Everything Valanciunas

[rocwell]

Sounds like Gasol is murdering JV

However, Pau Gasol is completely alone, scored 19 from 36 Spain points. Lithuania 46:36 after the half time. Valanciunas 9+7

— Donatas Urbonas (@Urbodo) August 25, 2017

[Mess]

Great game till the buzzer. Lithuania - Spain 78:79. Valanciunas 21+11, Pau Gasol 23+7 pic.twitter.com/23BHKMhBlb

— Donatas Urbonas (@Urbodo) August 25, 2017

[c-troop]

Great game till the buzzer. Lithuania - Spain 78:79. Valanciunas 21+11, Pau Gasol 23+7 pic.twitter.com/23BHKMhBlb

— Donatas Urbonas (@Urbodo) August 25, 2017

Damn.

I used to vouch for Donatas Motiejūnas.

That stat sheet proves he is a liability on the floor.

[KHD]

Damn.

I used to vouch for Donatas Motiejūnas.

That stat sheet proves he is a liability on the floor.

i managed to stream some of this game while eating lunch today. That back injury destroyed him. Motiejunas makes Jonas look like an olympic sprinter now. At one point Lithuania had them out there together and intentionally matched JV up against the faster big on defence.

[hotfuzz]

Sounds like Gasol is murdering JV

However, Pau Gasol is completely alone, scored 19 from 36 Spain points. Lithuania 46:36 after the half time. Valanciunas 9+7

— Donatas Urbonas (@Urbodo) August 25, 2017

Did Gasol play the 5?

[golden]

Did Gasol play the 5?

Gasol is the MJ of FIBA.

[hotfuzz]

linus kleiza is the mj of fiba.

ftfy

[DanH]

I've summarized a full argument for why JV should definitely be starting and Ibaka should be playing most of his minutes at PF here, if anyone is interested. It's huge, so I can't copy the whole thing here.

Conclusions as follows:

1. All signs point to a starting lineup with Jonas Valanciunas and Serge Ibaka being very effective, given a full training camp together and Lowry there to head that lineup.

2. Valanciunas also seems very effective in Lowry bench units, allowing him a chance to be used more heavily offensively, and giving him some easier defensive minutes.

3. Ibaka may or may not be great as a small ball C, but should probably not be relied on for heavy minutes there. This should be tried in small ball closing lineups against the right matchups.

4. Poeltl should probably not start if the team wants to win those minutes, but has shown he can play well beside Ibaka and can probably centre a very effective DeRozan bench unit.

[Mapko]

I've got great news coming in from the lithuanian coaching staff. When they we're asked about the biggest difference from last year... and this was like an overall question, not about a specific player... they immediately said JV. They say they have never seen JV in the shape that he's currently in. But they're even more impressed by his demeanor and his state of mind. He's like another person this summer. He's got confidence about him that he never displayed before... and they mean on court confidence! Especially... he's quick about everything. His decision making is immediate, he doesn't wait or think he just does.... wether it's pass, shoot or post-up. Coaches are shocked, it caught them off-guard. Actually they're trying to understand if he's also moving physically more quickly or if it is a visual byproduct of his quick decisio making.
Gonna be skyping with my friend tonight who got some more inside info.

Music to my (our/Raps fans) ears.

[Puffer]

I've summarized a full argument for why JV should definitely be starting and Ibaka should be playing most of his minutes at PF here, if anyone is interested. It's huge, so I can't copy the whole thing here.

Conclusions as follows:

I wonder if the observations of the Lithuanian coaching staff (quoted in the post above) hold true into the NBA preseason? If JV can react faster with the ball and move it to the next best shooter quicker, that would be equivalent to him extending his range.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

I've summarized a full argument for why JV should definitely be starting and Ibaka should be playing most of his minutes at PF here, if anyone is interested. It's huge, so I can't copy the whole thing here.

Conclusions as follows:

It's not really a conclusive argument, since the sample size for Ibaka next to Poeltl is small. However we do know that last year Ibaka-JV next to each other had a -1.8 netRTG in 440 minutes, while Patterson-JV has a +9.5 netRTG in 107 minutes post all-star break (same time period). You can chalk that up to chemistry maybe or playing against starters, but that's a huge difference and showed that JV in the bench units was much more productive than with the starters.

Ibaka-Poeltl only got 36 minutes together in 11 games but were +8.2 netRTG in that time. Tiny sample size of course, but I think this definitely shows enough to deem it worth trying that lineup and pairing JV up with our bench guys to see what happens. Doubt we start the year like that, but it should be an option that is considered as the season gets started.

[LJ2]

I wonder if the observations of the Lithuanian coaching staff (quoted in the post above) hold true into the NBA preseason? If JV can react faster with the ball and move it to the next best shooter quicker, that would be equivalent to him extending his range.

JV adds so much value if he can play at the same game speed as DD and KL, but we have to wait and see how that goes. I still think Masai will be looking to trade him this season.

[BadDinosaur]

In a little less than 3 hours, Lithuania will have their first official game of the Eurobasket 2017 championship.

The first pool game is against Georgia which is loaded with good quality bigs including the 2017 NBA champion Zaza Pachulia.
This will probably be a very difficult game for JV and team Lithuania, since they'll be missing their starting PF in Donatas Motiejunas and they'll need every big body available to match all the size that Georgia has on the front line.

Last week, Donatas was allowed to go and join his girlfriend back in Houston for a couple of days where she gave birth to their first son. This was right before the catastrophic weather really turned bad. Donatas got stuck in Houston and although he was able to escape the region yesterday and is expected to join the team right before the game against Georgia, it remains unlikely that he'll be able to suit up as the long journey and the jet lag will be too much to overcome. Risk of injury is also much greater in these circumstances. None the less, the decision will be made come game time.

The rotations might be a little out of whack because of Donatas' likely unavailability. This will add some additional pressure on some players, especially if JV gets in foul trouble. Speaking of fouls. JV will have to be very careful and avoid being too aggressive on D or picking up unnecessary touch fouls. Georgia will probably try and go hard at JV to get him in some foul trouble. They got 3 aggressive 7-footers to throw at him. He'll have to keep his composure throughout and maybe be less active on D, even if it will hurt their team D.

Other than the quality bigs, the strength of this Georgia team is their experience and their chemistry. Most of them have been playing together for the last 10 years, so their team play is very cohesive and efficient in their ways.

The lithuanian shooters will have to knock down their outside shots and create more space for JV to operate on the inside and so their slashers can find holes in their D.

We'll see. I'm excited to see some real basketball again.

[DanH]

It's not really a conclusive argument, since the sample size for Ibaka next to Poeltl is small. However we do know that last year Ibaka-JV next to each other had a -1.8 netRTG in 440 minutes, while Patterson-JV has a +9.5 netRTG in 107 minutes post all-star break (same time period). You can chalk that up to chemistry maybe or playing against starters, but that's a huge difference and showed that JV in the bench units was much more productive than with the starters.

Ibaka-Poeltl only got 36 minutes together in 11 games but were +8.2 netRTG in that time. Tiny sample size of course, but I think this definitely shows enough to deem it worth trying that lineup and pairing JV up with our bench guys to see what happens. Doubt we start the year like that, but it should be an option that is considered as the season gets started.

Pretty sure the thing you should chalk that up to is they barely got to play with Lowry at all, and when they did they had like 3 games of injury recovery Lowry to play with on the fly with no practice. And Patterson still came off the bench, so JV-Pat was when JV got to roll out against bench units (ie lesser opposition). Plus bench lineups had more Tucker, less Carroll.

Wait, you want to decide a starting lineup based on a sample size of 36 minutes?

I've already got Poeltl slated to play minutes beside Ibaka with the starters (about 3 minutes midway through each of the 1st and 3rd Q's, plus time with the DeRozan lineup at the end of the 1st half), enough to get some actual reps with those guys and build a real sample to judge them on.

So, is the idea just to disregard the evidence we have that JV works great with the starters, generally, and even with Ibaka while Lowry was hurt managed to tread water, and the evidence that JV doesn't work with DeRozan-centric bench units at all, just so we can start Poeltl on the basis of a tiny sample against non-starting quality opposition, just because you don't like JV? Like, the JV bench units were a +9.5 net rating, so he should come off the bench, but the minutes Ibaka spent with Poeltl on the bench had a +8.2 net rating in a far smaller sample, so we should totally start that pairing? Come on.

And obviously, everything is an option once you get some games under the belt and data from this season to work with. But "worth trying at some point if something's not working or an injury happens" is not what I was driving at with the articles. I'm trying for a plan A, one that is the most likely to succeed. Which doesn't mean throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks.

[Mess]

4:47 AM

Team Lithuania declare Motiejunas will be a game time decision. He would be a huge help vs Georgia big guys

— Donatas Urbonas (@Urbodo) August 31, 2017

9:54 AM

With 2 hours before Lithuania - Georgia game tip-off, Donatas Motiejunas arrived to Tel Aviv arena. Welcome back!

— Donatas Urbonas (@Urbodo) August 31, 2017