Valanciunas studying up for return
Raptors big man up to limited practice after thumb surgery
TORONTO — Jonas Valanciunas is bored.
Like, really bored. So bored the Toronto Raptors centre said on Thursday he even missed speaking with the media.
At least when Valanciunas is speaking with reporters he is also suiting up for games. Since dislocating his left thumb in a mid-December game against the Golden State Warriors, an injury that had to be surgically repaired, Valanciunas hasn’t done either.
Hence the boredom.
“Working hard to maintain my conditioning, but it’s not the same as playing in games,” he said. “You want that competition, you want the matchups, you want that. Kicking ass … that’s what you miss the most.”
Valanciunas was averaging a career-high 12.8 points and
7.2 rebounds in 30 games this National Basketball Association season before he went down, adjusting well to sharing the five spot with Serge Ibaka. This, in spite of the fact Valanciunas was playing a career-low 18.8 minutes a night and getting used to the second unit after making just 10 starts. His per-36-minutes scoring — 24.5 points — was the highest of his career.
At the time of the injury, which occurred when the Warriors’ Draymond Green swatted at Valanciunas’s hands near the basket, the team said he would be in a cast for four weeks. On Wednesday, days shy of that mark, the team announced Valanciunas’s finger is now in a splint, which he will use for “approximately the next four weeks.” That put his return sometime around February’s all-star break, if all goes to plan.
Valanciunas’s hand was splint-free after practice Thursday, as it is in everyday life. It is in practice or “activities where there’s danger” that he has to wear the protective gear. The good thing about an upperbody injury, he said, is that he can maintain his running and conditioning, for the most part.
“He went through 60 to 70 per cent (of practice) today,” coach Nick Nurse said. “Any time we finished a drill that ended in rebounding, even a simulated block-out drill, we held him out. Any other time, he was in. There’s not a lot of contact going on this time of year, but you want to be careful. The last thing we want to do is have Jonas at
11:30 (a.m.) on a Thursday hurt himself on a five-on-oh drill or a five-on-one block-out drill.”
Like the player, Nurse is hopeful Valanciunas will get back into the game sooner than expected.
“It feels to me like it (will be), but that’s only because he’s around and in my ear every day asking questions: ‘Can I do this drill? Can I not do this drill?’ Or whatever ... so let’s all cross our fingers,” he said.
Valanciunas’s continued engagement doesn’t go unnoticed by his teammates, either. Norman Powell knows better than most the boredom that Valanciunas is dealing with, having felt that way himself three games into the 20 he missed earlier this season with a partially dislocated shoulder.
“He’s been really good, he’s been here every day working, getting his conditioning in,” Powell said. “You see him itching and hungry to get on the floor, even with his splint on, but he’s been putting the work in and I think he’s really ready to come back.”
Powell’s extended time off gave the guard a different perspective on his team.
It became clear to him during his rehabilitation that Toronto would need him to return as a defensive, energy guy, a sparkplug that brought a physicality and toughness on that end of the floor.
He believes Valanciunas is now studying the team in a similar manner, looking for things he can do better when he eventually makes his comeback.
“You’re able to become a student of the game and watch and see where you can help the team and see how you can incorporate yourself when you get back . ... For JV, being a dominant post presence and paint protector, I think that’s what he sees,” Powell said.
Valanciunas is also happy to share his thoughts on what his healthy teammates are doing on the court, particularly with his counterpart Ibaka.
“When you’re playing, you don’t see yourself,” he said.
“Sometimes you think you do a good job but you don’t, so talking between bigs, it’s helpful.”
For the next little while, at least, Valanciunas will have to make do with that outside perspective, trying to imagine himself playing in Toronto’s games rather than actually participating.
“There’s not much you can do right now but watch and learn, try to stay in tune and be ready to come back.”