Breaking: Jonas Valanciunas on his way to Toronto to sign long term deal with the Raptors

According to this Lithuanian website and comments made by Jonas Kazlauskas, head coach of Lithuanian's national team, Jonas Valanciunas is heading back to Toronto. (In more ways than one.)

Valanciunas has apparently been given clearance to leave his national team for a spell so he can return to Toronto, go through the usual battery of medical tests and sign a deal with the Raptors. Details of the contract are, as you can imagine, still very vague. As you can also imagine: it'll probably be a long term deal. Players don't tend to leave their national team obligations just to take a qualifying offer.

This is a big deal for the Raptors, as much of the team's future is still balanced on the 23-year-old big man's shoulders. Jonas averaged 12.0 points and 8.7 rebounds per game last year while shooting 57 percent from the field. (By my recollection, he also played in one of every three 4th quarters.) What this deal means for his playing time and usage remains to be seen.

We'll update this post when details become available.

What do you guys think?