Jonas Valančiūnas thread

[auris1]

I find it very difficult to get much enthused about any Canadian-based team playing in a league of, for and by Americans.

Not that is relevant to this topic ,but ...I guess the feeling is quite opposite in European team sports , where your aim is to be in European tournaments . Even if they are run by bloody Fifa and such.
But once more -not even NHL?

[auris1]

Talks are brewing in downtown Toronto about Mr Genius coach of the century Casey The Doofus making the JV the scapegoat of this fiasco and finally trading him this summer. It looks like another Doofus Ujiri might buy into this narrative as well, so we finally might see Jonas playing for a properly run franchise next season

JV is not a scapegoat this time . Nor Casey will be. Everyone has a long term contacts , the team had achieved best result in franchise history in regular season, all good .
Because Toronto can be a contender in Eastern division for another two or three years .

[Svajunas]

Well clearly the last to years showed that they are not contenders at all. And dont look at total wins in regular season, remember Hawks and their 60 wins in regular season couple years ago?
Now the Raptors will probably do something, because the culture change obviously did not work. The idea was great, but the players were not suited for that kind of basketball. So all these heavy contratcs for Ibaka and Lowry will be a burdain now, Raptors have to make some moves if they dont want to go in to luxury tax.

So who gets to be moved? Noone will take Serges 20+ mill contract or Lowrys 30+ mill contract and I doubt that DD will be moved, as he is the face of the team. Imo JV is the obvious choice. Very good contract for a decent center and plus in 2019 he has a player option and he would probably option out at 27 years old for a better contract. So I think Masai might try to sell this JV move as "look we are breaking the core, we are trying things".

And for god sake, I hope he does get traded.

[Hepcat]

Why precisely would you like to see Jonas Valančiūnas traded?

Is it so that he gets more playing time? If so, would that not increase his chances for injury? Moreover would a lot more playing time also simply act to wear him out mentally if not physically? Would either of these things enhance his capability of contributing to the Lithuanian national team each summer?

[Svajunas]

Im not sure I want him to get traded. I just pintpointed my opinion what might happen. I mean all of us can agree that JV can be used better. All the nba commentators are allways baffled that JV is not playing in the second half.

[auris1]

Im not sure I want him to get traded. I just pintpointed my opinion what might happen. I mean all of us can agree that JV can be used better. ..

Why everyone is so certain that by getting traded Jonas would benefit out of it somehow ?
I am even not sure that Jonas would want that himself .

Like everything in life , things could turn to worse for him after the trade . He would also have to uproot his young family and almost like start all over again.
And , i think is important , Raptors are one of the few teams in the league that are actually trying hard to win and be successful . So what if he ends up in the team that is doing Philadelphia by staying bottom for a couple of years ? Or they would be buying Jonas as an asset for future trade off ?
What if he gets to be no starter , or even worse , gets no playing time at all ?
After five years on the team , Jonas has earned a lot of leniency credits too . It would be waste on him to loose them .

[Svajunas]

Sounds to me like being affraid to step out of comfort zone. You wont achive anything by not challenging yourself. Of course you can stay in Toronto and play those 20 mins for youre whole carrer and be a part of threadmill team that noone will remember of, or you can challenge yourself as athlete. Toronto MLSE is happy with the way that team is built: regular season success, high tickets prices and revenue, no luxury taxes, its a money making machine.

[Hepcat]

So evidently the Toronto Raptors let go of Coach Dwane Casey this morning. Ironic since Casey was fired just two days after winning the Michael H. Goldberg coach of the year award handed out by the National Basketball Coaches Association. Casey had one-year remaining on his $6 million per year contract.

[usagre]

So evidently the Toronto Raptors let go of Coach Dwane Casey this morning. Ironic since Casey was fired just two days after winning the Michael H. Goldberg coach of the year award handed out by the National Basketball Coaches Association. Casey had one-year remaining on his $6 million per year contract.

Coach of the year being fired is not as rare as one might think. George Karl in 2013 and Pat Riley in 1990 were forced out immediately following winning coach of the year awards.

[madmax]

somehow I've got this feeling that firing of the head coach will not be the only major change for Raptors this offseason...JV's contract is very decent and moveable too and Ujiri might see a window to trade the big guy for some quality wing player this summer too Unless the new head coach will see JV as integral part of the core which cannot be shuffled anywhere else

[usagre]

I agree. But I’ll take it even further. I have a funny feeling that it’s DeRozan who will be shipped off in a blockbuster.

[Hepcat]

somehow I've got this feeling that firing of the head coach will not be the only major change for Raptors this offseason...JV's contract is very decent and moveable too and Ujiri might see a window to trade the big guy for some quality wing player this summer too

Will you stop whining about Jonas being underutilized/unappreciated if he gets traded to the Memphis Grizzlies or Phoenix Suns and gets to play 28:30 minutes per game?

[madmax]

Will you stop whining about Jonas being underutilized/unappreciated if he gets traded to the Memphis Grizzlies or Phoenix Suns and gets to play 28:30 minutes per game?

frankly speaking, I'd still prefer for my favorite player to play 28 minutes per game for a decent historic franchise like Suns instead of wasting his prime years riding the bench for an eternal treadmill franchise like Toronto...

[auris1]

frankly speaking, I'd still prefer for my favorite player to play 28 minutes per game for a decent historic franchise like Suns instead of wasting his prime years riding the bench for an eternal treadmill franchise like Toronto...

I do not think you are being reasonable towards Toronto franchise . They put the faith in Jonas , making him a starter right from beginning.
Toronto let him play in summer tournaments for NT team . He is signed for 4 year 64 mil contract . Not the best , yet very decent one. And that excuse that coach doesn't use him properly ? Most players in NBA can say that . There are more bench players than starters , that's for sure .
In the end of the day , all will be decided by someone up there , as always .

[Hepcat]

Not that is relevant to this topic ,but ...I guess the feeling is quite opposite in European team sports , where your aim is to be in European tournaments . Even if they are run by bloody Fifa and such.
But once more -not even NHL?

1. The situation in Europe is a lot different. It's not a case of there being one mega state such as the United States and one country next door a tenth the size of the mega state. Germany, France, Russia, England, Italy, Spain, etc. may have intense national rivalries of their own, but nobody in those countries needs to worry about their culture/national identity being subsumed into that of their giant next door neighbour.

2. Furthermore, Canadian hockey fans in general feel resentful about having lost control of the NHL and their game to the NHL league brass in New York and American interests overall. These American interests can be specifically defined as landing a fat TV contract on par with those enjoyed by the NFL, MLB and NBA.

But of course the ownership of the Canadian teams is complicit with these U.S. interests in every way. The Canadian owners also covet that fat U.S. TV contract. As a result, NHL teams all support more U.S. franchises in the NHL regardless of whether there exists a local fan base for the game in that area. Moreover the Canadian teams also tend to oppose any more Canadian franchises because they don't want to split the very lucrative Hockey Night in Canada TV contract with an additional Canadian team! This leaves most Canadians furious.

3. When it comes to sports, I tend to be a nationalist. I support my own and I make no apologies for that. Whether it's the "best" or not is completely irrelevant to me. Quite simply, I don't take a stop watch to games to measure the speed of players, nor am I a professional coach who can judge whether one player's technique and/or positional skills are superior to those of the next player. Therefore when it comes to sports such as hockey and North American football, all I see is a bunch of extremely skilled young fellows running from and into each other.

The reason I resent both the Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto Raptors on a certain level is that there's strong evidence that their existence has sapped support from our own traditional "more Canadian" sports teams. There's no longer any support for junior or amateur hockey at any level in Toronto. Nobody in this city cares about local University sports of any kind either. And support for the Toronto Argonauts is but a fraction of what it was 35-40 years ago.

I'm therefore personally ashamed about Toronto's lack of commitment to Canadian sports. This lack of support stems from a certain civic inferiority complex in Toronto. This inferiority complex is manifest in politicians, real estate agents and civic boosters forever babbling about Toronto being a "world class city". And that's also why Torontonians are ever so willing to immediately embrace big league, i.e. American, sports.

Well I'm not. I'll support my own till the end, win or lose.

My opinions of course are not necessarily reflective of those held by other Canadians. But can you imagine an Italian or Brazilian football fan ever admitting that German or Argentine football is superior to their own even after their team has been thrashed by their rival in a game? No, never! They would argue till the end that their football is nonetheless better. Well that's the way I am when it comes to Canadian sport.