While the Nuggets have made it clear they expect Jonas Valanciunas to honor his contract, which will pay him $10.4MM next season, they also recognize they will need to make a concerted effort to help the Lithuanian center feel “comfortable and content” with the idea of spending (at least) the next year with the team, according to Bennett Durando of The Denver Post.
Valanciunas was reportedly interested in signing a three-year deal with Greek club Panathinaikos this summer but he still has one guaranteed year left on his NBA contract. Denver went through with its trade for Valanciunas and intends to have him on the roster this fall, though it remains to be seen how the 33-year-old feels about that idea, since his public comments haven’t revealed much to this point, Durando notes.
Head coach David Adelman said during a Summer League broadcast that he viewed Valanciunas as a “point center” of sorts. In an interview with Durando, he clarified what he meant.
“He’s a bona fide, big-time center over the last decade who you can put in a bunch of different spots all over the floor,” Adelman told The Post. “And when I say ‘point center,’ I mean someone you can play through in the half-court. I don’t envision him getting a rebound and pushing the ball up. I do think some of the things we already do (work with him): playing five-out with back-side dribble hand-offs, playing off the elbows, posting him up against smaller lineups, his ability to make others better.
“It’s not the assist numbers that matter to me. It’s his ability to start ball movement through the impact of who he is. So he’s an enormous get. I’m super excited about getting him here, getting him acclimated.”
Here’s more on the Nuggets:
- From his comments, it seems clear that Adelman envisions Valanciunas having a significant role off the bench. But Adelman told Durando that free agent additions Bruce Brown and Tim Hardaway Jr. will have to earn whatever minutes they receive next season. “Those guys have to compete for spots. That’s new guys included. They all know that,” the coach said. “We’re very excited about some of the things those guys have done through their careers. We expect them to come to compete like they’ve done, and there’s a reason they’ve all played in rotations across the league. But this is going to be an open competition. I hope our young guys understand that. … And all those guys will complement Jonas. It’s gonna be the guys who earn these spots that get to play with him.”
- Second-year big man DaRon Holmes is back in action at Summer League a year after suffering a torn Achilles tendon, which sidelined him for his entire rookie season. Holmes recognizes it’s going to take him some time to adjust to playing five-on-five again, Durando writes in another story for The Denver Post. “I always see people that are like, ‘Hey, this guy didn’t play well! This guy didn’t!’ It’s Summer League,” Holmes said. “Not even just for me; for all the other athletes out here playing. A lot of the rooks. They’re getting used to it. So it just takes some time. It’s like when you’re first playing when you’re a freshman going into college. That’s how it feels.”
- Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette details how Nuggets executive vice president of player personnel Jon Wallace made a habit of proving people wrong during his time at Georgetown. Wallace’s former college coach thinks he’s well suited for his new job. “Jon Wallace is a hoop head, who, oh, by the way, is also extremely intelligent, who, oh, by the way, is a connector and understands the dynamics of putting a unit together,” John Thompson III told Benedetto. “He’ll be able to take the owner’s vision and be able to execute that. I think he will do many aspects of the job at a very high level.”
I’ll be watching Denver more than usual to see how they perform under that coach.
He did not impress me, honestly. The whole “Jokic took over coaching duties” thing was a massive worry and not a cool little detail, as far as I’m concerned. Some of the stuff they were doing, like zonal defences they tried to implement, looked outright comical and amateurish, even though that zone kind of worked against OKC to an extent (because it allowed Denver players to just stand still and take breathers). There were other details.
And yes, Denver took OKC to seven games, but after watching both LAC and OKC series, my feeling was that Denver were rather shaky.
Now, he deserves a summer camp and a preseason. And should be judged on what happens in 25-26. But some of the signs were not promising.
I think your analysis is pretty harsh on someone who took a sinking ship and forced OKC to a game 7. Moreover, Denver was riddled with injuries and they had relatively no bench.
The whole “Jokic took over as coach” thing goes to show how easily people are baited into believing rubbish these days. One shot of him holding a clipboard and suddenly there’s a whole narrative around it.
:)
Jokic is not a coach, of course, and him doing that doesn’t mean much. He won’t be showing up with a whistle to their training sessions.
But what it showed is that in the moment he felt a vacuum left by no positive input from the coach, and it’s not a good sign.
@Peter
Considering that OKC was a huge favorite once the Celtics went out, IMO it was the Thunder that “were rather shaky”, getting pushed to 7 games in TWO series vs teams with injuries.
Denver did not play well in that series. OKC rebounded better, forced turnovers, had more possessions, made Denver take harder shots late in the clock.
Denver won 3 games despite OKC having more field goals attempts in 6 out of 7 games, including the game where Denver had 85 FGAs to OKC’s 104, and OKC somehow still lost. Mostly by shooting horribly.
And Denver didn’t play that great against LAC either. Things went their way in the closing minutes of the games; plus Westbrook shot the 3 better than any LAC player :)
Nobody can quantify what effect injuries had on every team, including OKC, which had some as well. All of us would like to see fully healthy teams, but that’s not possible.
I had the same feeling about Adelman. But now Denver will have to live with him for a while.
Nuggets are legit again.