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The Toronto Raptors might have signed big time free agents in Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka, as well as dealt other parts in order to re-mold their talent into a different team, but they have yet to trade one of the most important cogs of that conversion, center Jonas Valanciunas.
The organization reportedly exhausted every chance in order to deal the 7-footer, engaging in talks with the Detroit Pistons and the New Orleans Pelicans prior to last season's trade deadline, which fell through eventually, reaching to five different teams prior to the NBA Draft in efforts to make a deal.
His national team coach Kestutis Kemzura once explained the process of having a then rookie-bound 20-year-old Valanciunas on a mature Lithuanian squad.
Article Continues Below“Sometimes, he wants to come in and do everything right away. In his head, he is working too fast. He is young, that happens,” Kemzura told the Sporting News. “He has to dedicate himself to basketball more.”
Those same questions still resemble in his play, despite his steady improvement from year to year in the league — remaining just an improved version of his former self, but failing to evolve like others at his position have been able to do.
“With him, there are still a lot of questions, and like a lot of big men — not just Jonas — you have to try to find their place in the way everyone is playing the game now,” an anonymous general manager told Sean Deveney of the Sporting News. “He is talented and he still is young. But he is pretty much the same player he was three years ago. So what his national team coach said about him, about dedication, that sticks out. I think that hung over their ability to trade him these last few months.”
While Valanciunas has proved to be one of the most effective centers in the league when given the ball, the Raptors have been historically backcourt-heavy, and could benefit more from a shooter/rebounder combo center like Ibaka, who has expressed his desire to play the center position as he once did in Oklahoma City, upon signing his new deal.
Toronto is looking to grow with their young draft selections — the likes of big men Pascal Siakam and Jakob Poeltl.
“I think there will be an opportunity for me and for Jakob,” Siakam said. “That is how it seems, that there will be more time for younger players on the team, and it is our job to be ready for that. I learned a lot last year, but this year, I want to do more. But I know I am not going to play if you can’t execute.”
