[NashyMingParticipant]

http://www.fibaeurope.com/coid_U2t3,05fIi2DpE2aO3jSN0.container_frontpage.articleMode_on.html

Jonas Valanciunas seems like the real deal. I only watched a few highlights of him. He reminds me of Andris Biedrins. He seems to be a potential star in the NBA.

I think he can be better than Motiejunas. Any thoughts?

[ProphetParticipant]

Hey guys I’ve been reading nbadraft.net for quite some time now, but this it’s only my first post here. Since I’m from Lithuania I had to watch all the games on TV – it was pretty big thing in our country, because everyone expected gold medals. And yes we did – second gold medal for these guys ( they also won euro U – 16 beating oponents by 30-40 points – even in the final where they beat someone like 77-33 i think….) So to get on topic – Valanciunas was clearly the best player on our team and probably the best one in the tournament. He has some decent post moves, can pass when being doubled or tripled team and he DOMINATED the boards grabbing almost every rebound. His scoring could have been higher, but since we had good all – around team, the guards didin’t feed him the ball that much. He’s still very young – turned 18 this spring. He plays in one of the two top basketball teams in Lithuania – Vilniaus “Lietuvos Rytas” and he will be their starting center and the owner clearly stated that they will do whatever it takes to develop this talent. So expect 28-32 minutes in Euroleague. But he’s still far away from perfect – he needs muscles and weight to be successfull in pro basketball, needs more post moves and thought he showed some kind of mid – range game playing for his team, he didin’t attempt any mid range shots in the U-18 tournament. Also I expect an article from draftexpress on euro U – 18 and Valanciunas should be mentioned there.
Now you mentioned Biedrins – Valanciunas probably will be as good as him when it comes to rebounds, defence, blocking shots etc, but he will surpass Biedrins on his offense game. The kid sometimes scores from impossible angles o.O.
Also when you look at him and Motiejunas – Motiejunas CAN’T defend. Now I hope that he will improve on his defence while playing in Italy before coming to NBA, because even guards in the NBA could knock him down in the paint if he stays the way he is now. I ( and quite frankly many other lIthuanians) think that Valanciunas could turn out to be better that Motiejunas.
On a side note I’m just happy that Lithuania’s national team is set at PF and C positions with those two. Now all we have to do is find a PG of their level….
p.s. Sorry for any mistakes I made – english is only my second language.

[rtbtParticipant]

Prophet, you did a fantastic job.

By the way, your English is better than many of the guys on this board who were born in America.

[uri1411Participant]

What is the comparison for valanciunas for your opinion?

[ProphetParticipant]

Well I’m not very good with comparing talented kids to NBA players because this is kind of new to me but I’ll try. Valanciunas says that his favourite player is D.Howard and he wants to be like him, but Dwight is one of a kind athlete and Valanciunas sadly isn’t. I heard that scouts now started comparing him with Pau Gasol – but Valanciunas still lacks the mid range jumper and while his foot work is improving it’s still not near Gasol’s level. IMHO he reminds of Brook Lopez, maybe Cold Aldrich ( from what I’ve read and heard – didin’t see him play..) but with better offensive game ( I mean the kid shot 70% from the field in U-18 champs, but thats because there weren’t anyone who could stop him. But when you look at his FG% in Baltic League – 81%!!! and he played against real pro basketball players. Also his FT % for a big man is also nice – around 75%) . Also Andrew Bogut comes to mind as a comparison.

[lalailaParticipant]

yeah Andrew Bogut is very nice comparison i think.

i like this kid..my country’s future looks bright

[Author]

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