Pelicans: Will the Jonas Valanciunas trade make a difference?
New Orleans Pelicans: What Jonas Valanciunas brings to the table
Jonas Valanciunas is one of the most underrated centers in the league. When you hear people talking about the best centers, you probably wouldn’t hear him mentioned. He is without a doubt one of the top 10 centers in today’s league.
Jonas averaged 17.1 PPG and 12.5 RPG last season. He was pretty much the Grizzlies’ second option on offense, behind Ja Morant. That’s saying a lot considering this Grizzlies team made it to the playoffs and had a real chance at taking down the number 1 seed Jazz.
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He brings a variety of skills to the table such as – high energy, hustler/hard worker, can create plays out of the post, PnR expert, floor spacer, he’s a beast on the boards, and he can knock down free throws like a guard.
But I’m only going to go into depth about some of his most important attributes.
Spreading the floor
Jonas Valanciunas isn’t Steph Curry or anything, but he has had a few games where he’s knocked down multiple 3 pointers. The good thing is that JV understands his role as well as his range and he knows where his true abilities lie, so you won’t catch him taking ten 3 pointers a game or anything like that.
He took around one 3 pointer a game last season and made about 37% of them. He may be attempting more this year playing alongside Zion, but if he’s shooting at that rate then the Pelicans are in good shape.
To go along with that he also has a consistent midrange shot, can shoot free throws (78% on his career), and even has a nice post fadeaway. Three more things that Steven Adams did not have.
Being able to spread the floor helps the Pelicans immensely because it opens up the paint area and makes it loads easier to score inside. And when you have a player that leads the league in PPG in the paint this is a huge asset.