Courtside wrote:The Jonas Valanciunas that presently plays for the Raptors is not the same player we'd see if he went to the Spurs and was mentored by Tim Duncan and developed/coached by the Spurs coaching staff under Popovich. Hard to say how things would have turned out with GSW considering their move to small and fast, partly because of Klay, but the Raptors seem uninterested in exploiting his skills fully. Casey's vision of a C is stuck on Tyson Chandler, who he won a title with in Dallas, and the over-reliance on Demar Derozan is not going to change as long as he's around.
I'm a Raptors fan and a JV fan and hope there's a way for his development to continue here, but with Lowry saving the Toronto based careers of Derozan and Casey, it seems those two will be around for as long as the team looks to be among the best in the East, aside from the Lebrons of Cleveland. We're just not getting the most out of his skills.
No doubt Klay and Kahwi are spectacular players, but it does make you wonder if teams as successful as the Spurs and Warriors wanted him that much, is Toronto missing out on something by developing him into a glorified Luc Longley?
In my opinion, Toronto is getting the most out of his skills. His per 36min numbers are solid, but not spectacular. He may not be the focal point of the offense, but the frontcourt begins and ends with JV. Advanced stats aren't particularly kind to him, at least on the defensive side of the ball, which is where he should be honing his skills the most, given his place on Toronto's roster. He is certainly a plus rebounder, and a decent scorer, all things considered. However, I feel like the Jonas Valanciunas we see right now is probably pretty close to what he'd be no matter where he ended up. But who knows, I could be terribly wrong, and he could flourish elsewhere at some point in his career. That being said, I see him as a 14-12 guy at the peak of his career if he gets true starter minutes, which is good enough to start on half the teams in the league.
