Jonas Valanciunas RUMORS & NEWS

Toronto Sun "After a very tough night battling the likes of Carlos Boozer and, to a lesser extent, Nazr Mohammed, Jonas Valanciunas’ night ended on a stretcher. But it wasn’t the pounding he took from the Bulls big men that took him out. Rather it was an innocent-looking moment at the end of the game as..." April 10

NBA.com "The Toronto Raptors' Jonas Valanciunas and the Portland Trail Blazers' Damian Lillard today were named the Kia NBA Eastern and Western Conference Rookies of the Month, respectively, for games played in March. Valanciunas ranked first among Eastern Conference rookies in rebounds (7.3 rpg),..." April 06

Toronto Sun "In the school of hard knocks, there is no mercy, no opponent will ever give an inch and every mistake or misstep is exposed. Jonas Valanciunas is no exception, a rookie who is getting minutes and at times getting overmatched by the speed of the NBA and its elite players. More than any player..." March 20

Toronto Sun "There haven’t been many nights when the Raptors looked this disjointed, so overmatched, unable to push back, prone to losing their cool. But along comes a night such as Wednesday and all sorts of flaws get exposed, beginning with internal leadership, followed by lack of discipline and it’s not..." March 14

Toronto Sun "Jonas Valanciunas is back among the starters and showing no signs of ever heading back to the bench. For the second game in a row, Valanciunas was a one-man generator with his non-stop energy. A 14-point, 13-rebound performance on Friday in an upset win over Indianapolis was his first..." February 12

Toronto Star "He sat in the front row of seats, just behind and off to the right of the Raptors bench like any other fan. He went basically unbothered as Toronto's win over the Houston Rockets unfolded at the Air Canada Centre on Sunday afternoon, a giant of a man crammed into a tiny arena seat just enjoying..." December 17

Toronto Star "All through the summer and into training camp and in the early portion of the NBA regular season, any mention of promising Raptors rookie Jonas Valanciunas came with one codicil: He will be good, team officials would say, with a chance to be very good but he is not now, and never will be, a..." December 07

Toronto Sun "Chalk another first up for Jonas Valanciunas. But this time it wasn't some bruising or crafty big man that he can strike from his bucket list. This time it was the thin air in Denver, a mile above sea level and something he has never in his 20 years experienced before. And yes, the..." December 05

Toronto Sun "Dwane Casey has a message for the rest of the NBA. Get yours while you can against Jonas Valanciunas. The opportunity isn't going to be there long. Three games into his NBA career, Valanciunas has a target on his back. Teams are looking up and down the Raptors roster, seeing a rookie..." November 06

Toronto Sun "Just as Jonas Valanciunas began talking to a small gathering of reporters following practice on Tuesday afternoon, Raptors forward Amir Johnson wandered over and stuck a towel in his teammate's face, the towel playing the part of a tape recorder. "What's it like playing with Amir Johnson?" Amir..." October 31

Toronto Star "It is a relative embarrassment of riches for the Raptors, two seven footers with disparate but complementary skills, a Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside, a rookie and a veteran, a couple of cornerstones upon whom so much of the future rides. They will likely line up beside each other Wednesday night..." October 31

Toronto Star "Kyle Lowry is about to be unleashed and he cannot wait. Having watched the first three Raptors pre-season games thanks to a balky groin, the point guard in his first year with the franchise is expected to play Wednesday night at home against Washington. That courtside seat has given him a good..." October 16

Raptors HQ "That was pretty fun. For a preseason game between two teams that are hardly playoff locks, last night's tilt between the Detroit Pistons and Toronto Raptors was one of the more enjoyable "fake" games I've seen in a while. For starters it was incredibly close, especially in the second-half,..." October 11

Toronto Star "Dwane Casey could feel the lump growing in his throat when he was a weekend NBA coaches retreat and got an email saying prized rookie Jonas Valanciunas had felt "something pop" in is left leg when the 7-footer took a routine jump shot in a routine workout Saturday. The Raptors coach knows all..." September 24

Toronto Sun "Apparently, Raptors' draft pick Jonas Valanciunas' 26 point performance in a 94-73 victory over the Czech Republic on Saturday was a Lithuanian national team record for points scored in a senior team debut. Valanciunas was MVP as Lithuania took the gold at the recent FIBA Under-19 world..." August 10

TSN.ca "So Jonas Valanciunas dominated the U19 FIBA Championships, winning gold and the MVP award with 23-14-3 averages and people are surprised? He similarly dominated the U18 tournament last year, won the MVP then, too, and looked just unchallenged as Lithuania waltzed to the gold medal after a week of..." July 13

Toronto Sun "Many Raptors fans were in hysterics when Jonas Valanciunas' name was called at the NBA Draft last Thursday because they had never seen him play. A whole bunch of them got their first look at the big Lithuanian on Tuesday afternoon and it was hard not to be impressed, even if he wasn't exactly..." June 29

Toronto Star "Jonas Valanciunas speaks and somewhere, Dwane Casey smiles. The newest Raptor hit town Friday a day after being taken fifth overall in the NBA draft and when asked to explain his game, he spoke words that will make coach Casey sit up and take notice. "I like pick and roll, I like working on..." June 25

Toronto Sun "Raptors power forward Ed Davis and the Raptors' 2011 first-round pick, Jonas Valanciunas, have similar tasks ahead of them. Both are promising NBA players, Davis a little further along that path based on the season under his belt, but both require a bit of a body overhaul. Valanciunas will..." June 25

Toronto Star "The promise was too much to pass up, the skills too diverse to ignore, and if takes a year for the Raptors to find out exactly what they got in the NBA draft then they are more than willing to wait. In a bold move more for the future than any he's ever made, president and general manager Bryan..." June 24

Toronto Sun "Say this about Bryan Colangelo, no one will ever accuse him of lacking guts. On Thursday night at the NBA Draft, the Raptors' general manager eschewed local cries for the likes of Brandon Knight, Kemba Walker and Bismack Biyombo and instead elected to take young, Lithuanian big man Jonas..." June 24

Toronto Sun "Bryan Colangelo is willing to be patient. He is clearly not concerned with appearances or outside opinions. The man who seems to be continually defending himself for selecting Andrea Bargnani first overall even five years after the fact, put himself right back in the crosshairs of the Don..." June 24

Toronto Star "Dwane Casey said he was "shocked." And maybe that was a good way to characterize the state of being of a lot of the folks who follow the Raptors on Thursday night. In a week that had already seen Casey, the newly installed and defensive-minded head coach, tell of his plan to build a..." June 24