Memphis Grizzlies: What’s going on with Jonas Valanciunas?

The Memphis Grizzlies were one of the biggest surprises in the NBA. From being projected as the worst team in the league by some, they clawed their way to the NBA Playoffs, where they’re taking on the Utah Jazz.

While the series isn’t going very well for Memphis, just being in the playoffs will be considered a huge success for a team that was generally thought of as being in the middle of a rebuild.

And even though the younger players on the team are the subjects of the rebuild, there is one wildcard that the rest of the NBA didn’t see coming. That wildcard is Jonas Valanciunas.

JV has been so good in 2021, that for a large portion of the season, he was the star of the team. Say what you want about Ja Morant’s ability — Valanciunas was unstoppable for a stretch of basketball, setting all kinds of records for the Grizzlies.

Memphis Grizzlies C Jonas Valanciunas has disappeared in the NBA Playoffs

This is where things take a more negative turn, and as a huge fan of the Lithuanian center, it’s hard for me to complain about Jonas Valanciunas. That said, he has left me no choice.

JV was a centerpiece in this team’s success in 2021 — he might be the only reason that this team made the NBA Playoffs. That said, he has been a ghost in this series against the Utah Jazz, offensively and defensively.

We’ll start with defense since that’s not necessarily his bread and butter. On defense, Valanciunas has been getting outmuscled and beat in the paint by Rudy Gobert. It’s surprising, especially considering the fact that Gobert isn’t known for his offensive prowess — his talent is pretty concentrated on the defensive end.

This leads me to the next part of JV’s recent shortcomings.

While Rudy Gobert is the best defensive player in the league at the moment, Valanciunas was expected to play well. It was as difficult of a matchup as physically possible but there isn’t a tougher player to step up to the challenge than JV. But he never did.

Valanciunas has not yet reached 20 points, a total that he regularly reached often in 2021, in this series. We’re four games into the series and Valanciunas has done virtually nothing on either end of the court.

But I haven’t even mentioned the worst part.

The worst part of his play thus far is his rebounding — or lack thereof. Jonas Valanciunas was easily a top-3 rebounder in the league in 2021, something that has not shown up in this series at all.

While he has accumulated a double-double in three of four games thus far, he has been getting bullied in the paint. The Jazz have been destroying Memphis on the glass and it may be the reason why they hold a 3-1 lead at this point in time.

If Memphis wants to get back into this series, it starts with their big man.