Talking to reporters at a press convention on Friday, Nuggets basic supervisor Ben Tenzer mentioned the staff has “no considerations” about the potential for newly added heart Jonas Valanciunas not exhibiting up for coaching camp this fall, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter video hyperlink).
“We’ve had nice conversations with him,” Tenzer mentioned. “There’s been nothing however wholesome conversations when it comes to him honoring his contract and him excited to be a Nugget.”
Two days after the Nuggets reached a commerce settlement with the Kings early in free company to accumulate Valanciunas in trade for Dario Saric, the Lithuanian massive man’s future turned a scorching matter of debate, as phrase broke that he was near accepting a three-year contract provide from the Greek staff Panathinaikos.
There’s some precedent for a European-born participant giving up his whole assured NBA wage to be able to safe his launch and get FIBA clearance to play for a non-NBA staff — Sasha Vezenkov did it simply final 12 months. Nonetheless, the Nuggets had been by no means motivated to let Valanciunas out of his contract, even when he had been prepared to forfeit his full $10.4MM wage, since they’ve lengthy had their eye on him and consider him as a perfect backup for star heart Nikola Jokic.
As rumors about Panathianikos continued to swirl, reviews indicated that the Nuggets had advised Valanciunas’ camp they anticipated him to honor his contract, and the commerce was formally accomplished this previous Sunday. Since then, head coach David Adelman has spoken about how he envisions utilizing Valanciunas, and now Tenzer has publicly confirmed that there are not any plans for a buyout.
For his half, Valanciunas hasn’t publicly confirmed that he intends to report back to the Nuggets and play out the 2025/26 season within the NBA, so it’s potential he may nonetheless look to press the difficulty. However in the meanwhile, all indicators are pointing to him being in Denver this fall.
Valanciunas’ contract contains a non-guaranteed $10MM wage for 2026/27 along with his $10.4MM assured wage for the approaching season.
