The Toronto Raptors might be getting a big piece of their team back very soon. Jonas Valanciunas went down on November 20th in a game against the Los Angeles Lakers with a hand injury. The fracture caused JV to miss 15 games but the Raptors managed to stay afloat in the Eastern Conference with a 9-6 record in his absence.
They went big by committee with Bismack Biyombo and Lucas ‘Bebe’ Nogueira splitting time as the main big man for the Raptors but now it appears that Jonas will be coming back soon.
Following from the Toronto Raptors media relations team.
The #Raptors announced Jonas Valanciunas has been cleared to return to practice. He injured his left hand Nov. 20 at LAL. #rtz
— RaptorsMR (@RaptorsMR) December 21, 2015
How fast Jonas takes the basketball court for the Raptors is unclear but it shouldn’t happen soon. The good thing is that Toronto hasn’t struggled without him. They’ve done well for themselves and their team has also played faster with better defensive techniques. When Jonas is in the lineup, the offense has to slow down to wait for him to run down the court and set up in the post and defensively, he’s often too slow to defend anyone on the pick and roll. Not to mention Jonas is essentially playing with bricks for hands when he’s on the court. With Bebe or Biyombo, they can run freely, not having to set up a play for either of them and toss it up to any one of those lengthy big men to throw down a slam.
Valanciunas return would be welcomed by Toronto, especially after they agreed to a big contract extension to keep him in the ‘The Six’. Most likely, Bebe will see his minuted decreased but hopefully they will ease JV into the lineup instead of just ripping all of Nogueira’s minutes away from him.
