Raptors ink Jonas Valanciunas to $64 million extension

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, Valanciunas’ contract extension is four years, worth $64 million with a player option on the final year.

Valanciunas, who has spent time with former standout big man Jack Sikma this summer and said he now has extended range on his jump shot, will head back to Lithuania to practise with his national team before embarking on Olympic qualifying matches.

The 23-year-old was selected with the fifth overall pick in the 2011 Draft by the Raptors, and has become an integral part of the team in his three years at the club.

And with Valanciunas steadily approaching a double-double average, the Raptors figure that he is an important piece to their future success.

Well, it looks like the Toronto Raptors have chose to , and they’re getting a pretty tremendous bargain. Nevertheless, Valanciunas posted a career-best shooting percentage and had a PER over 20 last season.

His 12 points-per-game average was marginally better than the 2013-14 season (11.3 points per game). If the shackles get taken off (or even loosened ever so slightly), however, his early-round upside could finally be realized, and you could very well end up with one of the most dominant centers in fantasy basketball.

What’s interesting is that Valanciunas signed the deal knowing that there was going to be an enormous amount of TV money flooding the league in the next two years. Valanciunas’ new deal will begin in the 2016-17 season. However, the Raptors’ management thinks he is capable of overcoming his defensive inadequacies and their investment would pay off. The Raptors also signed free agent forwards DeMarre Carroll, Bismack Biyombo, Luis Scola and Canadian guard Cory Joseph. Jonas Valanciunas, though, appears to prefer the peace of mind that comes with locking up a salary well over eight figures as opposed to hitting the open market in July. Trends come and go, but right now, we have to participate in that trend.