Bismac Biyoooooomboooooo!
The man from the Congo is emerging right before everyone's eyes and is one of the great stories of the playoffs. Monster game sealing rebounding, highlight rejections, and the finger wag swagger that fit's in with the team's image. Everything I hear from Raptors fans is that he's gone since he going to be looking at a payday and the Raptors are capped out... but what if they weren't?
What if they had a 6'11 foot enigma on the roster taking up near max money who is known as much for his inconsistent play and stadoffish nature, as his all star potential. Of course I'm referring to Jonas Valanciunas. Valanciunas has long been one of the harder players to get a read on in the league. Something of a throwback center, he does his damage mostly off an effective upfake, solid if somewhat deliberate footwork, and the ability to finish strong at the rim. He can shoot from the midrange and has solid ability at the line. Valanciunas is on a fairly team friendly deal at 4 years $64 Million, and yet nothing I just described are the type of plays that get the Air Canada Center in hysterics. Is it possible that they'd let him go?]
I've had the feeling for a while now that Val isn't a favorite of his teammates, coaches, or the fanbase. Not the most chaismatic guy, his standoffish demeanor can often lead to people question his effort and desire...
“I told Jonas that if he will play as hard on defense as he does on offense, we will win this whole series,” DeMarre Carroll told reporters.
He's so big and at times so effective that it seems like when Valanciunas succeeds people read it like, "Oh, your finally playing like your capable of..." where as someone like Biyombo is the type of guy that people feed off of with his infectious energy.
So where do we come in? Well, IMO we have the assets to get a deal for the big man done. We have one of Canada's native sons in Kelly Olynyk, who is similar in skill set to Luis Scola but fits in better with their young core. We have an assortment of picks that could give Masai Ujiri something to work with in the trade market. We have young, intriguing talent like Terry Rozier, RJ Hunter, Jordan Mickey and James Young that could emerge if presented with an opportunity up north.
Would Jonas Valanciunas be a good fit here? Difficult to say but I think it's high time we acquired a big man who can offer a matchup problem when the game starts to tighten up.
P.S. I'm having trouble getting the numbers to work on the trade machine. Anyone know of way to make the deal happen?
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/sports/basketball/jonas-valanciunas-is-playing-up-to-his-star-potential-with-the-raptors.html?_r=0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n50vohPRGwc