2023 FIBA World Cup: Jonas Val embracing role with Lithuania & wants to continue w/Pels

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MANILA, Philippines — Whether inside New Orleans’ Smoothie King Center or here at Mall of Asia Arena, when the lights are on and the lineups are announced, Jonas Valanciunas will ram his bruising shoulder into teammate after teammate. It’s simply his tradition.

The 6-foot-11 Lithuanian center has muscled a decade-long career matching that brute force with skilled footwork and a soft touch. When stigma once circulated among NBA scouts that Europeans cowered from physicality, Valanciunas always relished throwing around his size and strength, grinning like a schoolyard bully. Today’s game gnaws at him, gravitating giants beyond the 3-point line, no matter how valuable Valanciunas’ high release on his outside jumper becomes when fully weaponized.

“I don’t want to be stretching out. I want to be a down-low player,” Valanciunas told Yahoo Sports. Wearing his forest green practice uniform, he’s leaned up against a basket following Lithuania’s Tuesday morning drill work. A grizzly beard still frames his jawline. “My main game is going to be in the paint, always. Set screens, roll hard. Do damage inside on the low post. But when they’re plugging the paint, when they’re rotating, when they’re leaving you alone, being able to knock down a 3-point shot, this is what I’m still working on.”

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That challenge has presented little issue while captaining the Lithuanians to the second round of the FIBA World Cup. When he’s rested, Valanciunas has bent over the LED board positioned before each bench, a long, white towel draped over his head and around his neck, pounding the display while barking rotation calls at his team’s defense. On the floor, the absence of his country’s All-NBA big man, Sacramento Kings center Domantas Sabonis, has positioned Valanciunas in the middle of Lithuania’s four-out offense. Living in the lane, he’s posted two double-doubles — plus a pair of 3-pointers — during the national team’s 3-0 start after a convincing 91-71 victory over fellow NBA center Nikola Vucevic and Montenegro on Tuesday.

Both clubs will enter the second phase of this tournament in Group J, where they will meet Team USA and the winner of Wednesday’s matchup between New Zealand and Greece.

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This offseason offered another taste of the business of the sport, where Valanciunas’ name featured prominently in New Orleans’ trade conversations. “You can’t be safe all the time and sitting and know where you’re going to be the next day,” Valanciunas said. “You have to expect everything. There’s no hard feelings. Trades happen. It’s not like an unusual thing.”

The Pelicans inquired about switchable centers boasting greater mobility than Valanciunas’ plodding paint presence brings. New Orleans was most notably linked to Cleveland All-Star center Jarrett Allen and the Pistons’ bouncy big man Isaiah Stewart. Although no trade materialized, and Pelicans executive vice president David Griffin has since traveled to Manila to visit with Valanciunas and Team USA forward Brandon Ingram, New Orleans’ All-Star swingman.

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Valanciunas is well past the first trade of his career, which came as a shock. After six-plus years with Toronto, Valanciunas woke from a pregame nap in Atlanta, 45 minutes before the trade deadline, to a phone call revealing he was being dealt from the eventual 2019 champion Raptors. His move to New Orleans before the 2021-22 season was a welcomed change of scenery, an intriguing opportunity to pair with the sensational, when healthy, Zion Williamson.

“He has the skill set and the first step, which I feel bad for people who’s guarding him,” Valanciunas said. “It’s unbelievable things. When you’re just watching him play, you feel like, ‘Wow, what the f*** is going on?’ His power, his highlights, talk for himself.”

Those tantalizing glimpses of what Williamson is capable of and New Orleans’ brief stint atop the Western Conference last season have Valanciunas eager for the 2023-24 campaign with the Pelicans, and he wants to sign a new contract extension with the franchise. Thanks to a previous two-year extension tacked onto the final year of the previous term, he is eligible to sign a new deal. Although the pricey contracts of Williamson, Ingram and veteran guard C.J. McCollum, make another agreement near or above Valanciunas’ current $15 million salary a complicated calculus for Griffin’s front office.

“It was a great feeling being the No. 1 seed [in December]. That’s a big accomplishment,” Valanciunas said. “I want to come back to that. And I want to stay longer there. I like the New Orleans group. I’m ready to go and do it.”

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