Valanciunas needs to come off the bench.

[Raptorsss]

JV is our best 3-point shooter, if he doesn't try 4 attempts a game then Casey needs to be fired.

Edit: Poetl hasn't missed a 3 this year, both should be chucking it from downtown.

[007]

Jonas Valanciunas is now posting the highest usage, TS%, Reb%, Pts/36, and net rating of his career.

— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) December 16, 2017

[consmap]

Jonas Valanciunas is now posting the highest usage, TS%, Reb%, Pts/36, and net rating of his career.

— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) December 16, 2017

Wictory baby!

[golden]

Jonas Valanciunas is now posting the highest usage, TS%, Reb%, Pts/36, and net rating of his career.

— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) December 16, 2017

The bench could really use a boost from JV.

[Just Is]

The bench could really use a boost from JV.

Semi-related; would actually love to see some transitional line ups with either JV or Ibaka run with the bench ala Demar/Lowry. Better to look as many potential combinational looks prior to playoffs.

[DanH]

Semi-related; would actually love to see some transitional line ups with either JV or Ibaka run with the bench ala Demar/Lowry. Better to look as many potential combinational looks prior to playoffs.

Specifically, Ibaka with DD to provide spacing, JV with Lowry to provide some gravity inside.

[KeonClark]

Jonas Valanciunas is now posting the highest usage, TS%, Reb%, Pts/36, and net rating of his career.

— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) December 16, 2017

Cool, he can score rebound and post up. Tell me something I don't know, and how he can stay in games

[Shaolin Fantastic]

Cool, he can score rebound and post up. Tell me something I don't know, and how he can stay in games

This. Not to burst anyone's bubble, but this has never been the issue with JV.

He's always been a very efficient scorer around the basket and rebounded at a high level. That's not why he gets sat or can't play much in certain matchups. It's because of his defensive issues. Enes Kanter is really good at all that stuff as well (in fact he's actually better than JV at it) and he nearly had DNPs in some playoff games last year.

[DanH]

Cool, he can score rebound and post up. Tell me something I don't know, and how he can stay in games

That’s where the career high net rating comes in. You can stay in games if the team wins your minutes.

Matchups are always going to be a thing in the playoffs. And they can bite Ibaka or Poeltl at C just as easily as JV.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

The career high in netRTG might be due to playing less minutes and getting yanked more quickly in situations that aren't favourable to him? You know... the same explanation people give for Bebe's absurd individual net rating?

What I think actually determines whether the team "wins your minutes" is on-off court rating. And for all our starters that's about break even except OG who is at ~+16. Lowry was great in that stat last year but doesn't play with the bench anymore to boost his numbers so now he's right around where the rest of the starters are.

[DanH]

The career high in netRTG might be due to playing less minutes and getting yanked more quickly in situations that aren't favourable to him? You know... the same explanation people give for Bebe's absurd individual net rating?

What I think actually determines whether the team "wins your minutes" is on-off court rating. And for all our starters that's about break even except OG who is at ~+16. Lowry was great in that stat last year but doesn't play with the bench anymore to boost his numbers so now he's right around where the rest of the starters are.

So... if the team beats the other team by some number of points, but does so both in terms of the bench and in terms of the starters, no player has been on the floor when the team is winning their minutes? That’s madness.

All that matters is that the Raptors score more than the other team. I’m not talking impact here, I’m answering the question of how he stays on the floor - and the answer is: easily, so long as the Raptors are outscoring their opposition.

JV’s been playing just as many minutes with mismatches as ever - he was always yanked at the end of games, and he’s playing a higher proportion of his minutes against opposing starters than ever before (which is a high bar to clear). The minutes he’s lost are those transitional lineups between starters and bench, which have been filled with a lot of Poeltl/Siakam (to mixed effect), where he historically excelled. Making all the more impressive that he’s posting such a good net rating with a starting group that took a while to find its footing. And making the team’s overall success impressive, as they’ve gone away from those successful transitional lineups, as well as Lowry+bench for the most part, with their success being buoyed by a resurgent DD+bench and either a dominant starting lineup or bench (though not both at the same time).

[Shaolin Fantastic]

You just contradicted yourself. If he's lost the crunch time minutes (about 5mpg, which is about how much his minutes have decreased) then he's playing LESS against starters not more and it's not the transitional minutes that he's lost.

[KHD]

You just contradicted yourself. If he's lost the crunch time minutes (about 5mpg, which is about how much his minutes have decreased) then he's playing LESS against starters not more and it's not the transitional minutes that he's lost.

that's not what he said at all dude

[3inthekeon]

The career high in netRTG might be due to playing less minutes and getting yanked more quickly in situations that aren't favourable to him? You know... the same explanation people give for Bebe's absurd individual net rating?

What I think actually determines whether the team "wins your minutes" is on-off court rating. And for all our starters that's about break even except OG who is at ~+16. Lowry was great in that stat last year but doesn't play with the bench anymore to boost his numbers so now he's right around where the rest of the starters are.

You may think that but you're wrong. On/off has multiple factors, a lot of which are out of a players control. The player himself, who he's playing with, the quality of players backup and who the backup is playing with. Plus the quality of opposition. On/off has some relevance, but isn't the determining factor.

FWIW, the last 10 games JV's ON-OFF is +13.1. Poeltl's ON-OFF is -15.9. Now JV has been really good and Poeltl meh. But especially in Poeltl's case, his awful #'s have much less to do with him and much more with the strong play of the the 1st unit, and the awful play of his benchmates.

[golden]

Shaolin, man, you got absolutely crushed on this thread. The turnaround started almost like clockwork after you posted it. Probably has more to do with Ibaka playing well, than anything else.

Would you mind starting another Costanza "opposite" thread? lol. Or maybe we should save some of that magic for the playoffs.