THURSDAY, 9:52am: The GM of Turkey’s Fenerbahce Ulker met with Nedovic’s camp, Pick tweets, casting another European team in the race for the ex-Warrior who’ll come off waivers today unless an NBA team submits a claim.
WEDNESDAY, 11:51am: Spain’s Laboral Kuxta is also among the interested teams, though Valencia is the front-runner, writes Aris Barkas of Eurohoops.net.
10:07am: Efes is heavily pursuing Nedovic, a source tells David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link).
9:51am: Nemanja Nedovic has struck a deal with Valencia of Spain contingent on him clearing NBA waivers after the Warriors released him Tuesday, a source tells Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia. Marc Stein of ESPN.com confirms that a deal with Valencia is in place (Twitter link), but Nikos Varlas of Eurohoops.net cautions that Anadolu Efes of Turkey would have the edge for the 23-year-old point guard if the team made a push to sign him.
The Misko Raznatovic client asked the Warriors to waive him so that he could seek more playing time with a team in Europe, Stein tweets, and Nedovic’s camp has been letting NBA teams know that he intends to play overseas for the near future, as the ESPN scribe also notes. Raznatovic told Ivan Bogunović of Mondo.rs in Nedovic’s native Serbia that Nedovic is headed to a Euroleague team, though he didn’t specify whether it would be Valencia, Efes, or another club (translation via Carchia). Nedovic told Novosti.rs, another Serbian outlet, that he still harbors NBA dreams but that he’s heading to Europe because his priority is to go where he can find playing time (translation via Carchia). Nedovic didn’t appear in any regular season games with the Warriors this season.
Valencia appeared to have interest in Nedovic prior to his release from the Warriors, who signaled that the 23-year-old wasn’t in their long-term plans when they declined his rookie scale team option for 2015/16 before last month’s deadline to pick it up. Golden State will nonetheless be on the hook for his 2014/15 guaranteed salary, worth more than $1.1MM, as long as he clears waivers. Set-off rights could allow the Warriors to reduce that amount, depending on how much Nedovic makes in Europe this year.