I don’t care if he “impacts winning” or “defends” or whatever other apologetic (not the “sorry” kind of apologetic but the “theology” kind of apologetic) crud Raptors fans want to spew in my face, but Marc Gasol just isn’t impressing me as much as Jonas Valanciunas now that they’ve switched teams.
Their roles are different, sure, but here’s the facts: Gasol’s high point total with the Raptors is 19, and he has only two (barely) double-digit rebounding games with them. Compare that to Valanciunas, who has scored 20 nine seperate times, including a 33-burger (in a win against the Rockets), with almost as many double-digit rebounding games including a 24-rebound-burger. Statistically, it’s no contest. At all.
My theory is that the Raptors simply don’t know what to do with good Euro centers, because Gasol was good enough to get banished from my channel while he was with the Grizzlies. When was the last time they made a center better? Bismack Biyombo? I’m going with that, and that’s only because Masai Ujiri has that special African connection where he magically takes Africans and makes them good.