I beg to differ. He's ok, but TOR had to wait a while for him to start playing for the team. I think his stint in the NBA will be short lived. "Solid"? What is "solid"? Hall of Fame? Above average? Long and successful career? Perhaps?
He's a good, starting-caliber center surviving in a league where most of his compatriots are dying a slow death of positional irrelevance. That's "solid" Of course it doesn't mean "hall of fame" Why would it? It also means he was a reasonable selection relative to draft rankings/expectations. He was easily and widely considered a top 4-8 selection in most mocks from 2011 that I've seen. The Raptors didn't reach. They didn't gamble. They didn't go full Araujo or get lulled into picking Bargnani at #1 in one of the worst draft classes of the last couple decades. They used their pick to take a guy who fit what they wanted and was evaluated by scouts to be appropriate to the spot where the Raptors were picking. Obvious hindsight says they would've been better off taking Thompson or Leonard or even Nik Vucevic, but none of them were considered top 5 pick potential at the time. Maybe they would'v been better off skill-wise with Kemba Walker, but with what the Raptors roster had at the time, an undersized ball-dominating scoring guard wasn't necessarily the best fit (and unlike the NHL or MLB drafts, fit is
absolutely a factor when drafting NBA players.)
And his stint will be short? He's already played 7 seasons. That's more than a lot of players last. And it's not like he's in danger of washing out. He's still a reliable near double-double most of the time.
Finally Toronto didn't wait "a while". They drafted him in 2011 and he played in Lithuania for 11-12 before coming to the NBA in 12-13, and he spent that season prior to joining the NBA dominating the Euro leagues, racking up an MVP and numerous awards and plaudits, usefully developing before he came over instead of being thrust into the NBA starting lineup too soon or rotting at the end of the bench. Suggesting that hte fact that the Raptors had to wait
a whole year to get him and that's a bad thing is asinine. The Spurs waited 3 years for Manu Ginobili. Denver waited a year for Nikola Jokic. It's not unheard of for good non-North-American players to develop for a year or two outside the NBA or wait out their Euro League contracts before they join the NBA. And even if it wasn't, it still wouldn't make it a bad pick if the player does eventually show up in the NBA and play well (which Valanciunas has)
