Toronto Raptors: What can we expect from Jonas Valanciunas

Strengths

JV strengths lie heavily around his offense and his rebounding. They’ve always been his calling cards, having even found his stride in his first year, where he battled to average a solid 8.9 points and six rebounds per contest. When on offense JV often finds himself within 10 ft to the basket, shooting 75.3% from within and knotting it all together with a scary accurate 67.4 FG%. Although JV has never been known as the number one option, in 2017 he attempted the fourth most shots on the team, so he’s proven to be a reliable scoring option.

Adding to his low post offense is his new-ish found ability to stretch out the floor. Long gone are the days of Raptor crowds cheering and edging on JV to shoot a three, only for him to pump fake and drive the basket. Taking his first big leap in his career JV improved from a lowly zero 3PA to a whole one 3PA per game in 2017. While it may not seem very significant to the average NBA fan, JV’s improvement from deep will play a large role in whether he stays on the floor or not this coming year.

Being 6’11 probably helps this category out quite a bit but JV has always been a bull on the boards, scrapping and clawing his way to as many rebounds as he can get his paws on. Even with a slight down tick between 2016 and 2017 JV was still by far the best rebounder on the team. He’s also dominant on the offensive side of the board, ranking in the top 20 in 2017 for offensive rebounds at 2.5 per game. Getting second chance buckets will be a quick and easy way for JV to run up his point totals this year, especially as he will no longer be playing next to Serge Ibaka.