there is no Jonas V...

Watch that video for the numerous Kleiza fails and the smokin' cheerleaders. Boy does Kleiza look out of shape, he needs to lose 30lbs. I think the video editor wasn't impressed either, showing missed Kleiza dunks, lost dribbles and diving on the floor with no hope of recovering the ball. Saw a bit of Jonas guarding some air and an alley-oop finish.

But did I mention the cheerleaders? My god!