Jonas Valanciunas - KING

The Kings now have a legit post up option off the bench. It was noticeable that Christie put Jones in the post the other night, and he did pretty well.

The defense is what it is, Jonas has the 4th highest freq% on post ups and is in the 78th percentile. This was the dynamic the Kings didn't truly have until now. Even Domas is only in the 49th percentile. In fact, only 3 players on the entire team qualified as post up players and DeMar was the best in the 64th percentile. Yeah, the Kings should have just gotten their bench offense HUB.
You're making the move to all-in on offense anyway. God speed Keegan and Keon. But if you finish the year 3rd in offense and 18th in Def? That's good enough to make some noise in the playoffs
 

Capt. Factorial

ceterum censeo delendum esse Argentum
Staff member
Zach Harper at The Athletic is confused why we did this. (Link)

On the surface, I’m not certain this trade makes sense for a team that already employs Domantas Sabonis and Alex Len as its big men.
Goes on to suggest several options, including that we were playing keep-Jonas-away-from-the-Lakers. Even so, gives the trade a B. But the "I haven't watched a Kings game since 2004" vibe is pretty strong here.
 
I was a little concerned about the lack of a ball handler off the bench, now with JV as a guy you can throw the ball to in the post and also in the mid post and as a screener that roster spot could go to a wing more comfortably instead of a PG.
This might be really good for Devin. He relied heavily on Oduro's mid and high post abilities at Providence and played off of that.
 
You're making the move to all-in on offense anyway. God speed Keegan and Keon. But if you finish the year 3rd in offense and 18th in Def? That's good enough to make some noise in the playoffs
And the truth is, if you can score without a maddening pace you can mitigate some of your defensive issues. Shaq was a master of that. Most of those Laker ring winners were *** on defense but they controlled the entire games flow.
 

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
Zach Harper at The Athletic is confused why we did this. (Link)



Goes on to suggest several options, including that we were playing keep-Jonas-away-from-the-Lakers. Even so, gives the trade a B. But the "I haven't watched a Kings game since 2004" vibe is pretty strong here.
Keeping him away from every other team in the West is just as valid as wanting to play him (which surely we do) given how he has shown up against us when we play.
 
This gives us opportunity to only play Lyle’s at pf and let Keegan get some sf min as well as lavine sliding up to sf and Keon getting plenty of min. 3 main guys off the bench the rest DNP’s. I like
Those are great points. And we can go huge and defensive if we want and play JV at the 5, Domas 4, Keegan 3, Lavine, Ellis. And you don't give up much offensive spark.

These two acquisitions provide a lot of lineup flexibility and relieve us from forcing us to play guys out of position to cover holes.
 
Keeping him away from every other team in the West is just as valid as wanting to play him (which surely we do) given how he has shown up against us when we play.
Where there is smoke there is fire. The Kings were interested this summer too. Then the DeMar stuff hit. lol. If Monte orchestrated a Fox trade that included the one piece left of the side guys in the young French connection to get the upper hand, he's a genius. We'll know when Wemby takes his talents to DC in a few years, haha.
 
Keeping him away from every other team in the West is just as valid as wanting to play him (which surely we do) given how he has shown up against us when we play.
We got him for almost nothing. I have no idea how you don't give this trade an A+. Fills a massive need with probably the best option available and we give up next to nothing.

Clearest A+ trade we've had in a while.
 

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
We got him for almost nothing. I have no idea how you don't give this trade an A+. Fills a massive need with probably the best option available and we give up next to nothing.

Clearest A+ trade we've had in a while.
No way if Phoenix or LA had got him it wouldn't have been graded an A+. I'm sure of that.

They'd probably even cite the last game the Kings played vs. Washington. lol
 
Who would you be pursuing in the trade market?[/
Who would you be pursuing in the trade market?
I would love to see someone who can defend but I get we needed scoring off the bench and less Domas minutes. We may have to score 150 to win a game.

Jonas is 32 and about to turn 33. Do I want to give up 2 seconds and a young wing prospect for a 2 year rental on an old defensively challenged big?
 
I would love to see someone who can defend but I get we needed scoring off the bench and less Domas minutes. We may have to score 150 to win a game.

Jonas is 32 and about to turn 33. Do I want to give up 2 seconds and a young wing prospect for a 2 year rental on an old defensively challenged big?
That's not an answer friend. Ham does this all the time too. You don't like Jval, fine. Who's the right answer?
 
Just looking through stuff, this might have actually made the Kings literally the most diverse offensive team in the NBA. This is a FAR cry from a few years ago. I don't think there is anything they can't do at a great to elite level offensively on paper. They needed another iso threat next to Fox, Fox is gone but they still have two of the best in the NBA at the end of it. They have shooting, post up play, passing, pick and roll play. Domas is a 3 point shooter now. Crazy stuff.
 
That's not an answer friend. Ham does this all the time too. You don't like Jval, fine. Who's the right answer?
I don’t have one though possibly Robert Williams on the buy-out market. Probably would not have released Nemi in all honesty.

for the record while I don’t think this trade is a slam A+ I see some value in it. But Val is only lasting a couple years so we need to see production and a bit of defense early.
 

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
I would love to see someone who can defend but I get we needed scoring off the bench and less Domas minutes. We may have to score 150 to win a game.

Jonas is 32 and about to turn 33. Do I want to give up 2 seconds and a young wing prospect for a 2 year rental on an old defensively challenged big?
Are we really going to pretend that a guy who can't get playing time with the Spurs was going to be part of our future?
 
Those are great points. And we can go huge and defensive if we want and play JV at the 5, Domas 4, Keegan 3, Lavine, Ellis. And you don't give up much offensive spark.

These two acquisitions provide a lot of lineup flexibility and relieve us from forcing us to play guys out of position to cover holes.
Given some of the lineups DC tried out against the T-Wolves, it seems likely he might try a so-called monster lineup for a bit against the oversized squads.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
I can’t stand people like that. I’m sure he’ll make some snarky comment about “why didn’t they do this when Fox was there” as if it would have mattered. I sour on Fox every time he opens his mouth these days.
We didn’t do it when Fox was here because we honestly didn't have the draft capital