Progression of JV

[Troubadour]

A lot of people on this board have given Casey and the coaching staff a hard time regarding the work they have all done to develop Valanciunas, but the numbers tell a different story.

Year 1 / 2 /3 /4

PER 15.6 / 16.1 / 20.6 / 22.8
PPG 8.9 / 11.3 / 12.0 / 14.6
RPG 6.0 / 8.8 / 8.7 / 10.2
FTA 3.0 / 3.2 / 3.5 / 4.3

9 games into the season, he is playing at an All-Star level and is averaging a double-double.

Is it possible that the development team deserves more credit than blame?

[yoyoboy]

As as outside fan, I wouldn't say 14.5/10 is All Star level play. He's playing well though.

[dballislife]

everything is progressing well, just missing that passing and ball movement aspect of his game that is so far behind the rest

[RaptorHusky]

A lot of people on this board have given Casey and the coaching staff a hard time regarding the work they have all done to develop Valanciunas, but the numbers tell a different story.

Year 1 / 2 /3 /4

PER 15.6 / 16.1 / 20.6 / 22.8
PPG 8.9 / 11.3 / 12.0 / 14.6
RPG 6.0 / 8.8 / 8.7 / 10.2
FTA 3.0 / 3.2 / 3.5 / 4.3

9 games into the season, he is playing at an All-Star level and is averaging a double-double.

Is it possible that the development team deserves more credit than blame?

When rookie scores 20 on him, I can't say that there is a big progress. Nevertheless, one can see some flashes of the game we'd like to see day in and day out. The matter is whether or not it will remain just flashes or becomes consistent

[bluerap23]

I have been impressed with his d this season too. Next step is to learn to read opposing D and learn how to move the ball

[pbj]

A lot of people on this board have given Casey and the coaching staff a hard time regarding the work they have all done to develop Valanciunas, but the numbers tell a different story.

Year 1 / 2 /3 /4

PER 15.6 / 16.1 / 20.6 / 22.8
PPG 8.9 / 11.3 / 12.0 / 14.6
RPG 6.0 / 8.8 / 8.7 / 10.2
FTA 3.0 / 3.2 / 3.5 / 4.3

9 games into the season, he is playing at an All-Star level and is averaging a double-double.

Is it possible that the development team deserves more credit than blame?

Just to piggie-back, don't like using these raw stats since his minutes have increased every year and so has our PACE.

Total Rebounding %: 14.9 -> 18.2 -> 19.1 -> 19.8 (DJ led the league last year at 24.5%)
Turnover %: 17.4 -> 14.7 -> 12.4 -> 11.6
Usage %: 16.9 -> 18.5 -> 19.1 -> 19.1 (MOAR!!)

[djsunyc]

MPG 23.9 / 28.2 / 26.2 / 28.1
FGA 5.9 / 8.3 / 8.2 / 9.1

all his per 36 #'s went up as well.

[djsunyc]

this begs the question - did casey know exactly how to bring him along or is casey actually holding him back a bit? with more mins & usage, would val be even better?

[Hero_Panda]

Just to piggie-back, don't like using these raw stats since his minutes have increased every year and so has our PACE.

Total Rebounding %: 14.9 -> 18.2 -> 19.1 -> 19.8 (DJ led the league last year at 24.5%)
Turnover %: 17.4 -> 14.7 -> 12.4 -> 11.6
Usage %: 16.9 -> 18.5 -> 19.1 -> 19.1 (MOAR!!)

I'm not a big stats guy, but how does his defensive stats look? Defense was the main reason why his MPG was being held back.

[thunderforce]

Thats pretty good , I can just imagine how good he would be doing if he got the ball .

[vini_vidi_vici]

His USG has gone up every yr too (This yr is on par with last, but lets give that time).

I dont know a) why ppl cite per game #s, and b) why its only his REB/PTS/Efficiency that gets cited? (Sorry Trouba, not just you, a pet peeve of mine).

He has been up and down in terms of defense (for sets finished/Rim Protection/DFG%), passing, range, and his on/off splits, etc.. I think the detractors have merit if they are discussing that.

JV for being polarizing is hopefully not a finished project either, and still can grow in those areas, without regressing (esp if given a bigger USG, if were speaking to the offense/efficiency).

I do agree with the OP that, rarely when a player is performing is it relative to the development side of things, and seems to happen organically, conversely anything negative is usually attributed to the coaching staff.

[curryking3]

He was never really a defensive juggernaut down low, so I don't know why people are expecting that of him.

Jahlil Okafor is like the only bright spot on that 76ers roster, and he has a good offensive game even as a rookie. It's not that much of a horrible thing that he scores 20 points on JV or the Raptors when his usage rage is so high on their team. The kid has a great offensive game already, he is going to score buckets against any team.

His defense has definitely improved, especially in the IQ department. He plays far more straight up this year against opponents on the defensive end and he is not getting beaten on silly pump fakes anymore and it shows.

He's also a pretty good help defender, even though the rest of our team, especially the starting lineup, fails to hustle up on defense and makes JV look worse than he actually is on defense.

Offensively JV looks so much more polished than last year going by these first several games. So much less hesitation, much less reliance on the pump fake alone, he really bodies guys when he drives from the low post and makes space to get his baby hooks close to the basket for a high percentage shot.

And yes the question remains, why the hell are we not using him more on the offensive end... I don't know. I'd love to see his fitness continue to improve though, so that won't be an excuse later in the year or in the next couple of years. His value is only going to increase.

As others have said JV could improve his court vision and passing out of the post (when the opportunity is there, I still want to see him take the ball to the cup more often than not from the post), but right now his game is looking more complete than ever. Fewer defensive lapses on his part, less hesitation, more polished offensive post game, so yea, he looks great.

If there's some bright spots on this Raptors roster this year JV is definitely one of them, along with guys like Cojo, Scola, and Powell (and funnily enough even James Johnson who apparently RealGM Raptors is so stupid to be interested in seeing play). Lowry and Derozan seriously have to pick it up if they want to keep the respect in that locker room and stop settling for early shot clock long 3s and contested 2s.

[Throwback24]

this begs the question - did casey know exactly how to bring him along or is casey actually holding him back a bit? with more mins & usage, would val be even better?

the ever constant question

[vini_vidi_vici]

Just to piggie-back, don't like using these raw stats since his minutes have increased every year and so has our PACE.

Total Rebounding %: 14.9 -> 18.2 -> 19.1 -> 19.8 (DJ led the league last year at 24.5%)
Turnover %: 17.4 -> 14.7 -> 12.4 -> 11.6
Usage %: 16.9 -> 18.5 -> 19.1 -> 19.1 (MOAR!!)

I'm not a big stats guy, but how does his defensive stats look? Defense was the main reason why his MPG was being held back.

Pretty bad this year. Rim Protection/DFG% way up over last yr.

[Mikistan]

JV is proving he is a beast - Whether that is a product of our coaching staff or in spite of, we will never know anymore....

However, I think a lot of posters were under the impression that if we didn't force JV to bulk over the summer after his Rookie Year and destroy his mobility, only to cut this past summer after it being shown his new size and bulk was limiting him.

That mixed with simply not being given the opportunity to play late in games whether he did great or poorly during the first 3 quarters resulted in questions on why Casey did this.

Casey was being quoted as saying this in his 2nd year:
"We don't want to put the burden of offense on Jonas just yet, he needs to focus on defense, rebounding, and doing the little things"
In other words, Casey has been choosing to ease him into the sport - which is why we finally see a JV post-up for a game winner this season and he doesn't convert...

A lot of posters argue that his development for these situations should have started years ago, because what's the point of having a skilled young player if you wait until he is old to even give him opportunities?

[CrookedJ]

A lot of people on this board have given Casey and the coaching staff a hard time regarding the work they have all done to develop Valanciunas, but the numbers tell a different story.

Year 1 / 2 /3 /4

PER 15.6 / 16.1 / 20.6 / 22.8
PPG 8.9 / 11.3 / 12.0 / 14.6
RPG 6.0 / 8.8 / 8.7 / 10.2
FTA 3.0 / 3.2 / 3.5 / 4.3

9 games into the season, he is playing at an All-Star level and is averaging a double-double.

Is it possible that the development team deserves more credit than blame?

When rookie scores 20 on him, I can't say that there is a big progress. Nevertheless, one can see some flashes of the game we'd like to see day in and day out. The matter is whether or not it will remain just flashes or becomes consistent

Not being so sure about your "rookie scores 20 on him" remark, I tracked the box score.

JV played 22:40

Okafor played 32:39

Philly was matching up Okafor's minutes, so that he appears to have played against JV for the full 22:40.

In that time:

Okafor : 14 points (7 / 14), 0-1 FT, 4 Reb, 4 Blocks, 3 TO
JV: 11 points (4-8), 3-4 FT, 11 Reb, 1 Block, 1 Ast.

Okafor put up 12 points ( 6-8 FG) in the 10 minutes he played when JV was on the bench.

[mintsa]

As long as his stats get better/higher every year I'm happy.

I'll gladly be patient with that.

[joseph227]

I don't know how JV played defense last night because I didn't watch but looking at the boxscore, Okafor scored 26 points but he took 22 shots so it's not like he was dominating.

[curryking3]

I don't know how JV played defense last night because I didn't watch but looking at the boxscore, Okafor scored 26 points but he took 22 shots so it's not like he was dominating.

Almost half of his points were against Biyombo.

Pretty sure he scored like 2 or 3 straight buckets soon after Biyombo was put in.

Biyombo can defend most guys just using athleticism, but a truly skilled big like Okafor is not one of those.

[CrookedJ]

I don't know how JV played defense last night because I didn't watch but looking at the boxscore, Okafor scored 26 points but he took 22 shots so it's not like he was dominating.

Almost half of his points were against Biyombo.

Pretty sure he scored like 2 or 3 straight buckets soon after Biyombo was put in.

Biyombo can defend most guys just using athleticism, but a truly skilled big like Okafor is not one of those.

JV hit the bench with 3:44 to go in the 3rd. We were up big and that was the end of his night. Stats got padded against the bench.