“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” That’s what my grandma said to me one time, and I thought it was really profound and I was like “damn, Gram-Gram’s got some wisdom in that wrinkly head”. But it turns out she didn’t even make up the saying. I guess it was too much to hope for that she would come up with something that good all by herself.
Anyway, that quote is relevant right now. It’s probably relevant all the time, but for sure it’s relevant now. Because Jonas Valanciunas isn’t even on the Raptors any more, he’s in a whole other country on a whole other team, but he’s getting marginalized like he never left Toronto and Dwane Casey.
It seemed like, judging from his 20-ish games with the Grizzlies last year, that he was finally going to get a fully-featured starting center role. He was a beast during that stretch, averaging 20 and 10 in only 28 minutes per game. Yeah, the Grizzlies weren’t winning any games because of him, but that was by design. Have you never heard of tanking?
I don’t even see who else on the roster right now could be taking his minutes, but he’s back down to playing as much as he was with the Raptors, and his scoring on a per minute basis is way down. Apparently the Grizzlies want to play fast, which is not really how Valanciunas excels. Uh, excuse me. When you have a star Euro center, you tailor your gameplan around him. You don’t tailor your gameplan around some nebulous idea of “pace” and your young players who would rather run than stand around waiting for Valanciunas to get done with his post-up.
Every time Valanciunas had a good game in Toronto, I’d be dissing Casey and telling him to play Valanciunas more. I didn’t think I’d have to do it anymore. But I do. What the heck? I don’t even know who the Grizzlies coach is right now, so I can’t call him out by name. But let it be known: the guy who is holding back the player who can put up 30 and 16 like it’s nothing is a total idiot. And that’s all I have to say about that.