Gorlitzer wrote:
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"Casey: Valanciunas' Worst Case Scenaro Is Noah" & "Koreen: Too much hype?"
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Gorlitzer wrote: View PostI think we should really get a grip on our expectations for the Lithuanian. There are some serious misconceptions out there. I have lived in Europe for the past several years and have seen my share of Rytas games and Lietuva national games. These things are true, and must all be qualified with the word 'yet':
Valanciunas is not a strong post defender. He routinely gets scorched by his check in one on one situations. His weak-side D is actually better thanks to his hustle, but even then is instincts are only decent.
He is not an above average rebounder.
He needs someone else to create offense for him in the pick and roll.
He does not have a great vertical.
He has a high foul rate in tougher matchups.
He is also inconsistent. He'll put up big numbers one game and nearly vanish the next.
Okay... all of these are negatives. But when I see people writing about how he'll be our defensive anchor and a rebounding machine, ... they just don't have the whole story.
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Soft Euro wrote: View PostI agree with a lot of your points. But certainly not with the part about the serious misconceptions. That's just way too generalizing in respect to the discussion about Valanciunas on this site.
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Gorlitzer wrote: View PostI think we should really get a grip on our expectations for the Lithuanian. There are some serious misconceptions out there. I have lived in Europe for the past several years and have seen my share of Rytas games and Lietuva national games. These things are true, and must all be qualified with the word 'yet':
Valanciunas is not a strong post defender. He routinely gets scorched by his check in one on one situations. His weak-side D is actually better thanks to his hustle, but even then is instincts are only decent.
He is not an above average rebounder.
He needs someone else to create offense for him in the pick and roll.
He does not have a great vertical.
He has a high foul rate in tougher matchups.
He is also inconsistent. He'll put up big numbers one game and nearly vanish the next.
Okay... all of these are negatives. But when I see people writing about how he'll be our defensive anchor and a rebounding machine, ... they just don't have the whole story.
Besides his energy and aggressiveness, what I really like about JV is his touch. As Sabonis once said, JV has very good touch around the basket (great "wrists", according to Saboni). This is really underrated for big men, but players like Pau Gasol show how important it is to have good skill and touch around the basket. Add to that excellent foul-shooting, and I think he will end up being a reliable scoring option. After all, I think that the European ball and basket is the same size as the NBA, right?
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Bouncepass wrote: View PostBesides his energy and aggressiveness, what I really like about JV is his touch. As Sabonis once said, JV has very good touch around the basket (great "wrists", according to Saboni). This is really underrated for big men, but players like Pau Gasol show how important it is to have good skill and touch around the basket. Add to that excellent foul-shooting, and I think he will end up being a reliable scoring option. After all, I think that the European ball and basket is the same size as the NBA, right?
I dunno about you guys but as a Raptors fan alarm bells are going off in my head when someone is telling me that our future C for years to come is going to have trouble scoring in the paint. Especially when our future PF for years to come has the same problem. Sure hope we win the lottery so we can have a different PF of the future!your pal,
ebrian
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ebrian wrote: View PostI dunno about you guys but as a Raptors fan alarm bells are going off in my head when someone is telling me that our future C for years to come is going to have trouble scoring in the paint. Especially when our future PF for years to come has the same problem. Sure hope we win the lottery so we can have a different PF of the future!
Also, I'm pretty sure you could describe Anthony Davis' offensive game in the exact same way. He has little to no low post game and no jumper.
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I'm not worried about JV's post scoring in year one. He's gonna get his points from pick n rolls, offensive rebounds and from the free throw line. Expecting a back to the back post threat at 19 years of age isn't reasonable. How many quality players are even in the league with that style of game? Bogut, Jefferson and Pau would be the very good ones that come to mind with other players like D12 and Bynum getting better at it. As long as he's working his tail off I think he'll have a positive affect on the floor and he's got time to develop in those other areas.
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Gorlitzer wrote: View PostI think we should really get a grip on our expectations for the Lithuanian. There are some serious misconceptions out there. I have lived in Europe for the past several years and have seen my share of Rytas games and Lietuva national games. These things are true, and must all be qualified with the word 'yet':
Valanciunas is not a strong post defender. He routinely gets scorched by his check in one on one situations. His weak-side D is actually better thanks to his hustle, but even then is instincts are only decent.
He is not an above average rebounder.
He needs someone else to create offense for him in the pick and roll.
He does not have a great vertical.
He has a high foul rate in tougher matchups.
He is also inconsistent. He'll put up big numbers one game and nearly vanish the next.
Okay... all of these are negatives. But when I see people writing about how he'll be our defensive anchor and a rebounding machine, ... they just don't have the whole story.
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Gorlitzer wrote: View PostHe is not an above average rebounder.
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Michel G wrote: View PostI don't see how you can state that JV in not an above average rebounder when he finished 2nd in both the VTB league and the Eurocup. I decided to look at his stats in both those competitions to see if there is any validity to your statement. In the last 26 games in the VTB and the Eurocup since January 3rd, JV collected 71 offensive rebound, 146 defensive, totaling 217. That averages to 8.3 rebounds per game. In those 26 games he's averaged 24.5 minutes a game (638 total minutes), so that would give him a PER 36 minutes average of 12.2 [(217/638)*36]. How is that not an above average rebounder. You guys can go through the game logs and challenge my numbers. But he looks like a fairly good rebounder to me.
The only way I could possibly see the statement having even a shred of validity would be from the context he does not get as many as he should. This would be due to a young, developing man going against mature men. If you look at it from that context, then it becomes downright scary his rebounding abilities in a couple of years of maturation and training.
I very well could be a biased homer looking through rose coloured glasses though.
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thead wrote: View Postin his prime I see 14 - 15pts 9 - 12 boards 2 - 3 blocks
sort of a Dikembe Olajuwon hybrid
Hakeem Olajuwon, 2-time defensive player of the year, 1 MVP, 2 Finals MVP, HoF, arguably one of the 10 best players to ever play the game.
I think people easily forget how great Mutombo and Olajuwon were as basketball players. But maybe it's the just the long English Canadian tradition of dismissing everything French.
Je me souviens.
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