TORONTO - Sitting in the home of assistant coach Bill Bayno one February evening, Jonas Valanciunas fretted over the slump that had befallen him. "Im not scoring," the young centre griped, as he and his most devoted mentor watched film, hoping to get to the bottom of the recent on-court funk that was beginning to wear on his confidence. JV, youre 21-years-old," Bayno responded. "Theres no centres in the league your age that are even playing much less averaging 10 points a game. Youve had great games [but] when you have a two-point game, going up against a really good, tough [centre], you cant get upset about it." His message, the teams message, has never wavered. "Youve got to do the other things to help us win." With that in mind Bayno put pen to paper, drawing up a list of attainable goals for Valanciunas, a cheat sheet consisting of basic fundamentals that can now be found taped to the right side of his locker. Outwork, outrun, sprint[Set] great, legal screensStep to [your] manBlock out And it goes on like that. "He got really down on himself when he went through that tough stretch," Bayno explained. "So we just really sat down and talked and [I] said, look, its no secret, JV, these are the things youve got to do." "Youre going to have some ups and downs," he told the second-year pro, "but Im going to write it in your locker, so every day before the game you see, this is what you have to do on a nightly basis." "Everything thats on that sheet is what we work on." Its a simplistic tool but one that the Raptors first-year assistant feels strongly about, one that has yielded proven results throughout his coaching career. Admired for his innovative player development techniques and his passion for molding young talent, Bayno first adopted this method of teaching on one of his regular trips to Africa, about a decade ago. There he met Michael Scholl. The two would become good friends and Bayno eventually hired Scholl as his assistant at Loyola Marymount University in 2008. Scholl - who spent eight years in Africa running an AIDS prevention campaign and implementing youth basketball leagues - introduced Bayno to an old Harvard study, something he used himself to motivate the children he taught there. The study correlated the success of students with writing down their goals and displaying them in their dorms. Bayno, like Scholl before him, applied that principle to basketball. "Having those goals, having them written out where they see them every day I think is huge and its been proven," said Bayno, who is also planning on employing that strategy with the Raptors other sophomore, Terrence Ross. "The vets dont need it. The vets will laugh at you if you try to do it. They really dont need it anyway. I could say to Chuck (Hayes), remember five games ago, you had that kick out situation, you missed a kick out. Hell say, yep, and hell know exactly the play. But the young kids need it." Bayno has spent more one-on-one time with Valanciunas than anyone on the staff this season. Whether hes sparring with JV in the post - wearing his trademark forearm pads to simulate in-game physicality - throwing out-of-reach passes to him in practice or hosting him at his house for an extra film session, Baynos fingerprints are all over the sophomores continued development. "He works with me a lot actually," Valanciunas said of Bayno. "Hes helped me a lot, especially on the post-up moves. Now I feel much more comfortable going against those guys, like big centres. What were working on every day is helping." Bayno, like head coach Dwane Casey and the rest of the Raptors staff, has worked to manage Valanciunas own expectations and lesson the external pressure that he faces as an emerging star in the league. Theyre not overly concerned with his scoring totals or the number of touches he gets in the post. He shouldnt be either. They know his value, at least this season, cant be measured using a box score. Instead they hope to lay down a foundation for the future. His role is to do the things he can control, to master the basic fundamentals of the game that will ensure his longevity in the league. The "little things" as Bayno calls them. "Were a good team because hes accepted his role and hes done all the little things," said Bayno, formally an assistant in Portland and with the Timberwolves. "I really believe hes going to be a good scorer in this league." "Im not expecting a lot of point production every night out of him," echoed Casey. "If he gives it to us, its great but I dont want to put that kind of pressure on him. Hes growing, hes a second-year guy. Im not going to expect him to get 23 points, 24 points every night. If he does, its gravy. If he runs the floor, rebounds, plays defence, for this team, this year, thats great. I promise you, his offence is going to come. We all want it to hurry up and get here yesterday but Im more concerned about him picking up the speed of the game, the rebounding, defending the low post, defending his position and reacting in the half-court game. His career is going to be long enough. Hes going to be a scorer in this league two or three years from now." A month ago at this time Valanciunas was pressing. The touches were not there every night, his scoring numbers dipped, as did his playing time. More often than not Casey would opt for a smaller, more experienced lineup late in games. Valanciunas was frustrated. Then the card went up in his locker. He sees it nearly each day, before and after every home game. Currently, hes playing some of the best basketball of his young career. Whether his improved play is related or a happy coincidence, he has been carrying out the very tasks Casey and company have been emphasizing. In Sundays win over Atlanta, Valanciunas recorded his team-leading 19th double-double of the season after totaling eight as a rookie a year ago. He played 33 minutes, attempting just four shots while matching a career-high with nine made free throws. His impact on the game was understated, yet significant. His point production has gone up but, as Casey points out, hes not necessarily seeing more touches. Instead hes working for them. Hes running the floor, hes rebounding, hes getting to the line and as a result hes playing more and closing out games. He understands how his bread is buttered, at least for the time being. "Im not a scoring machine," Valanciunas acknowledged. "Im a worker. My job is to get a rebound, to set a screen to make DeMar (DeRozan) open, or Kyle (Lowry) open, or [Ross] open, whoever is playing on the perimeter. My job is to box out [and] go for offensive rebounds. Thats my job." In less than four weeks, Valanciunas will make his first playoff appearance. Although hes peaking at the right time of season, the internal expectations havent changed. Outwork your man, set hard screens, box out, run the floor, do the little things. Hes heard them every day since arriving in training camp five months ago. Hes practiced them. Only now, handwritten in bright, unmistakable lettering, they stare him in the face. Adam Cimber Jersey . Next up, the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Cleveland Browns in the AFC North. Baltimore Ravens In 2014, the 8-8 season that the Baltimore Ravens experienced was to be expected. Duane Kuiper Jersey .com) - Carmelo Anthony scored 31 points with eight rebounds to lead the New York Knicks to a 92-80 win over the Los Angeles Lakers. https://www.cheapindiansonline.com/978u-...ey-indians.html. 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Cabrera was first on the disabled list from June 27-July 20 with tendinitis in his left knee.PHOENIX - Carson Palmer has signed a three-year contract extension with the Arizona Cardinals.The move announced Friday puts the 34-year-old quarterback, playing some of the best football of his long career, under contract with the team through 2017.Palmer, in his second season with Arizona, has thrown for 11 touchdowns with just two interceptions, helping the Cardinals to a 7-1 record, the best mark in the NFL and the franchises best record through eight games in 40 years. He is 5-0 in games he started this year going into Sundays home contest against St. Louis.Arizona acquired Palmer in a trade with Oakland prior to the 2013 season. In his 12th NFL season, Palmer is 15-6 as a starter since coming to the Cardinals. Arizona has won 12 of Palmers last 14 starts.He missed three games this season with a dead nerve in his throwing shoulder but returned to lead the team to four straight wins.Carson has played at an incredibly high level and has been a huge part of the teams success, general manager Steve Keim said in the news release announcing the signing. When you combined his on-field performance with the leadership, stability and professionalism he brings to the team, there was no question that we wanted to extend the relationship and are excited he felt the same way.The former Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 draft pick has thrived in coach Bruce Arians system, although it took him a half-season to get comfortable with its intricaciesNo quarterback has a better win percentage that Palmers over the past 14 games.dddddddddddd In that span, he has thrown for 3,914 yards, with 27 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, for a quarterback rating of 90.0.He is on a string of five consecutive games with multiple touchdown passes and has thrown for at least one score in a career-best 18 straight starts.The Cincinnati Bengals picked Palmer as the No. 1 overall selection in the 2003 draft out of USC.In his third season, he took the Bengals to the playoffs but went down with a severe knee injury on his first pass of the post-season game against Pittsburgh. In 2011, he sat out the first six games of the season in a dispute with ownership and was traded to Oakland.After the 2012 season, the Raiders decided to go younger at quarterback and Palmer came to Arizona at very little cost. The deal had Arizona swapping a sixth-round pick for Oaklands seventh-round pick. He signed a three-year contract with the Cardinals after the trade.In his first season in the desert, Palmer threw for a career-high 4,274 yards, becoming the first quarterback in league history to throw for at least 4,000 yards for three teams. He did it twice for Cincinnati and once for Oakland.In his 142 games as a starter, Palmer has completed 62.5 per cent of his passes for 35,124 yards with 224 touchdowns and 154 interceptions, for a quarterback rating of 86.4.Toiling with mostly losing teams through his career, he has appeared in only two playoff games.___Online:AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP_NFL ' ' '