New Poll: Everything Valanciunas - 2nd Team All-Rooke Selection.

[Red and White]

That girl is a straight up beast. She was near the world record pace in one of her heats at 15.

[theycallmeZZ]

REMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATCH

Lietuva is gonna dominate this time against Nigeria

[Katman]

Jonas Valanciunas stats vs Nigeria
4 reb
1 blk
1 to
3 pf
2 pts

Rather underwhelming

[Snizzoop]

I found his stats here: http://www.london2012.com/basketball...a04/index.html

2 Points 2/4
3 Points 0/0
Free Throws 0/0
Assists 0
Offensive Rebounds 1
Defensive Rebounds 2
Blocked shots 1
Steals 0
Turnover 1
Personal Fouls 3
Fouls drawn 1

Still underwhelming.

[Skaloon]

Jonas Valanciunas stats vs Nigeria
4 reb
1 blk
1 to
3 pf
2 pts

Rather underwhelming

http://www.london2012.com/basketball...a04/index.html

i didn't like how LT coach would put JV on the bench everytime he got a foul - i mean he is letting JV play about 15 mins just anyway - so who cares if he fouls out? however, i must admit that Kavaliauskas looked quite solid (he didn't play vs Argentina) - so now JV has a rival for main C spot in this team.

[omgsomuchpotential]

Jonas Valanciunas stats vs Nigeria
4 reb
1 blk
1 to
3 pf
2 pts

Rather underwhelming

It was alright.

There are three players who are playing C in Lithuanian squad: JV, Songaila and Kavaliauskas. JV is too weak, Songaila is too slow. Today we saw Kavaliauskas (who is still very underrated player) defend and play very well against strong and athletic Nigerians. Kavaliauskas & Songaila today fit much better than JV.

[10 000 Hours]

If his play continues along this track, (and let's face it, it's been awful) how devastated will everyone be?

I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting him to score a lot, but I was sure he was at least going to go out, rebound and be that high-energy guy. I haven't been seeing that yet. I might be judging too early, but the Olympic games will be finished before he knows it, and the last thing I want is for him to have a confidence setback before he joins the Raptors in for training camp.

All I want from young Jonas during the Olympics is one break-out game. Just one where he can show the world what he's capable of.

[10 000 Hours]

Here's from Jeff Blair at the Globe and Mail via Realgm.com:

Jonas Valanciunas played just 14 minutes in Lithuania’s 102-79 preliminary round loss to Argentina on Monday.

“I didn’t play well,” said Valanciunas, who was benched for committing three early fouls and failing to contain Luis Scola. “I played not my best game, and our coach is coaching to win, not give me [playing] time.”

Scola scored a game-high 32 points for Argentina.

“We failed defensively,” Lithuanian coach Kestutis Kemzura said without pointing the finger directly at Valanciunas. “We did not do a good job of communicating.”

Scola cautioned against reading anything at all into Valanciunas’ first game at the London Olympics.

“He has a lot of potential,” said Scola. “I don’t think you can look at this game and say it was a good test for him, or that you can judge him on this one game. They didn’t play well. We did.”

Poor guy. Even Scola took it easy on him, well, at least after he dominated him and the rest of the LT's team. Keep your chin up Jonas!

[ceez]

People forget but Scola is one of the best bigs at international ball. He dominates everyone.

[japetas]

People forget but Scola is one of the best bigs at international ball. He dominates everyone.

Jonas have no chances to defend Scola because of terrible team's defensive tactics when defending 2-on-2. The second Lithuania game vs Nigeria were much better defensively, but coach didn't let Jonas to play significant minutes (backup center played his best international game in his career). Now waiting tomorrows mach against France. They have more typical centers than Argentina's Scola who's more PF than C. Turiaf, Traore and Seraphin - all of them play physical game and mostly near the basket

[10 000 Hours]

Jonas have no chances to defend Scola because of terrible team's defensive tactics when defending 2-on-2. The second Lithuania game vs Nigeria were much better defensively, but coach didn't let Jonas to play significant minutes (backup center played his best international game in his career). Now waiting tomorrows mach against France. They have more typical centers than Argentina's Scola who's more PF than C. Turiaf, Traore and Seraphin - all of them play physical game and mostly near the basket

So you are expecting a better game? It'd be great to see Jonas get extended minutes.

[10 000 Hours]

People forget but Scola is one of the best bigs at international ball. He dominates everyone.

How is his game suited to international ball? To be honest, I've never really paid attention to him in FIBA play.

[Nilanka]

I'm not worried at all. He's just not getting the minutes, and the Lithuanian coach doesn't have any vested interest in "developing" Jonas' game. Combine that with the lackluster officiating, and there isn't much room for a young player to learn through his mistakes.

Give Jonas a proper training camp, 8 pre-season games, with a coaching staff whose eyes are glued on him every waking minute, and we'll see a different player come October 31st.

[Mediumcore]

Can't help but think that the Summer League would have done his some good. He could have had more playing time and oriented himself with some of his team mates and coaches as well as the NBA style of play. In the Olympics he's playing against much better competition, but he's been facing players of close to that calibre in his Euro league team for a while now. He's not really seeing anything different. Having said that it's an honour he couldn't turn down I guess.

[Apollo]

Scola is also tough as nails and knows how to get under people's skin. I didn't see the game but I'd probably chalk this up to experience outplaying raw talent.

[BallaBalla]

I have a feeling there will be a lot of frustrating games this season just like this...big men need to adapt to what its like against NBA players...it's a whole new world

[pillowmint]

I think it's good experience either way. Obviously he's not happy about it, and I'd rather send him out against guys like Scola, instead of some summer league hacks who are likely to get cut anyways. If he shows any shine during the Olympics I'd take that experience over summer league any day. I love that Scola said he's good.

[white men can't jump]

I'm not going to make excuses for Jonas, because whatever, he's young and it's ok to have a bad game. But the whole team's defensive execution, especially on the p'n'r, was just completely atrocious for most of the game. Rotations were poor, and especially the 2nd rotation was almost never there, at least that's how it felt when I was watching. Basically, the team sucked: every time a perimeter player got in the D fell apart. Help was late, especially after the first rotation of Jonas or whoever else was there to defend the paint/rim, no one would take Scola/whoever rolled, perimeter players got trapped à la Calderon a lot (cheating off your man at the 3pt line without actually helping) leaving open shots and easy cuts...Really, their D looked a lot like ours under Triano. So yeah, getting carved up by a team of very skilled veterans makes sense when your D is that bad. Just to add, I also felt like their D was bad against Nigeria. I think this team will struggle to beat teams they can't outscore.

[stretch]

Valanciunas is just 20 and his inexperience is showing. His being foul prone is a combination of being a little over exuberant, his having some difficulty holding his position, and the opposition going after him as they are all too aware of JV's tendencies.

[RandomGuy]

It's better to play against higher caliber players, than bunch of d-league caliber players (IMO).