A day later, the numbers were just as exciting as the night they were posted.
Rookie Jonas Valanciunas’ 24-point, 10-rebound effort in the Toronto Raptors win over the Washington Wizards was the talk of the practice court on Thursday afternoon.
As impressive as the numbers on his stat line were, the path he took to post them was just as remarkable. Attempting just seven field goals, making four of them, Valanciunas earned himself 18 trips to the free throw line. He converted 16.
While it has been an up-and-down season for the seven-footer, in the victory against the Wizards, Valanciunas was not just on the floor for the Raptors during crunch time, he was largely responsible for the final outcome.
His proficiency at the line made teammate Kyle Lowry invoke the name of a former big-name teammate.
“It’s a huge luxury,” Lowry said of playing with a big man who can make free throws. “I’ve played with Yao Ming who pretty much shot our techs, a 90 per cent free-throw shooter. It’s a huge luxury because he can get fouled he’s going to make most of them and if he’s getting double-teamed late in the game, he’s grabbing rebounds, he’s going to get fouled we’ve got confidence in him making them down the stretch.”
Raptors coach Dwane Casey echoed Lowry’s thoughts and was pleased with the calls his rookie received.
“I think that comes from him giving respect to the officials,” he said. “Officials know who he is now. They know he’s a talented. young man. They know he’s not just a hacker defensively. They know he’s really working to get into position, that he’s moving his feet, that he’s just not cracking people.”
With the rest of the season being about long-term development even more-so than it is about short-term outcomes, Lowry talked about expectations heading into the offseason.
“I think we’ve got about six or seven core guys that are definitely going to be here next year and we’ve got a bunch of young guys that are going to be here,” Lowry said. “Just for the rookies to develop and get some minutes, get used to the game. For the veteran guys, just to mesh in with those guys and make a good unit. Make sure we’re starting to understand each other.”
Lowry also said the team is able to look for Valanciunas more now that he is more comfortable with the NBA game. Casey agreed.
“I think we’ve really seen a progression of him recognizing, reading, anticipating,” Casey said. “The key word, I think, is anticipating what the offence is trying to do to him. He’s doing a much better job of anticipating the speed of how things are happening, where things are happening, where he has to be. That’s the NBA. The NBA is a complex game when it comes to reading and anticipating. If it were easy, everybody would be doing it.”
While Wednesday night’s performance made headlines, Lowry was quick to point to the fact that Valanciunas has been putting in solid performances for the past few weeks. As his minutes have increased, so too has his production.
“He’s been playing like that for the last couple of weeks,” Lowry said. “We’re starting to feature him a little bit more in the post. We had that ability to do all year, but he just didn’t understand how to play the NBA game yet. The development for him is just going to be getting the ball, getting the minutes and getting the repetition.”
As time goes on, the minutes will be available for Valanciunas. They have to be, because it’s clear he is the biggest piece of the future for this team. With increased opportunity will come increased expectations and the learning curve will steepen.
Luckily, Valanciunas has been a relatively quick study all season long.