Valanciunas prepared to spread his wings fully
Jonas Valanciunas is ready to turn the page, even if it isn’t easy. When he arrived in Toronto as a skinny 20-year-old prospect, Dwane Casey and DeMar DeRozan comprised much of the welcoming party. The duo helped him feel comfortable.
Now, Kyle Lowry is the only player from that team still in Toronto alongside Valanciunas, with DeRozan traded to San Antonio and Casey fired, despite winning NBA coach of the year, and now plying his trade for more money in Detroit.
So you could excuse Valanciunas if things felt a little strange this week as he reported for his seventh training camp with the Raptors, which began Tuesday in Burnaby, B.C.
“It’s a different team, it feels different but it’s a training camp. You know what you’re here for and what you need to do,” Valanciunas told Postmedia in a 1-on-1 on Monday.
“You play basketball. We have a great group of people.”
Though Casey and DeRozan got along famously with Valanciunas, the person, neither were the right fit for him in basketball terms.
Casey fretted over what Valanciunas couldn’t do (or get to) on the defensive end, while DeRozan’s shoot-first, ask questions later approach and lack of floor spacing ability prevented him from meshing with Valanciunas, whom he seldom looked for down low until his final couple of seasons in Toronto.
All of that explains why Valanciunas has mixed emotions about their departures.
“It hurts to lose DeMar, Case, but you’ve got to move on and we have other great guys, it’s not like we got some a--holes. They’re good players and good guys,” Valanciunas said.
“I’m excited, healthy, it’s going to be different. Nick Nurse is taking over (as head coach), so it’s going to be fun to see how we play offence. Actually we’re going to keep the same strategy, probably, but it’s going to be more fun. More freedom,” he said, revealing a lot in only a few words.
Nurse is a huge fan of Valanciunas — the two usually worked closely together after practices, developing the big man’s game. Valanciunas took major steps forward last season under Casey and his staff. Nurse believes there is more there to still be unlocked.
Valanciunas agrees, particularly pointing out how he wants to improve his passing.
He’s also excited to have Greg Monroe as a practice foil instead of an opponent.
“Yeah, we had some battles, playoffs were good,” Valanciunas said in his media session.
“He’s a tough guy. He never backs down, and I never back down and now we have a chance to play together on the same team. So it’s fun. We can beat somebody’s a--.”
NEW YEAR, NEW SERGE?
This was a different Serge Ibaka than we’ve seen in Toronto before.
Happy, confident, eloquent, Ibaka met the media and cracked jokes about his cooking show, admitted he has something to prove after a dismal playoffs and talked about playing closer to the basket, though having Valanciunas and Monroe on the team figures to complicate that plan.
After a 23-point, 12-rebound gem against Washington helped the Raptors get the monkey of all of those opening game losses off of their back, Ibaka had a few decent outings, but never again dominated. Worse still, he had some true duds and was even benched.
“I spent four months working hard … I tried to watch film from last year, playoffs, and I tried to see where I can get better,” Ibaka said.
“I’m very excited for this season because I’m coming with a fresh mind. I’m trying to let go of what happened last year and focus on this year.”
OG READY TO TAKE FLIGHT
OG Anunoby made it clear that he doesn’t care if he starts again or comes off the bench, as long as the team wins a lot of games.
In a brief chat with Postmedia, Anunoby also updated his health status. At this time last year, the rookie shocked everybody by suiting up for exhibition games. It had been expected that his recovery from knee surgery would keep him sidelined until November or December. He would go on to say throughout the season that his explosiveness wasn’t quite back yet, but at Summer League in Las Vegas he looked all the way back, or at least very close.
Anunoby said Monday that while “I can’t really tell, I guess we’ll see in the games,” he believes that he can do whatever dunks or aerial exploits he wants now.
“I feel better every day,” Anunoby said.
AROUND THE RIM
Valanciunas joked that while Kawhi Leonard is famously quiet, that’s not all that different than how DeRozan carried himself. “Kawhi, he don’t speak a lot, but same as DeMar, so …,” Valanciunas said, stifling a laugh. He was chuckling because DeRozan, who had a locker right beside him for years (DeRozan was in the middle of Valanciunas and Lowry, the team’s longtime core all in one place in the room), definitely wasn’t quiet around him. While it wasn’t quite the DeRozan-Lowry relationship, they often joked with each other and Valanciunas memorably held up placards commemorating DeRozan’s scoring binges to start last season … Ibaka was the victim of savage Leonard dunks several times when San Antonio and Oklahoma City battled, including two memorable playoff meetings (in the conference final and semifinals). “He’s a tough guy,” Ibaka said of Leonard. “He doesn’t look tall like me but he’s a big boy on both ends of the floor, offence and defence. After what happened last year, any player would like his team to get better. And having Kawhi and (Danny) Green I think is going to make us a lot better, and I’m very excited to have them on our team.”