You’re The GM: Nikola Vucevic Or Jonas Valanciunas?
By Luke Duffy
In last week’s edition, Ty Lawson of the Denver Nuggets posted a somewhat surprising win over Mike Conley of the Memphis Grizzlies. This week, we turn our attentions to the big men. Although it seems centers aren’t in fashion in the NBA like they used to be, there is no denying their importance on a roster.
Most contending teams have a top center, be in Andrew Bogut in Golden State, Marc Gasol out in Memphis, DeAndre Jordan putting it down in L.A. or Joakim Noah giving his all for the Chicago Bulls. The point is, although this is a guard-dominated league these days, quality big men are still an important ingredient for a winning team.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at two up and comers in Nikola Vucevic of the Orlando Magic and Jonas Valanciunas of the Toronto Raptors.
Nov 11, 2014; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas (17) is stripped off the ball by Orlando Magic center Nikola Vucevic (9) at Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
Jonas Valanciunas
Although only in his third year in the league, it seems the Lithuanian has been around for a long time. He’s only 22 years of age though, and this season has started to come into his own a little more.
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Easily having his best season statistically in points (12 ppg), rebounds (9 rpg), free throw percentage (78%) and PER (19.9) it’s clear this is a player on the up. This wasn’t always the case however, and it’s not so long ago that he was getting it from all angles for being accused of being not able to make it in the NBA.
They weren’t wrong either, Valanciunas was underwhelming coming into the league and he has done well to stay the course and become an important part of this Toronto Raptors team.
As with many players who get the You’re The GM treatment, Valanciunas would appear to be in a good place in Toronto, and works well within the confines of the team. This means you might not always see or appreciate what he does on the court, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t doing it.
The likes of Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Lou Williams and even Amir Johnson get more fanfare, but it is Valanciunas who is working hard behind the scenes. Despite not being a first option offensively, the guy is still a top-10 scoring center in the league as well (Tenth in the league with 12 points a game) so he’s learning to get his as well.
Being in the league a year less than Vucevic kind of shows, and his numbers are smaller yet similar to Vucevic’s last season. He’s on a upward trajectory though, and that’s a good sign both for his personal development, and the Raptors franchise.
Nikola Vucevic
First off, it needs to be mentioned that Vucevic has been in the league a year longer, and these days is effectively carrying a team on some nights because of injury to the other key players on the Magic team. You would think then, that Vucevic’s numbers are much better than that of Valanciunas, but you wouldn’t be totally correct.
Yes, the Montenegrin is a double-double machine, and speaking from experience, a super pickup for your fantasy team. But he’s also a little more injury prone and he’s never played every game in a season.
While Vucevic plays 35.1 minutes a game to the 26.8 of Valanciunas, a huge difference, he doesn’t lead the way in all of the statistical categories he’d like to. Although his 18.2 points and 11.5 rebounds are more (That rebounding number has him fourth in the league in that category) than his fellow center, Vucevic doesn’t get it all his own way.
In fact, Valanciunas is the better free throw shooter (78% compared to 76.1%) and has a better field goal percentage (55.2% to 51.3%). This can be somewhat explained by the fact Vucevic plays a lot more and has the ball in his hands more often, but it is still worth noting that Valanciunas is taking his shots at a better rate.
Vucevic has by far the better handling, but his defending still isn’t where it should be for somebody who got paid last summer. Valanciunas meanwhile continues to improve on that end, acting as the better rim protector of the two.
Both aren’t great post defenders, but Valanciunas is good and steadily improving, so you could argue he’s more of a two way threat than Vucevic. Finally, although Vucevic’s PER (20.1) shades it, it’s not as far ahead of his opponents as it should be for a guy who has been his team’s best player on a lot of nights this season.
Verdict
It’s still Nik Vucevic for me, and in some ways it was unfair to pit the two together. The Magic center is clearly further along both in terms of experience in this league and personal development, and that is clear from the surface.
He’s one of the most exciting and talented young bigs in the league, and will be a large part of the reason Orlando eventually gets back to the playoffs. But if we’ve learned anything, it’s that this was a little closer than it perhaps should have been.
On one of the best teams in the East, Jonas Valanciunas has found his role and grown in confidence as a result. It can’t hurt having All-Star talent around you, but this guy is morphing into the two way big the team envisioned he would become when they took him with the fifth pick in the 2011 draft.
This will be one matchup to come back to in future. What do you think though? As usual, leave your answer below, and the player with the most votes wins.