After having avoided directly addressing his contract situation in recent weeks, Nuggets center Jonas Valanciunas offered clarity on his plans for the 2025/26 season in remarks to Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com on Monday.
“I want to clear the air about my playing situation next season now that Denver has made their decision to keep me,” Valanciunas said. “The idea of playing for Panathinaikos, closer to home, was very exciting to me, but that will have to wait. I am fully committed to honoring my contract with the Nuggets this season and will give it my all to compete for a championship.”
The Nuggets reached a trade agreement with the Kings on July 1 to acquire Valanciunas in exchange for Dario Saric, solidifying their backup center spot behind Nikola Jokic by landing a player they had reportedly coveted in recent years.
However, the Lithuanian big man’s future became a hot topic of discussion a couple days later when word broke that he was close to accepting a three-year contract offer from the Greek team Panathinaikos.
While it initially appeared that a buyout might be in the works for Valanciunas, the Nuggets made it clear they wanted him to play in Denver in 2025/26. They officially pulled the trigger on the trade on July 13, with general manager Ben Tenzer telling reporters this past Friday that the Nuggets had had “great conversations” with the center and his camp and that Valanciunas had expressed excitement about the upcoming season.
In order to play for Panathinaikos or any other non-NBA club, Valanciunas would have to secure his release from his current contract and then get a letter of clearance from FIBA. With the Nuggets unwilling to buy him out, his only option to force the issue would have been to hold out and not report to his new team. His comments today indicate he won’t be taking that route.
Valanciunas’ contract will pay him $10.4MM in 2025/26 and includes a non-guaranteed $10MM salary for the ’26/27 season. He’s expected to play a significant role as part of a revamped second unit in Denver that will also include recently added free agents Bruce Brown and Tim Hardaway Jr.
Good for him, good for Denver, good for Jokic. The Nets are idiots, as are the Kings.
THJ and Brown will contribute, but after years of having the worst depth in the league especially at the 5, the Nugs have the absolute perfect guy to run the second unit. WCF
The Nuggets will certainly have a better chance than last season. I’d like to see them sign Brogdon as well.
I agree with you that Brogdon is an exceptional fit for Denver and would be the cherry on top of an extremely successful offseason.
Jokic’s brothers bullied him into this
Glad to see Val committed to the Nuggets. The front court will be very formidable with those two behemoths anchoring the paint. Nuggets have made a lot of improvement on the margins and should be a much better and deeper team. Excited to see Joker have a nice supporting cast around him again. The addition of Cam should lighten the load of Murray and make the Nuggets less reliant on him putting up all-nba performances in the playoffs for them to have a shot.
Send him to Greece ….
A chance at a chip…
Tied for 5th best record in the league (were in the top four or so most of the season), took the champs to 7 games, have the best player in the world. Not the favorites, but yes…they have a “chance at a chip”.
Very good to see that an NBA player understands what a contract is, even if many pseudo fans do not.
DEN needs to get a veteran PG (a healthy Brogdon would be perfect) to complete their very good off-season. With that, they could actually have one of the better benches in the league. Still, to recapture their championshp form, they’ll need to readopt the defensive mindset that Malone had them in a few years ago. The personnel will never be great on that end, but it was and is good enough.