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After amazing performance with U18 NT and MVP title of All star game, Valančiūnas seems to be clearly the most potential prospect in Lithuania along with Donatas Motiejūnas. This season he will wear "Vilniaus Perlas" shirts and will play in supreme Lithuanian league LKL. Judging his potential, he'll be the main center of his team. IMHO, not a bad field for 17 years old player to progress. Let's keep an eye on this Lithuanian "D. Howard" of the future 
Jonas Valanciunas (2m09 – PF/C – Lithuania – 1992)
The most impressive player of these three big guys was maybe even Jonas Valanciunas. The long Lithuanian born player may have the biggest long term potential as he combines the skill set with a highly athletic body. Additionally, he showed some very nice progress since the last time I saw him, and that was back in May only.
Not only that Valanciunas is very present in the paint, he is developing a very effective face-up game where he can go for the jump shot or for the drive. He displays very good speed on his drives and with his athleticism, he can pass his defenders combined with a good first step. A play that is still in my memory is how he posterized the French defense on a baseline drive going for a one handed lay-back dunk. His great wingspan helps him in those plays but that’s not all.
Valanciunas faces his defender nearly every time he gets the ball in the low post as his back to the basket game is not that polished right now. He uses a lot of head or shot fakes in these situations to see what the defender does and use it. He loves to drive baseline and score on layups or dunks. However, you could see him to go the other direction and scored on some floating hook shot. His jump shot looks still like a work in progress but he scored with extraordinary percentages both from 2pts and from the free-throw line. Here may be his biggest potential as he should be able to improve his shooting mechanics and develop a face-up game until the three point line.
He can right now even knock down the jump shot out of the drive when coming from the high post or pass it out to the weak side for the three point shooters. Valanciunas goes very hard to the offensive glass where he uses his great touch to tip in a lot of opportunities. If he can grab the offensive board, he holds the ball very high and does not need to go down to get the necessary power to score the layup.
On the defensive end, his wingspan helps him to be a huge shot blocker. He seems to have understood too that he can be a tremendous defender in that area and he blocks the ball so that he can recuperate the possession afterwards which is at least as important as the rejection itself. He is not afraid of contact and he even goes for blocking dunk attempts. His defensive rebounding can still be improved as he struggles sometimes to box out which is probably a combination of some concentration gaps and a still growing physical force.
However, while Dejan Musli looks already like an experienced low post player that raises his level in the necessary moment (it was him in the end that had the Gold Medal), and Enes Kanter being at the beginning of developing a game next to his great physical abilities and scoring in the paint, Jonas Valanciunas may have the biggest potential as he combines the size, the shoot and the speed and right now only starting to beef up his athletic body.
Stats: 19.3ppg (72.1% 2FG – 79.4% FT), 10.6rpg, 2.6bpg
The most impressive player of these three big guys was maybe even Jonas Valanciunas. The long Lithuanian born player may have the biggest long term potential as he combines the skill set with a highly athletic body. Additionally, he showed some very nice progress since the last time I saw him, and that was back in May only.
Not only that Valanciunas is very present in the paint, he is developing a very effective face-up game where he can go for the jump shot or for the drive. He displays very good speed on his drives and with his athleticism, he can pass his defenders combined with a good first step. A play that is still in my memory is how he posterized the French defense on a baseline drive going for a one handed lay-back dunk. His great wingspan helps him in those plays but that’s not all.
Valanciunas faces his defender nearly every time he gets the ball in the low post as his back to the basket game is not that polished right now. He uses a lot of head or shot fakes in these situations to see what the defender does and use it. He loves to drive baseline and score on layups or dunks. However, you could see him to go the other direction and scored on some floating hook shot. His jump shot looks still like a work in progress but he scored with extraordinary percentages both from 2pts and from the free-throw line. Here may be his biggest potential as he should be able to improve his shooting mechanics and develop a face-up game until the three point line.
He can right now even knock down the jump shot out of the drive when coming from the high post or pass it out to the weak side for the three point shooters. Valanciunas goes very hard to the offensive glass where he uses his great touch to tip in a lot of opportunities. If he can grab the offensive board, he holds the ball very high and does not need to go down to get the necessary power to score the layup.
On the defensive end, his wingspan helps him to be a huge shot blocker. He seems to have understood too that he can be a tremendous defender in that area and he blocks the ball so that he can recuperate the possession afterwards which is at least as important as the rejection itself. He is not afraid of contact and he even goes for blocking dunk attempts. His defensive rebounding can still be improved as he struggles sometimes to box out which is probably a combination of some concentration gaps and a still growing physical force.
However, while Dejan Musli looks already like an experienced low post player that raises his level in the necessary moment (it was him in the end that had the Gold Medal), and Enes Kanter being at the beginning of developing a game next to his great physical abilities and scoring in the paint, Jonas Valanciunas may have the biggest potential as he combines the size, the shoot and the speed and right now only starting to beef up his athletic body.
Stats: 19.3ppg (72.1% 2FG – 79.4% FT), 10.6rpg, 2.6bpg
Only D. Lavrinovič is taller in current NT.
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