Through much of the preseason, veteran big man Jonas Valanciunas has been a major bright spot for the Toronto Raptors with his play on the court.

It has even led to head coach Dwane Casey to continually praise the 25-year-old for the type of performances he has been able to put together. Despite the trade rumors involving Valanciunas briefly floating around this past offseason, he has found a source of motivation elsewhere, according to Josh Lewenberg of TSN 1050 Radio.

“That is not motivating me at all,” he insisted. “I know what is motivating me – my family, I’ve got my teammates motivating me, the front office who are [telling me] what they want to do motivates me. I understand people got to talk, people are meant to talk, it’s never going to be different these days with social media and all that stuff, I see some [expletive] things but I just don’t give a [expletive]. I know what I’ve got to do, I know what my role is on this team and the team is the most important thing.”

Valanciunas has strung together a few solid outings in four games played in the preseason where he's averaging 11.8 points on 69 percent shooting from the field along with 8.5 rebounds in just 19.5 minutes per contest. This includes a pair of double-doubles while also double figures three times and shooting 60 percent or better from the field in each game.

The sixth-year big man has credited his play to his increased involvement in the offensive game plan as the Raptors have changed things up a bit in the offense in the preseason and training camp. It has led to him creating more opportunities for himself to score while remaining an active part on that end of the floor.

If he can continue to hedge in this direction this upcoming season, it could set the table for him to possibly put together his best individual campaign of his career.