Jonas Valanciunas Summer Discussion Thread (Olympics!)

Post #561 » by **pbj** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 6:33 am

Definitely not..although Robert Archibald is pretty intimidating. I'm just curious to read what people are expecting next season.

Inflymous · Post #562 » by **Inflymous** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 6:45 am

I'm really high on Jonas but i see him putting up Enes Kanter like numbers in his first year. 5pt 5rb 1blk...mostly because i feel like the Raptors are going to bring back Aaron Gray or Jamaal Magloire maybe both and one of them will start at C.

fredericklove · Post #563 » by **fredericklove** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 6:59 am

flyhigh93 wrote:I'm really high on Jonas but i see him putting up Enes Kanter like numbers in his first year. 5pt 5rb 1blk...mostly because i feel like the Raptors are going to bring back Aaron Gray or Jamaal Magloire maybe both and one of them will start at C.

Barring foul trouble, Big Val's PnR style of play offensively and his aggressiveness on the glass will both statistically warrant him at least 7/7 per game. If Ed can produce 7.7 pts and 7.1 reb in his rookie season, I don't see why Val can't duplicate those numbers next season.

Kenyon009 · Post #564 » by **Kenyon009** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 7:08 am

I could see him dominating right off the bat next year. He is a good player, he can do it all. I would want him to be pushed into as many minutes as possible. I actually hope we rebuild next year and try to go for a playoff push the year after. BC's biggest problem is he lacks patience which causes him to push big contracts to shxtty players. I think we can all agree that, that is what caused the Kapono and Turkoglu signings. I say we pump this guy with minutes and help him reduce his turnovers and gun for Shabazz Mohammed and get one of the deepest line ups in the NBA.

starvinmarvin17 · Post #565 » by **starvinmarvin17** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 7:16 am

fredericklove wrote:That almost went in lol

you and choker has the best avys in the world

Inflymous · Post #566 » by **Inflymous** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 7:37 am

fredericklove wrote:Barring foul trouble, Big Val's PnR style of play offensively and his aggressiveness on the glass will both statistically warrant him at least 7/7 per game. If Ed can produce 7.7 pts and 7.1 reb in his rookie season, I don't see why Val can't duplicate those numbers next season.

I see what you're saying but Ed only had Andrea, Amir and Reggie as competition for minutes.
Jonas will have Andrea, Amir, Ed, and likely a veteran big fighting for minutes. Add that fact that a coach like Casey won't gift minutes, they'll have to earn it, i don't see much minutes available for him. Heck Ed Davis averaged less minutes this year than his rookie year despite being healthy and Bargs missing half the season...Hopefully i'm wrong and Jonas drops 20/10 and wins ROY.

Raptor_Claw · Post #567 » by **Raptor_Claw** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 7:56 am

Los Manos wrote:Kleiza really did lose 50% of his athleticism after his knee surgery. It's a shame.

Which is why it's comical when people in this forum get all pissed off when someone talks about a Euroleague player, and they say, "I don't want another Kleiza on the team. He dominated over there", and all that nonsense.

Kleiza of the Raptors is literally half as good as the Olympiacos Kleiza was. And with that micro-fracture, the athletic ability never returns. People are fools if they actually believe that Kleiza's play with the Raptors would amount to anything worthwhile in Euroleague.

It's led to a general, across the board underrating and automatic dismissal, of any decent players in Europe by most Raps fans here, because they can't grasp just how much worse of a player Kleiza is now than he was before.

flyhigh93 wrote:I'm really high on Jonas but i see him putting up Enes Kanter like numbers in his first year. 5pt 5rb 1blk...mostly because i feel like the Raptors are going to bring back Aaron Gray or Jamaal Magloire maybe both and one of them will start at C.

Jonas is of course overrated in this forum. It's a Raps fan base that is being homers. But don't compare him to Kanter in his first year. Jonas could have played in plenty of Euroleague teams. Kanter would have never seen the floor for any decent Euroleague team in the year before he came to the NBA.

You are talking about a talent in Kanter that had played for youth club teams, junior national teams, and spent his time in amateur USA competition, mostly in Kentucky practices. Valanciunas has been playing in decent European leagues.

The two levels of preparation have an enormous difference between them.

nelabai · Post #568 » by **nelabai** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 8:04 am

Kenyon009 wrote:I could see him dominating right off the bat next year. He is a good player, he can do it all. I would want him to be pushed into as many minutes as possible. I actually hope we rebuild next year and try to go for a playoff push the year after. BC's biggest problem is he lacks patience which causes him to push big contracts to shxtty players. I think we can all agree that, that is what caused the Kapono and Turkoglu signings. I say we pump this guy with minutes and help him reduce his turnovers and gun for Shabazz Mohammed and get one of the deepest line ups in the NBA.

This is not happening. We will not be top5 in the draft next year, probably not even in the lottery.
Last year we finished 8th with all those injuries Bargani out and d-leaguers running the team.
This year with FA signings, 2 lottery rookies coming in and healthy Bargani there is no way we finish worse than last year, not under Casey.

Kenyon009 · Post #569 » by **Kenyon009** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 9:32 am

If you start two lottery picks you won't get very far. Also some very coincidental injuries can happen like how the Cavs had and things can take a down turn quickly. Especially if the head coach decides to amp up his parameters. Not to mention this team could have easily been the fifth pick again if it wasn't for the "moral" victories against Atlanta and Boston, not mentioning several others.

I agree though if you add in say Nash, Lamb, and Val you might get to the playoffs next year but most likely you'll get to the 9th place spot. Especially if you offer Nash a 4 year 40 million dollar contract with his back issues. I would rather take another rebuilding season even if you don't get that juicy 2nd pick (you could bargain for it with it by using Lamb or Ed) and a stronger free agency with Harden, Smith, Iggy, etc. That would set you up and you could ink DeRozan to a new contract too without affecting cap room because he would be a restricted free agent. If the cards are played right he could be brought back for as low as 6 million a year. Then you have one of the youngest strongest cores in the NBA surrounded by some of the best role players you can find.

ATLTimekeeper · Post #570 » by **ATLTimekeeper** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 12:09 pm

Watched some of the last game. I don't think we'll see what kind of team Lith has until their shooters get going. Right now they look awful.

I was impressed with how hard Britain competed. Add Deng and Pops to that and they'll have a fun team to watch in the Olympics.

xprt · Post #571 » by **xprt** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 2:35 pm

Outside shooting is still horrible, paint defence was horrible. Songaila is horrible I dont know why he is on team both brothers Lavrinovic are way better than him. For a team who was supposed to be run n gun not nearly enought fast breaks... But I am still optimistic. Its not first summer then NT sucks in preparation games but plays great in tournament. Btw I wanted to see more pnr with Jonas.

StMikes31 · Post #572 » by **StMikes31** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 2:35 pm

Listas wrote:
HSOB SIRHC wrote:So what's next for Lithuania?

This pic clearly shows he has toned up his upper body and is more defined. His shoulders got bigger, great to see. Just give this guy a couple more years before he's dominant.

UcanUwill · Post #573 » by **UcanUwill** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 3:07 pm

Boxscore stole like 2 blocks, as usual. Good to see Jonas playing final minutes, although Javtokas was alright.

Los Manos wrote:
UcanUwill wrote:
We were so bad a few years ago FIBA weren't going to even allow team GB to compete in their home Olympics. The fact they're going to be playing this summer speaks of the improvements the program has made.

I know, I remember, there were a lot of buzz, talks, either GB should or they shouldn't be allowed to play there. Its not that GB is that bad, if you add Deng, overall talent is not terrible, but they never accomplished anything. I mean can you believe GB is behind Cameroon in FIBA rankings... They gonna boost their rank significantly.

LithuanianOne · Post #574 » by **LithuanianOne** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 3:37 pm

The fact that worries me the most is that Kleiza is not the same player he used to be. It's clear he doesn't have the athleticism and he's not in good shape. In order for us to win anything he has to play like he did back in 2010 because now the best players we have are 36 years old Jasikevicius, 20 year old Valanciunas and 35 ( or 34 ?) years old Kaukenas. That talent level ain't winning anything....

EDIT :

xprt wrote:Outside shooting is still horrible, paint defence was horrible. Songaila is horrible I dont know why he is on team both brothers Lavrinovic are way better than him. For a team who was supposed to be run n gun not nearly enought fast breaks... But I am still optimistic. Its not first summer then NT sucks in preparation games but plays great in tournament. Btw I wanted to see more pnr with Jonas.

LithuaniaBasket ‏@LithuaniaBasket

Don't know what Songaila offers to the team for him to be in the roster. Well, apart from fulfilling Šaras' whim of having him there...

dagger · Post #575 » by **dagger** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 3:46 pm

Jonas will be a dream for marketing uniforms. He changes his number all the time. He was 15 in U20, He wore 11 with the senior national team last year, now he's 14. He wore 17 with Rytas and will wear 17 with us. But who knows, after a year or two, what he will want to wear.

Kastas · Post #576 » by **Kastas** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 3:57 pm

dagger wrote:Jonas will be a dream for marketing uniforms. He changes his number all the time. He was 15 in U20, He wore 11 with the senior national team last year, now he's 14. He wore 17 with Rytas and will wear 17 with us. But who knows, after a year or two, what he will want to wear.

You must wear numbers from 4 to 15 under FIBA rules during international tournaments.

Elastic · Post #577 » by **Elastic** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 4:01 pm

dagger wrote:Jonas will be a dream for marketing uniforms. He changes his number all the time. He was 15 in U20, He wore 11 with the senior national team last year, now he's 14. He wore 17 with Rytas and will wear 17 with us. But who knows, after a year or two, what he will want to wear.

Also, since Kleiza came back, JV had to give him back the number 11 jersey, which he wore last year when Kleiza didn't play.

BalticGiants · Post #578 » by **BalticGiants** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 4:14 pm

LithuanianOne wrote:The fact that worries me the most is that Kleiza is not the same player he used to be. It's clear he doesn't have the athleticism and he's not in good shape. In order for us to win anything he has to play like he did back in 2010 because now the best players we have are 36 years old Jasikevicius, 20 year old Valanciunas and 35 ( or 34 ?) years old Kaukenas. That talent level ain't winning anything....

Easy fella. No harsh conclusion needed. No- one shoots the ball well (even Šaras missed some very opened shots) at the moment. That's due to physical training. I don't know about athleticism and quickness, but Kleiza seems to be really strong and big. He will play well I think.

Pocius looks great. Mačiulis was one of the best contributors in 2010 as well. Kaukėnas, Jasaitis, Kalnietis didn't even play. We have plenty of options.

UcanUwill · Post #579 » by **UcanUwill** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 5:52 pm

dagger wrote:Jonas will be a dream for marketing uniforms. He changes his number all the time. He was 15 in U20, He wore 11 with the senior national team last year, now he's 14. He wore 17 with Rytas and will wear 17 with us. But who knows, after a year or two, what he will want to wear.

No, he is not, it is not his choice. He wore 15 in juniors, wears 17 in PROs and thats it.

In FIBA you can only wear 4-15 numbers. He played as #17 before Eurobasket started, but since this number is unable in official tournament, as a guy who has least official NT games played, he had to choose last and was left with #11. This year Kleiza is back, so VAL needs to change his number again, that just how it goes.

LithuanianOne · Post #580 » by **LithuanianOne** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 6:04 pm

BalticGiants wrote:
LithuanianOne wrote:The fact that worries me the most is that Kleiza is not the same player he used to be. It's clear he doesn't have the athleticism and he's not in good shape. In order for us to win anything he has to play like he did back in 2010 because now the best players we have are 36 years old Jasikevicius, 20 year old Valanciunas and 35 ( or 34 ?) years old Kaukenas. That talent level ain't winning anything....

Easy fella. No harsh conclusion needed. No- one shoots the ball well (even Šaras missed some very opened shots) at the moment. That's due to physical training. I don't know about athleticism and quickness, but Kleiza seems to be really strong and big. He will play well I think.

Pocius looks great. Mačiulis was one of the best contributors in 2010 as well. Kaukėnas, Jasaitis, Kalnietis didn't even play. We have plenty of options.

Oh I don't want anything more than to be wrong on my predictions but I wouldn't be so sure as to bet on Kleiza's form returning - his shot just looks so flat it's like he doesn't have any lift. I truly hope that's the cause of physical preparation or else...
Pocius is good on defense but whenever he drives he can hardly can finish around the rim - atleast he draws fouls this way. And he's a streaky shooter too.
Maciulis hasn't played good basketball since... I gues WC 2010 ? That injury probably got the best of him.. Once again I HOPE NOT but sometimes it's really hard to do.

And yes I still believe they can secure a place in Olympics with the full - strenght lineup, howerver, as far as Lithuania's streak of 5 consecutive top4 appearances is concerned I think this will be the first year we don't reach semi - finals :| Although I'll be realllyyy happy if I'm wrong