heat_fan_ | Raptors

406 | a day ago

That’s a bummer wish him well

Wanted to see him in Toronto

Loud_Examination_138

57 | a day ago

I wanted him back for years…sad for sure

HakeemMcGrady | Rockets

14 | a day ago

One my fav 2k post players ever

IanicRR | TOR

9 | 21 hours ago

Wictory!

God speed Jonas.

gamer-at-heart-23 | Raptors

3 | 21 hours ago

1 final year in Toronto would’ve been nice..

PejicFilip | Raptors

2 | a day ago

Especially since we needed a center

fojemanas

377 | a day ago

JV is leaving the NBA as the all-time leader among Lithuanian players in games played, points, rebounds, and field goals made, a real local legend.

IanicRR | TOR

130 | 21 hours ago

Also, 2nd strongest player in the league for like a decade. Or looked at another way, strongest NBA player: non-Steven Adams division.

YaPhetsEz

2 | 15 hours ago

How close did he get to assists?

fojemanas

18 | 14 hours ago

Second in assists behind Domantas Sabonis, also second in blocks behind Zydrunas Ilgauskas

EditorEducational201 | Raptors

158 | a day ago

Fuck my life

Carlinjamesgk

220 | a day ago

He wanted to leave for euro league last year. There was never any chance he was coming to Toronto unfortunately

EditorEducational201 | Raptors

38 | a day ago

Yeah it seemed likely he’d leave the league. Just held on to cope and entertained it honestly lol

onionnurve | 76ers

44 | a day ago

Who needs a back up center when you have six 6’8 forwards

igotitnowokay | Raptors

18 | a day ago

7 now

tinybathroomfaucet | Supersonics

5 | a day ago

Maybe

SharpGuesser

6 | 20 hours ago

to be fair, all of those guys are significnatly better rim protectors than JV

TylerBlozak

1 | a day ago

That’s Eric Gordon’s music!

SSBM_DangGan | Spurs

2 | a day ago

Ingram might keep growing

PokePersona | TOR

1 | 16 hours ago

That’s good for the Clippers

alphalobster200 | Nuggets

143 | a day ago

Damn, I was hoping he was going to sign with the Toronto Memberberries.

Bon Voyage Jonas. great guy, too immobile for the modern NBA.

BurnerAccountforAss | 76ers

136 | a day ago

Calling him “too immobile” when he’s literally moving to a new continent SMH my head

BoxSea4289

9 | a day ago

Calling him too immobile after your franchise holds him hostage for a year*

TH3PhilipJFry | Nuggets

1 | 6 hours ago

lol because he didn’t willingly sign the multi year contract in the first place, he was definitely forced by the nuggets when he was playing for the kings. Makes a lot of sense.

Interesting_Prune513 | Heat

25 | a day ago

Ciro Immobile mentioned?

LebrontosaurausRex | Hawks

2 | 14 hours ago

He’s still in a top league somewhere right?

Interesting_Prune513 | Heat

3 | 11 hours ago

If you count Ligue 1 as a top league then yeah, he’s in newly rich Paris FC

tamazingg | Bulls

16 | a day ago

He’s too immobile cause y’all made him put on all that muscle early in his career. He came in as an athletic (not elite athletically, but not all that far off for his size) 7 footer with pretty decent touch in the post.

Made sense at the time since he came into the league basically right before the modern pace and space took over. I’m curious how his career would have turned out if your training staff foresaw that and let him stay lean enough to not lose the mobility that he had

jjkiller26 | Raptors

4 | a day ago

He could’ve kept playing as a backup somewhere just wanted to return to europe

PresentationFamous96

16 | a day ago

Not only to return to EU. In Lithuanian podcast he stated that he wants to play basketball & be an important piece. Rather than an role player

Freya_Kirkebrenner

1 | 9 hours ago

There must be a language barrier here, because key role players are important pieces. Did you mean he wants to be one of the stars of the team?

PresentationFamous96

3 | 8 hours ago

Essentially yes, main piece

xfreesx | Clippers

0 | 21 hours ago

Ofcourse hes gonna say that, nobody will say i wanna move back to Europe to chill and maybe play a bit. Hes going to be a non-factor, unless Zalgiris is truly dry of talent

YSLAnunoby | Raptors

3 | 16 hours ago

He’s Lithuanian, it would make sense if he said he wanted to go back home to play

Freya_Kirkebrenner

1 | a day ago

Heat need a center now that we sold Ware… all we have left at the 5 is 6’9” Bam and an unplayable Russian G-Leaguer…

tcos17 | Magic

1 | 21 hours ago

Put some respect on Vlad’s name

Freya_Kirkebrenner

1 | 10 hours ago

Respect is earned, homie. I’ll give it to him when he can manage to look like an NBA player at all. Right now when they throw him out there in garbage time, he seems like one of those guys who got into hoops because they told him being tall is good enough to start and he’ll learn the rest later, but “later” hasn’t happened yet.

tcos17 | Magic

1 | 5 hours ago

lol it’s fine, I’m joking. I went to FAU, so he’s a legend in Boca.

binary_spaniard | Spain

1 | 10 hours ago

Giannis time to move to point-Center.

dontgetitwisted_fr | Raptors

2 | a day ago

Member Itty bitty ballers?

I member

InternationalTea3417

92 | a day ago

He had a solid career. A starting center for just over a decade, he accomplished more than many players never will.

driatic | Wizards

2 | 5 hours ago

And he’s going home. Can’t really blame him.

RobbobertoBuii | Knicks

60 | a day ago

as expected tbh. he was already trying to leave last year before the Nuggets held him hostage.

Massive-Compote1584

42 | a day ago

I mean, he was under a contract he agreed to for good money. Hardly a hostage lol

Dimaaaa | Spurs

6 | 12 hours ago

Can I be the hostage now?

Greedy-Pilot-4538

5 | a day ago

Yea it was a whole thing last season. Wish him the best

TH3PhilipJFry | Nuggets

2 | 6 hours ago

Plz let me be a hostage for $30 million dollars next

Nausicaataos | Grizzlies

49 | a day ago

Get ready to learn Lithuanian buddy

the_spinetingler | Celtics

-2 | 21 hours ago

um…

Nausicaataos | Grizzlies

23 | 21 hours ago

(It’s a joke don’t worry)

the_spinetingler | Celtics

7 | 18 hours ago

whoooshed me!

Spike_der_Spiegel | Raptors

26 | 21 hours ago

One of my favourite players of all time. Some highlights from his BBall Ref page:

19th all time career true shooting
8th all time in total rebounding percent (1st for career playoffs)
5th all time in playoff offensive rebounding percent (30th in regular season)
Also led the NBA in fouls/36 minutes in his most recent season.

It was pretty common for Raptors fans a decade ago to observe that if JV had come into the league two decades earlier he would have been an All Star. I’m not sure that’s true (not a good defender and too turnover prone), but looking at how his game grew as he aged (a five year stretch shooting 35% from 3) I wonder if maybe he came into the league two decades too early.

richmond33 | Celtics

3 | 5 hours ago

Good career. He left a mark in the league. I started watching Toronto for Demar and Kyle,slowly became a JV fan and followed him after.

I think his peak was in Memphis. Him and Ja were a good pairing. He averaged 18 and 11 on 0.636 TS% his last season there.

I remember Zach Lowe in his column was like: ‘One of the little joys of this season is Jonas Valanciunas mashing people in the post’

driatic | Wizards

1 | 5 hours ago

He was very good at that. People calling him slow footed forget his archetype was what teams looked for. Shot blocker, rebounder and enforcer.

fatlips1 | Raptors

1 | 4 hours ago

I think he definitely came to the league too early. He was a crazy rim Runner when he had first joined the league. At that time though the center archetype was still big heavy body in the paint, so they made him gain a shit load of weight and he lost is agility and athleticism.

Had he come later he could have gained weight more modestly while still retaining his mobility and speed.

Sumo_Cerebro

18 | a day ago

I hope that pension is bussing.

He earned it.

Pelicans-de-la-NO

14 | a day ago

Pels legend

Nice_Fish6500

11 | a day ago

man JV has been a steady double-double guy for so long. gonna be weird not seeing him out there. Zalgiris is getting a legend back home though, respect

smalls_1804 | Knicks

1 | 5 hours ago

He’s gonna fucking dominate

Awanderingleaf

9 | a day ago

My friends boyfriend proposed to her at one of their games in Kaunas ;D

BirdPurgatory | Lakers

9 | a day ago

Looney and cash considerations, take it or leave it Zalgiris.

Interesting_Prune513 | Heat

9 | a day ago

He agreed to a deal like two-three weeks ago, was only waiting to get cut by the Nuggets. He got his wish, and quickly signed today.

Frosty-Roof3124

6 | a day ago

Nuggets are back to not having a back up center again

onionnurve | 76ers

14 | a day ago

So is half of the league. Meanwhile the thunder got 15 of em

Bring_Party_Supplies | Raptors

1 | 21 hours ago

It’s like OL in the NFL…NBA’s market correcting Centres

Askesl | Nuggets

5 | a day ago

We signed Marvin Bagley a few weeks ago

Frosty-Roof3124

2 | a day ago

I think of him more as a 4

YSLAnunoby | Raptors

1 | 16 hours ago

He’s arguably been better as a backup 5

Based_Ment | 76ers

5 | 17 hours ago

I was in a bar in Lithuania watching a basketball game last summer and the guys there were huge fans of Valanciunas and has met and hung out with him a bunch of times. True national treasure to those dudes, at least.

kolology | Timberwolves

2 | 5 hours ago

JV pretty much always says yes to our national team. And in summer, he gets around the country a lot. He’s training in local gyms in Vilnius, he hangs around the local resorts, and always makes time for the fans. I had a chance to meet him several times like that and he’s just a cool guy.

I think we understand rationally that Domantas Sabonis is our best player, but JV is the most loved and there’s not much competition.

HenrikCrown | Pelicans

6 | a day ago

Well hopefully FanDuel broadcasts a few of their games and I can see what he does over there

sanjit8103 | Nuggets

4 | a day ago

Best of luck Jonas

Requiem_for_you | Kings

4 | 21 hours ago

Category Total All-time rank

Games played 1,002 151st

Points 12,846 243rd

Rebounds 9,052 58th

Blocks 905 126th

While not entirely spectacular throughout career but nice longevity JV had

rambunctious_horsie | Raptors

4 | 16 hours ago

Our fans wanted Kemba instead of Jonas, nobody knew who he was when we picked him, people were booing him, smh. It’s amazing to see him outlast Kemba. I remember he was so happy to be picked by us, he wanted to be here. I really didn’t want to see him go to Memphis, but we got a championship piece out of that trade.

End of an era, gonna miss him.

Historical_Chain6851 | Raptors

3 | 21 hours ago

Death, taxes, and JV’S THREES!

KrayzieBone187

3 | 18 hours ago

Loved JV since we stashed him before drafting. Dude always gave it his all and seemed like a great teammate.

MoooonRiverrrr

2 | a day ago

Deserves the best wherever he goes

Crispy_Comment9312 | Nuggets

2 | a day ago

Big Val 💜

Reborncheese48 | Timberwolves

2 | a day ago

Getting to end his career back home is pretty cool

theyoloGod | Tampa Bay Raptors

2 | a day ago

Happy for him

ToberG | Lakers

2 | a day ago

Welcome home, Jonas!

LegateDamar13

2 | a day ago

Good luck big Val! Great guy!!

thenewbae | Knicks

2 | 21 hours ago

Look how happy he is in the picture to finally be playing Europe and be close to home lol

SharpGuesser

2 | 20 hours ago

thanks for all you’ve shown us

martianwomanhunter | Raptors

2 | 20 hours ago

Good for him, from the streets of Wasaga beach to pre gaming with some of the best in Lithuania.

But in all seriousness it’ll be huge for basketball there to grow the sport

ConcLaveTime | Nuggets

2 | 15 hours ago

Fuck Pana! Glad he landed back in Lithuania

Ok_Investigator_7769

2 | 15 hours ago

It is crazy that I remember reading his NBAdraft.net page, thinking where he would land in the draft. Now he is gone from the League

IMovedYourCheese | Warriors

2 | 15 hours ago

Damn, he definitely still had a place in the league. Good for him to leave on his own terms though.

BOOZE-CRUISE-CAPTAIN

1 | 18 hours ago

I really feel like Teams under-estimate just having a strong motherfucker who knows how to play Basketball is on your team.

He’s surely got a vet mindset also.

Quick google says 3mil per year for Euro, but he’s surely worth like 7-10 in the NBA at least.

fojemanas

5 | 14 hours ago

European salaries are net and in EUR, while NBA salaries are gross and in USD, making the 3M EUR and 10M USD salaries practically the same

Miser2100

1 | 18 hours ago

The guy this sub a year ago thought would get Jokic his second ring.

TheRealTofuey | Spurs

1 | 14 hours ago

Bulls legend

Raving24

1 | 14 hours ago

That Greek team from last year probably in shambles, I remember them flooding Denvers IG in Greek for some reason.

Dimaaaa | Spurs

1 | 12 hours ago

I’ll miss his presence in the NBA. Players that were drafted in the early 2010s are slowly but surely fading away.

binary_spaniard | Spain

1 | 10 hours ago

JV is a free Lithuanian!

incredibleamadeuscho | Lakers

1 | 10 hours ago

Got one last shot on a would be contender (Gordon and Watson were injured), and now can go make money in Europe. Not bad.

djkhan23

1 | 5 hours ago

Feels like yesterday when Toronto drafted him and he stayed in Lithuania for a year.

ContinuingAnyway

1 | 3 hours ago

Lithuanian legend

DingleberryOrchard | Thunder

0 | 17 hours ago

Held hostage in Denver and now allowed to return to his home planet.

SamURLJackson | Magic

0 | 16 hours ago

Good for him. One of the least enjoyable players to watch that I’ve ever seen, personally

BealKage | Timberwolves

-1 | 8 hours ago

c ya bum

Rook2Rook

-4 | a day ago

Nuggets held him hostage just to lose in the first round smh

Frosty-Roof3124

7 | a day ago

“holding him hostage” 😭 by holding him to his contract like every single other NBA player.

They didn’t even sign him to that contract. They traded for it

EatUrVitaminBROTHER | Timberwolves

-13 | a day ago

Wow so he would rather flee the country than play for the Nuggets again. Didn’t they say they would reshape the roster around Jokic this offseason?

[Urbonas] Jonas Valanciunas leaves the NBA after 14 seasons, officially signing a two-year deal with EuroLeague side Zalgiris Kaunas of Lithuania.