Jonas Valanciunas: getting value for Raptors center
By Brian Boake
There are a lot of Raptors fans who think Jonas Valanciunas is redundant. In the pace & space era, many believe we need more shooting. Can we parlay JV into an established gunner?
The return of Serge Ibaka to the Toronto Raptors won’t be official until after July 1. However, assuming the report from highly credible source Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders is accurate, we can expect positive news.
On the assumption of Ibaka’s resigning, I’m going to take the next logical step, which is to trade Jonas Valanciunas. The Raptors don’t lack young centers, and Ibaka will likely play the 5 in small-ball lineups. JV is too expensive to rot on the bench, and for the sake of both player and team needs to move on.
JV is entering the second of four years of a contract extension he signed in August, 2015. He’ll earn $15.5 million in 2017-18, which is a pleasant but not outrageous sum for a upper-middle center today.
The old saw “Never trade big for small” is out the window in the modern NBA; teams want shooters. Is there a team which can spare a shooter in order to gain some inside scoring, rebounding and rim presence, all of which Jonas offers?
If I were Denver Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly, I’d certainly be happy to talk to my predecessor, Masai Ujiri, about doing a deal. I might say “Masai, can we pry JV away from you in exchange for Danilo Gallinari?”
Masai might respond “Tim, that’s a great idea. Did you read about it in Raptors Rapture?”
When we do a Trade Proposal around here, both teams have to win.
Raptors: Toronto receives a consistent scorer, an NBA veteran who should slide easily into a win-now team’s roster. Gallinari can play inside or out; in fact, he’s coming off his best season ever as a 3-point shooter. He’s not a slouch defensively, though I think he’ll be hard pressed to hold his own against the league’s better 4-men. In that case, he can move over to small forward and still contribute.
Masai traded for Gallinari before. Danilo was part of the player package which moved from the Knicks to Colorado in the Carmelo Anthony deal.
Nuggets: Denver gave up 111.2 points per game last season, which is 27th, and obviously way too many to be a serious contender. While the acquisition of JV won’t solve all their woes, he will help rising star Nikola Jokic on D. One or the other (or both) of those two in the paint should ease the strain of opposing guards flashing past aging Jameer Nelson and not-ready-for-prime-timers like Jamal Murray and Emanuel Mudiay.
JV will produce a double-double every other night for the Nuggets, and he’s just turned 25. That makes him more than 3 years younger than Gallinari, and with a ceiling which has not yet been established.
Conclusion
The trade has almost no financial impact either way, and thus easily clears any contract hurdles as verified by the ESPN Trade Machine. The projected win/loss impact on both teams is negligible, according to their PER-based algorithm.
Make it happen, Masai.