Jonas Valanciunas Needs to be More Motivated in Order to Succeed
Jonas Valanciunas is an incredibly talented big man, but 5 years into his NBA career, he has yet to put it all together. The reason that his inconsistency is still a problem is an occasional lack of motivation.
After last night’s showing against the New Orleans Pelicans, Jonas Valanciunas proved that he has significant talent. Based on that one performance alone, one could assume he has the talent of a borderline All-Star. I think everyone can agree that the Lithuanian has tremendous basketball ability. No matter how slow he may be, or how bad he occasionally is defensively, he has great skill. The issue that I realized last night is that while he may be talented, I think Jonas has a motivation issue.
Jonas is a beast when he’s on. He’s an absolute animal in the paint, especially offensively. I’ve noticed he plays especially well when there is a noteworthy reason for him to be motivated. We saw it in the playoffs last spring when he could have been arrested for the abuse he put on the Pacers and the Heat (video below) before his injury. That was the case against the Brooklyn Nets in 2014 as well when he put up 17 points and 18 rebounds in his first playoff game. (I would like to note that the 2015 series against the Wizards is a memory I never want to mention again in my life.)
Valanciunas Needs to Battle For his Spot
More recently however, he has been in the midst of a battle for minutes, something with which he’s never had to deal with. Out of 344 career regular season games, Valanciunas has started 338. He gets benched when he isn’t putting on a great performance (e.g., 13 minutes played against Washington on March 3rd). When he’s motivated to prove Dwane Casey, or the media, or anyone wrong, he puts up the 25 and 13 he did against the Pelicans. When he’s not, he puts up 2 points, 3 rebounds, to go with 2 turnovers in the previously mentioned Wizards game.
One could make the argument he’s inconsistent, and I’d buy into that. At the same time though, Valanciunas is in his 5th year in the NBA. He should know what to bring to work everyday and shouldn’t be as annoyingly up and down as he is. Norman Powell is fairly streaky, but he’s in his second NBA season and has his minutes scattered more than anyone I’ve ever seen. Obviously matchups are an issue, especially with a lesser agile big man like J.V., but on the other hand, if he dominates as we all hope he does, Dwane can’t take him off the court. He just simply has to work harder against tougher matchups.
Bring it Every Night
Against All-Star level bigs, Jonas puts up a fight and occasionally plays great. He put up at least 20 and 10 in games against DeMarcus Cousins and the Pelicans last night, DeAndre Jordan and the L.A. Clippers on Feb. 6th, and Anthony Davis before the “Boogie” Cousins trade on Jan. 31st. That is why I chalk Valanciunas’ issues up to motivation. He is able to compete against great players, but often puts up duds against Marcin Gortat and the Wizards.
I’m not saying that it is anyone’s particular responsibility to motivate our Lithuanian grizzly bear. I am most certainly not blaming Dwane Casey. He has done almost everything in his power to get Jonas going. Valanciunas has been in the league for far too long for this to be an issue. He should be able to pound the rock night in and night out regardless of whether it is playoff game 7 against the Cleveland Cavaliers or game 52 of the season against the lowly Brooklyn Nets. He’s not a rookie anymore; he’s a veteran. Jonas just needs to come ready to play mentally every single night of the season.
With Serge Ibaka, Patrick Patterson, Jakob Poeltl, and even P.J. Tucker pushing Jonas for frontcourt minutes, I think we’ll see a much greater drive in Valanciunas. Better drive means better play, and better play means better Raptors. Everyone loves when the Raptors are good, so let’s hope that Jonas is ready to pull up his socks and start abusing some dudes in the paint.