Everything Valanciunas

[CalgaryRapsFan]

But that's a double edged sword for a team trying to win. Right now going to JV is an endpoint for your possession. It works, but if it starts being used in larger doses then teams are going to adjust quickly, just because there aren't many places the ball can go to from a JV post-up.

He is up to 20% usage this year, which is pretty good for a 1 dimensional offensive player. I think he has to prove he can do more with the ball before you put him over the 21-22% mark.

This team isn't a contender, and will only get better if the key young players (JV and Ross) are able to make great strides towards realizing their potential. All this talk about forgoing player development for the sake of wining reeks of BC's "accelerated rebuild" talk. This team was [arguably] one James Dolan decision away from tanking last season, and now I fear the development of 2 critical players is being stunted, when it should be a priority for next season and beyond, which is when this team could truly become a contender.

[stooley]

Vucevic averaged 31 mpg in his third year.

I know JV is barely playing 24 mpg right now, but lets give it a month or two more to see if that number comes up. I'm not sure that it's time to panic yet.

I know developing our future is important, but you do place slightly more emphasis on quality players in our situation than if we're in full tank mode like ORL was. We do need to attract FAs, we do need our players to enjoy being here, and we need to start building a winning culture slowly.

So, given all this, I'd be perfectly happy with JV averaging 2-3 minutes less than Vuc's third year and coming in around 29-30 mpg at the end of the season. Seems like a perfectly fine balance to me.

[Mediumcore]

This team isn't a contender, and will only get better if the key young players (JV and Ross) are able to make great strides towards realizing their potential. All this talk about forgoing player development for the sake of wining reeks of BC's "accelerated rebuild" talk. This team was [arguably] one James Dolan decision away from tanking last season, and now I fear the development of 2 critical players is being stunted, when it should be a priority for next season and beyond, which is when this team could truly become a contender.

So we should tank in order to develop JV and Ross?

[CalgaryRapsFan]

So we should tank in order to develop JV and Ross?

Absolutely not. I think Scraptor did a good job of describing how it doesn't need to be a choice between 'use them more and lose' and 'use them less and win'.

I'm just saying that it shouldn't be such a black&white decision, especially when winning this year (ie: Championship) really isn't realistic, but could become more realistic in the next few years if/when the young guys are more refined. Play them a bit more, use them a bit more, but always within the game-plan and always with an eye towards winning as well. I happen to think that less Lowry/DeRozan ISO-ball and more involvement of JV/Ross/Amir would actually help the team win more, as opposed to lose more. For me, developing the young players wouldn't hurt this year and would help in the long-run, so it's not really a double-edged sword at all.

And for the record, I'm saying play/use JV/Ross slightly more. I'm not saying give Bruno/Bebe 20 MPG every game.

[Chr1s1anL]

The thing about waiting for JV is that our best player is 28 turning 29 in March playing his best basketball of his career

[grindhouse]

lets be honest here. JV is lazy or he is out of shape or something is wrong with his knees u pick! he doesnt play alot of mins because he doesnt help on defense. its Barg all over again except JV rebounds. JV shuld be a beast right now with professional trainers to help u lift weights there is no excuse. he is lazy injuried or we have extremely bad trainers. JV cant run, cant take 1 step over to help D, and cant dominate the post after 3 years, thats crazy

[CalgaryRapsFan]

lets be honest here. JV is lazy or he is out of shape or something is wrong with his knees u pick! he doesnt play alot of mins because he doesnt help on defense. its Barg all over again except JV rebounds. JV shuld be a beast right now with professional trainers to help u lift weights there is no excuse. he is lazy injuried or we have extremely bad trainers. JV cant run, cant take 1 step over to help D, and cant dominate the post after 3 years, thats crazy

I think we've been watching different games, because from what I've seen JV's D has been about the best on the team, especially since our perimeter defenders can't keep any players from getting by them.

As for offense, DC has said for the past 2 seasons that he doesn't call plays for Valanciunas (other than 1 early look most games). Even this season, most of his usage and points come off broken plays and rebounds; it's not like the offensive system is designed to consistently utilize his interior game, so how could you possible expect him to be great, let alone dominant?

[Mediumcore]

lets be honest here. JV is lazy or he is out of shape or something is wrong with his knees u pick! he doesnt play alot of mins because he doesnt help on defense. its Barg all over again except JV rebounds. JV shuld be a beast right now with professional trainers to help u lift weights there is no excuse. he is lazy injuried or we have extremely bad trainers. JV cant run, cant take 1 step over to help D, and cant dominate the post after 3 years, thats crazy

I don't think the situation with JV, is that bad. He is trying, but is in a slump for sure. It's nowhere near the problem with Bargnani where he just gave no effort on defense. What I would say is that JV seems to have a pretty low basketball IQ at this time, but with experience he should be able to react much faster than he is right now.

[consmap]

I think we've been watching different games, because from what I've seen JV's D has been about the best on the team, especially since our perimeter defenders can't keep any players from getting by them.

As for offense, DC has said for the past 2 seasons that he doesn't call plays for Valanciunas (other than 1 early look most games). Even this season, most of his usage and points come off broken plays and rebounds; it's not like the offensive system is designed to consistently utilize his interior game, so how could you possible expect him to be great, let alone dominant?

Yeah, I feel he looks worse on D than he really is because of our weak D on the perimeter. If he's constantly having to help, he's going to look bad more often than not.


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[grindhouse]

I think we've been watching different games, because from what I've seen JV's D has been about the best on the team, especially since our perimeter defenders can't keep any players from getting by them.

As for offense, DC has said for the past 2 seasons that he doesn't call plays for Valanciunas (other than 1 early look most games). Even this season, most of his usage and points come off broken plays and rebounds; it's not like the offensive system is designed to consistently utilize his interior game, so how could you possible expect him to be great, let alone dominant?

I counted 9 lay up or dunks in the Utah game in the first half all because JV doesn't know how to defend the pick and roll or help d


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[rocwell]

I counted 9 lay up or dunks in the Utah game in the first half all because JV doesn't know how to defend the pick and roll or help d


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So what are you saying... because of JV, Utah scored additional 20 points in 18 minutes of Jonas play time n the first half?

[grindhouse]

So what are you saying... because of JV, Utah scored additional 20 points in 18 minutes of Jonas play time n the first half?

I am saying jV defense sucks go back and just watch te first quarter


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[white men can't jump]

I am saying jV defense sucks go back and just watch te first quarter


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And everyone else is saying you're not looking at things very well. Did you also notice that ALL our bigs struggled defending Utah's p'n'r? It was painfully obvious the team has not spent any time really working on defending the low p'n'r, which is mostly what Utah was killing us with. It was also obvious Lowry hadn't read a scouting report on Burke, because he played him tight a lot, even though he's at .320% FGs and .241% on 3s.

JV's been very steady on D this year. And you're reading into one quarter of one game where clearly the level of preparation was terrible at a team level.

[stooley]

I am saying jV defense sucks go back and just watch te first quarter


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Jonas' defense does kinda suck. Hopefully it gets better. He's trying hard and is almost there, just gets a little carried away sometimes. Gotta slow the game down, read what plays the offense is running. It'll come with time. There's a reason why Cs are supposedly slow to develop

[stooley]

JV's been very steady on D this year. And you're reading into one quarter of one game where clearly the level of preparation was terrible at a team level.

Oh, I don't agree with this. I think he's still same old. His one on one defense is solid, his help defense is pretty useless. I'm not worried though. This is part of the plan, it'll come along. Let's see where he's at in March.