Jonas Valanciunas ??

[Triumph36]

It's just a miserable, worthless indicator of anything. If you want to argue the point that Valanciunas earning consistent minutes on a top Euroleague team tells us something, I'd accept it and even agree fully with you. But the mere chance that anyone is thinking that the U19 tournaments have any sort of value in terms of predicting future success or failure needs to realize that they don't.

Speaking of this, the funny thing is that most people (not nec. referring to you) in this thread and around the twitter/forum world that are saying the tournament is meaningless would be blasting him had he played poorly. Hell, he'd probably already be labeled as a bust by some.

Also wonder what the reaction to his current tournament would be if the Cavs had drafted him.

 

[MYoung23]

Didnt I post earlier in this thread to dont be surprised when Valanciunas lights up this tournament since it's a step down in competition?

He looks like how a top 5 lottery pick Center should look like. Ask Patric Young who DE has as the best center prospect in 2012 and a top 10 prospect. As for the US team what other U19 big men could they have sent that would have done any better against Valanciunas?

 

[BA_CavsFan]

Speaking of this, the funny thing is that most people (not nec. referring to you) in this thread and around the twitter/forum that are saying the tournament is meaningless would be blasting him had he played poorly. Hell, he'd probably already be labeled as a bust by some.

Also wonder what the reaction to his current tournament would be if the Cavs had drafted him.

Obviously if we had drafted him we would be claiming he's the next Olajuwon, but since we didn't draft him we can look at his success more objectively and realize that playing well at this tournament is necessary but insufficient to having a good NBA career.

 

[LUPE FRESH]

Has Hollinger's advanced metric stats panned out over the past drafts? I'm at work and can't research his past articles, but I remember him saying that our very own Darnell Jackson was the outright steal of the 2008 draft and would become the next Paul Millsapp.

 

[xprt]

Patric Young is next year lotto pick C an he got his ass beat by Valanciunas on both ends.

 

[MDLT]

Has Hollinger's advanced metric stats panned out over the past drafts? I'm at work and can't research his past articles, but I remember him saying that our very own Darnell Jackson was the outright steal of the 2008 draft and would become the next Paul Millsapp.

Well, Darnell was the steal of the 2008, so not sure what your getting at.

 

[The Oi]

Didnt I post earlier in this thread to dont be surprised when Valanciunas lights up this tournament

I was wondering myself how any could fail to heed the soothsaying of the vaunted MYoung23.

 

[Jon]

Speaking of this, the funny thing is that most people (not nec. referring to you) in this thread and around the twitter/forum world that are saying the tournament is meaningless would be blasting him had he played poorly. Hell, he'd probably already be labeled as a bust by some.

That's because meaningless is the wrong word. The problem is the disparity in JV's experience and size .vs. the other players in the tourney. If JV was playing terribly against this field in spite of his advantages, it would be a bad sign. No doubt if he was our player, we'd look for ways to excuse him ... that his teammates were failing him, that he just wasn't in to it, or that he needed more time to fill out, etc, but he'd need an excuse ...

Also wonder what the reaction to his current tournament would be if the Cavs had drafted him.

Very excited... sort of like how Michael Jordan was all excited to take Kwame Brown after working out and evaluating him against the top 7-footers in the draft. Sometimes a player's performance .vs. his peers, simply tells you more about his peers. Sometimes you need to be able to set aside the best American talent and take the best international prospect (aka avoid taking Kwame or Chandler over Gasol in 2001), and sometimes you need to just avoid taking a 7-footer altogether and go with a smaller more clearly talented player (aka avoid taking Diop over Joe Johnson and Richard Jefferson).

It's true that Kanter's hype comes mainly from similar performances (albeit he was even younger) - but the big question mark regarding him remains whether he was just an early bloomer and further along his development curve, or if his development curve is actually way above the players he was facing and he still has as much room to grow as any other 17/18 yr old prospect.

 

[Noonan]

As for the US team what other U19 big men could they have sent that would have done any better against Valanciunas?

Andre Drummond and Josh Smith.

 

[Man Called X]

Jonas putting on a show. Behind the back dribbles, solid passing. Makes it hurt even more.

 

[mAo_mAo]

Chris Grant must make Tristan Thompson watch JV tearing up this league so as to light a fire under the ass of our guy to work hard to justify his draft position .

 

[Noonan]

Has Hollinger's advanced metric stats panned out over the past drafts? I'm at work and can't research his past articles, but I remember him saying that our very own Darnell Jackson was the outright steal of the 2008 draft and would become the next Paul Millsapp.

Here's what Hollinger wrote about how his stats have done with big men:

As I noted above, the Draft Rater has been really solid on perimeter players. On interior players, the results have been a bit more scattered. The problem has been "false positives." It has picked out all the guys who could play; it has just picked out a lot of other guys a long with them.

For that reason, we want to tread a little more carefully with the frontcourt players. However, two players in particular warrant our attention: Tristan Thompson and Derrick Williams.

Thompson and Williams had the highest ratings of any player in the Draft Rater this year, and while that doesn't come with the same assurances it does for Kyrie Irving, they both appear to be very solid prospects. Of the 13 players who rated at 15.5 or above in previous iterations, most were very successful as pros, and the ones that weren't tended to fail due to injuries and lack of professionalism -- issues that shouldn't be factors for Thompson and Williams. The one true miss was Jared Jeffries.

And here's Hollinger's chart of the top big men with a rating higher than 15 since 2002:

Top rated bigs, 2002-2011

Kevin Love 20.78
Michael Beasley 18.36
Greg Oden 17.69
Tyrus Thomas 17.25
Blake Griffin 17.14
Andrew Bogut 16.90
DeMarcus Cousins 16.86
Michael Sweetney 16.70
Tristan Thompson 16.21
Curtis Borchardt 16.01
Derrick Williams 15.97
Greg Monroe 15.77
Jared Jeffries 15.65
Chris Bosh 15.57
Derrick Favors 15.51

Btw in 2008, the second year he did the rating, he had Derrick Rose 6th, behind Beasley, Love, Darrell Arthur, Marreese Speights and DJ Augustine. Woops.

 

[Rist77]

Two facts this U-19 tournament is covering up:
1) Jonas still lacks any legitimate NBA moves. Has no go to move or counter move, etc.
2) He still lacks overall strength.

Any big man lacking in both of those areas still has a long way to go before even being able to step on the court and legitimately compete/contribute in the NBA. Yes, the U-19’s is a positive sign, but realistically nothing has changed. Since when has playing against worse competition than you’re used to ever made you a better player? I’m still going to wait and see how he performs in the NBA before calling him a success or not.

 

[Gimme Some Mo]

The Lithuanian under-19 national team has been turning heads all week in the FIBA U-19 World Championships in Latvia. Led by Toronto Raptors draft pick Jonas Valanciunas, they made quick work of the Russian team that shocked the US a few days before.

At the end of the first half, Lithuania was up 53-26, getting 15 points and 9 rebounds from their star center.

When asked about how they would fare in the NCAA, Jonathan Givony of Draft Express, one of the leading draft-evaluation sites on the internet, said they would be the best team in the country.

Read more: http://basketball.realgm.com/wireta...m_Would_Be_NCAA_National_Champs#ixzz1RgVXChXI

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[Rycka]

[video=youtube;n0aaWkLyTNE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0aaWkLyTNE[/video]