Valanciunas shelved by thumb surgery
Monroe next big man up as Toronto faces first true test of its depth and resolve
PORTLAND, ORE.— Life in the NBA is not fair.
Jonas Valanciunas, who sacrificed a starting spot with the Toronto Raptors and proceeded to give the team some of the most consistently good play of his career, will be lost for more than a month thanks to a thumb injury suffered Wednesday against the Golden State Warriors.
Valanciunas, swatted across both hands in an aggressive move by Golden State’s Draymond Green, suffered a dislocated left thumb that required surgery in Palo Alto, Calif. The team said he will wear a cast for four weeks and be examined again then.
It will be the first true test of the team’s depth and resolve, removing a proven veteran big man from the rotation in the middle of the regular season.
The Raptors have survived other absences: they are 7-1 in games Kawhi Leonard has sat out, and they have been without Norm Powell since the first week of November.
In this case, they will move backup big man Greg Monroe into a far more substantial role.
While the Raptors created a feel-good story by calling up Canadian centre Chris Boucher from the G League to fill the roster spot, the rail-thin backup can’t be expected to play any huge role.
That leaves Monroe, the 28-year-old veteran on a one-year deal, to assume a key position behind now presumptive starter Serge Ibaka.
“I wouldn’t say my mindset changes,” Monroe said after the Raptors trounced the Warriors in Oakland.
“My mindset stays the same. I work every day the same. I don’t want my teammate to get hurt. I just stay ready for my number to be called, and that’s what I focus on.”
Monroe has become a highlyrespected teammate in his short stint with the Raptors, willing to sit for extended stretches and be ready when he’s needed. He will be needed much more in the next little while than anyone expected.
“He’s like that fire extinguisher you need to break in case of emergency,” assistant coach Adrian Griffin said in a fill-in media role for head coach Nick Nurse after the Warriors game. “He steps right in there, he doesn’t miss a beat. We throw the ball into the post and we feel confident he can get us a basket. He just calms everyone down.”
Monroe isn’t a flashy player — “he’s so slow, he’s fast,” Griffin joked — but he’s not some life- long backup finally getting a chance to be a regular. The sixfoot-11 left-hander has played in 602 games in his nine NBA seasons, starting 415.
“I feel comfortable playing with the pace everybody’s playing with,” Monroe said. “It’s just about staying ready, continuing to work. That’s all I’ve been focusing on. Once I’m in between the lines, controlling what I can control ... that’s the only thing I focus on every time, every day.”
The recall of Boucher from the GLeague to fill the roster spot is the next chapter in one of the most wonderful Raptors stories of the season. The 25-year-old, raised in Montreal, didn’t even start playing basketball until his late teens but has blossomed in unexpected fashion.
After spending last season on a two-way deal with the Golden State affiliate in Santa Cruz, Boucher earned his spot with the Raptors through an intriguing Summer League and training camp run.
He is raw, no question, but he has also exploded offensively with the Raptors 905, including posting a 47-point game Wednesday, a franchise record and a G League best this season.
Boucher is averaging 29.3 points and 11 rebounds per game in the G League. It’s folly to think he’ll be given the opportunity to come close to having that kind of an impact on an NBA game but having him practise every day against Monroe and Ibaka and get a few minutes here and there in lopsided games will likely hasten his development.