Jonas Valančiūnas thread

[Straight forward]

Good article on JV. Have to admit he exceeded my expectations with his impact. No-one will ever fix his flaws for contemporary ball, but he managed to find his role and utilized it to perfection. Seems like he won't face Greg Monroe destiny and will stick around NBA for a while. Basically today he's 9th best center in the league (Sabonis snatches 5-6th spot with Bam Adebayo even if I'm not sure Adebayo is a center). Here's the tiers of best centers in NBA:


If you wanted to lump Jonas Valanciunas into a tier of centers, he’s probably in the super crowded tier 3, mixed with borderline All-Stars and All-Stars alike.

Tier 1 should be clear. Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Rudy Gobert are the league’s elite centers, and no other player is in that tier.

Bam Adebayo and Domantas Sabonis are in the 2nd tier of this list, as young All-Stars with fluid situations and ceilings. Given Adebayo’s defensive versatility and playmaking acumen, he could easily rise into tier 1 by the end of next season. Sabonis’ defensive limitations may hinder him from being among that tier 1, but he also has put up Jokic-esque numbers this season.

Jonas Valanciunas belongs in a tier with Hassan Whiteside, Andre Drummond, Nikola Vucevic, Clint Capela, and Deandre Ayton. All of these centers — aside from Ayton, who is here because he’s not an All-Star yet — are old-school centers, or new-age rim-runners, that are best suited to be the 3rd or 4th-best players on good playoff teams.

(If you felt the need to rank them, I’d probably have Valanciunas third behind Vucevic and Ayton. He has a more well-rounded skillset than Whiteside, Drummond, and Capela — as the first two post “empty calorie” numbers that don’t really impact the game, and the other benefitted off playing next to two of the five best playmakers in basketball).

https://www.grizzlybearblues.com/2020/4/2/21199961/pay-attention-to-jonas-valanciunas-nba-memphis-grizzlies

[Straight forward]

Let's be completely fair. Masai Ujiri pulled out brilliant move trading JV for Marc Gasol. Thirty five years old Gasol is still better player than JV. That D, IQ and fundamentals are precious. Really can't remember a single game when JV was balling against Gasols. Now zero points performance from offensive center. While Gasol just does what he does constantly, adding absolutely visible value to his team's wins. While (used to be) powerhouse Lithuania, NT with the richest FIBA history after USA, Serbia and Spain, has been build around JV for 6 years now. Good times for Lith basketball.

Here's his performance. Still absolutely lost against double team, still crappy decision making, Gasol completely locked him:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlbLiC9cAcU

[Shawshank]

Last 3 Valanciunas games:

21+14 againts Gobert
19+13 againts OKC
O+10r againts Gasol shooting only 2 shots in that game.

I saw Bogdanovich going for 0/13 in this bubble game and few days later going for career high.I doubt alot Serbians fans have sleepless night because of one bad day for their star in NBA marathon.

But haters does what haters do

Center that averages 22-23 min in NT is blame for everything thats happening in Lithuania basketball very objective hater.

Doesnt matter that he was one of most productive offensive bigs in fiba in last 5 years.

It his fault that our top guard right now is euroleague bench level player in guard orientated game right?

How manny NT do you know that builds solely on 1 player and plays him only 23min per game?

[Straight forward]

I think only JV's homers or let's say guys who overrate JV's capabilities if you want euphemism call me JV's hater, and I'm fine with that. Those who don't write romantic novels with JV as a main protagonist see my point pretty well I think. It's not entirely about zero points, which is still huge blow for an offensive center who couldn't snatch more than 1 assists after he was constantly doubled in 27min of action, but it's about how he reacts to double team D, about his decision making timing, quality, his overall awareness. No matter how many minutes he has been playing, he was our option No.1 since 2014. And since that it was the worst stretch of Lith basketball. JV is not a guy to blame, more like he became the most visible and foremost empirical data and evidence of our fall, of our blindness in the twilight of the small ball and changing BB culture. Would we had won anything more if we hadn't used JV as primarily option? I don't know. Even though I'm more than certain that it was mistake to have him in the court in the last minutes against AUS and FRA in 2019. The point is that you constantly miss the my message. JV is not the type of player to build around, he never was and never will be No.1 option at any serious team. He's a good traditional bruiser with average IQ, and you won't find a team which is build around such these days if we speak about high level. And, please, guys, mainly madmax and shaw, don't use that argument that we had crappy guards. JV has been playing with his probably best PG fit in entire Europe with tall and pass first Kalnietis. We didn't have world class guards who could make buckets and close the games like studs, but Kalnietis was No.1 facilitator in FIBA since 2013. He was top facilitator (among overall teams) in 4 consecutive FIBA tournaments: 2013 EB, (2014 WC out with injury), 2015 EB, 2016 OG, 2017 EB. JV was constantly fed, getting all the touches, playing relentless p'n'r, we barely played anything after than various p'n'r and some simple feeds inside. So this argument that JV was underutilized because of lack of facilitating is beyond funny. JV did a good job. The crazy part is that we thought we can actually build around him and win. And we went for it. Now we have the biggest drought in Lith BB history. 7th place in OG, 9th in EB 2017, 9th in WC 2019. Even in 1997, 1998, 1999 stretch we had better results while it was huge disappointment. My point is simple, realise JV's capabilities, look around at global BB and tendencies, and forget absolute utopia to win something while putting the cart in front of the horse. No one is playing that kind of basketball. It's even a nightmare to see how JV doesn't step up out Grizzlies D while the opponents get their open threes. It's a pure gamble. Raptors didn't want any of that when they went after serious hunt. Adomaitis was close to realising it, yet he still failed and step to the same hole that has been an issue since OG. He didn't have guts to sit down JV in crunch time and to close the games in the best possible ways. We may not won those games, but, IMO, would had had better chances. And our course should be rebuilding around Grigonis, Lekavicius, Sabonis, Ulanovas and other upcoming all around studs, looking for more of IN and OUT type of BB, looking for balance and actually realising that we are not going anywhere if won't emphasize the need of adequate scoring backcourt which should be absolute priority in all possible ways (yet we still ride traditional bruisers as Blazevic and Birtutis in the NT camps while Velickas and D.Giedraitisis are chilling...not receiving any interest, that's how hard we work on filling our obvious holes...).

[LuDux]

Last 3 Valanciunas games:

21+14 againts Gobert
19+13 againts OKC
O+10r againts Gasol shooting only 2 shots in that game.

I saw Bogdanovich going for 0/13 in this bubble game and few days later going for career high.I doubt alot Serbians fans have sleepless night because of one bad day for their star in NBA marathon.

But surely you will agree that only stupid homer AKA Lithuanian coaches would build Cameroon NT around Embiid who scored 0 on 11 shots against Raptors this autumn?

[madmax]

But surely you will agree that only stupid homer AKA Lithuanian coaches would build Cameroon NT around Embiid who scored 0 on 11 shots against Raptors this autumn?

he sure had to wait a looong time to get a chance at crapping on JV again I guess...
And credit where credit is due - Nurse is by far the best coach in the NBA and his team defense that he instilled into Craptors and made them the contenders out of a sudden is nothing to sneeze at and worthy of a big applause. But bad nights offensively happen to literally every player and you have to cringe again seeing the essays about JV's demise after one bad game of 70 this NBA season...

[Straight forward]

But surely you will agree that only stupid homer AKA Lithuanian coaches would build Cameroon NT around Embiid who scored 0 on 11 shots against Raptors this autumn?

Oh, sure, someone like Jasikevicius or the same Nick Nurse would see zero difference between the possibility to build around Valanciunas and Embiid. Zero.

(As a result, big men of Joel Embiid's ability are now termed "unicorns." The same tag has also been slapped on players such as Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Davis, Kristaps Porzingis and Karl-Anthony Towns — who're all big men with a more diverse array of skills than most of their predecessors from yesteryear)

[Shawshank]

Jonas Valanciunas played a decent game in must win situation for Grizzlies.

26pts+19reb+12assist + 2 made 3 pointers

Not bad at all for just a bruiser dinosaur

[madmax]

so it looks like JV said "screw it, I'm gonna prove that hating moron SF wrong this time" and decided to bounce back with the best game of his NBA career thus far...and what a game it was - 26, 19 and 12 in a crucial do-or-die game against East powerhouse Bucks And yes ladies and gents, you've heard it right, he had his first career tripple double with 12 assists to his name I guess the lumberjack from Utena can pass the ball too sometimes when he feels like it...

[Straight forward]

Couple of great games by JV. Nothing to take away from him. It's pity young and upcoming Grizzlies couldn't make it to PO, even though I like Blazers too with their underrated superstar Lillard. If JV will prove me wrong I only will be glad. But before jumping out your seats, let's remember that JV is still 1.9apg this season. His D will never be as good as some Marc Gasol's, you simply can't learn that. But! I loved couple of moments that I barely have seen ever before. That is quick, spot on assists. He made the decisions instantly. That's what I want to see more. 2:30 and 2:48, a thing of beauty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYqeRmvEk_0

[Hepcat]

Interesting article:

Defensively Misunderstood - GrizzlyBearBlues



Me I lean toward the stats at the end of the day.

[Hepcat]

What was even more impressive than Jonas Valančiūnas PER of 39 in 37;32 minutes of court time in the play-in game against the San Antonio Spurs yesterday evening, was his +/- of 26 when the Grizzlies won by only 4 points.

[Shawshank]

Jonas and Grizzlies cinderella story goes on.

Grizzlies beat Spurs in elimination game,beat Warriors in elimination game and now beat nr 1 seed in nba Utah Jazz in Gm1.

Jonas played 39min (team high) 15pts+13reb +15 when Valanciunas was on the floor bullying people inside and protectic his own basket defensively.

9min with Jonas resting on bench Jazz won that streach +12.

JV send Gobert with 6 fauls to bench 6min to go in 4 querter that was huge . Commentators said it is first time this season Gobert fauled out.

This serries for Gobert will not be a walk in the park.His body will get old school beating in this 2 weeks from JV

I have never seen Jonas playing using his head so often,not jumping like kid after every shot like it used to be,but taking by brutal force his inside position and holding to it and ball finds JV hands himself in such scenerios often.

[Svajunas]

JV has been a pleasent suprise this year. Finally his game has matured to a level where his strengths outways his weaknesses.
JV and Domas would be one of the best frontcourt in olympics.

[madmax]

Isn't it amazing how 15 mil a season center is constantly schooling 40 mil a season overpaid French baguette and no one still even bats an eyelid? If Grizz win this series and JV is the main reason why, these contracts should be swapped instantly to reflect reality instead of silly hype imo...I guess this is NBA, where amazing (shit) happens