Jonas Valanciunas has been the Toronto Raptors starting centre for all but six of the 440 games he has played in his seven-year career with the team. This season, he has been asked to come off the bench. When a player occupies the same role for this long, deviating from it takes a certain level of mental acuity. So far, Valanciunas is acclimating to his new role brilliantly.
It was Game 2 of the NBA season. Visiting Toronto was the Boston Celtics – the crowned-too-early team of the season. Valanciunas, in this particular matchup against Celtics centre Al Horford, was asked to come off the bench.