Raptors' Valanciunas May Start for Lithuania
Fans cried foul as the club imported yet another European that they had little-to-no familiarity with, and even now, more than a year later, most fans are still only peripherally aware of Valanciunas as an actual basketball player.
Valanciunas started in Javtokas’s place in a friendly against Russia five days ago, and while the club would no doubt love to have someone with more experience in his place the already small Lithuanian squad will probably be forced to throw Valanciunas out to the wolves beginning with their first game on Sunday against basketball powerhouse Argentina.
Regardless of how he performs, Valanciunas is getting a much stronger basketball education his summer than fellow rookies Terrence Ross and Quincy Acy got earlier this month at the Las Vegas Summer League.
He’ll begoing up against real NBA-caliber competition nearly every game, and he’ll be doing it in games that actually mean something in terms of wins and losses. Experiences like this can only hasten his development into whatever player Valanciunas is destined to be, and for many Raptors fans this will be a great first taste of what the Raptors invested in last June.
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