Denver Nuggets Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Nikola Jokic Headlines Serbia’s Preliminary EuroBasket Roster

July 28th, 2025 at 8:32am CST by Luke Adams

As expected, Nuggets center Nikola Jokic is among the 17 players listed on Serbia’s preliminary roster for this year’s EuroBasket tournament, the Basketball Federation of Serbia announced in a press release (hat tip to BasketNews.com).

Jokic is one of a handful of NBA players on the Serbian roster, along with Clippers guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, Thunder guard Nikola Topic, Heat forward Nikola Jovic, and Wizards center Tristan Vukcevic.

There are also several other players in the group who have previous NBA experience, such as Vasilije Micic, Marko Guduric, Filip Petrusev, and Alen Smailagic.

The Serbian national team is convening on Monday to begin training for EuroBasket and will play a series of exhibition games in August leading up to the event, which tips off on August 27.

The Serbians will face Estonia, Portugal, Latvia, the Czech Republic, and Turkey in the EuroBasket’s group phase. The field is made up of four groups of six teams apiece, with 16 of the 24 total clubs advancing to the knockout round of the tournament.

It will be the second straight summer in which Jokic has represented Serbia in an international competition — he led the team to a bronze medal finish at the Olympics in Paris in 2024. However, the Serbians were eliminated in the round of 16 by Italy in the most recent EuroBasket tournament in 2022, despite 32 point and 13 rebounds from Jokic in that game.

Nikola Jokic’s Agent Suggests LeBron James To Denver In 2026

July 27th, 2025 at 8:59am CST by Arthur Hill

A boat trip is sparking speculation that two of the NBA’s biggest names could eventually team up with the Nuggets, according to BasketNews.

In an Instagram post on Saturday, Misko Raznatovic, the longtime agent for Nikola Jokic, shared photos of himself with LeBron James and Maverick Carter, James’ business partner, in St. Tropez. Raznatovic added the caption, “The summer of 2025 is the perfect time to make big plans for the fall of 2026! @kingjames @mavcarter.”

Speculation has been building that James could be on the move — whether it’s during the upcoming season or next summer — ever since he picked up his $52.6MM player option. That decision was accompanied by a statement from his agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, who said the 40-year-old star still wants to compete for championships and would be monitoring the Lakers‘ offseason moves.

The Cavaliers, Mavericks, Warriors and Knicks are among the teams that have been mentioned as future homes for James, but the Nuggets also make sense from a competitive standpoint. James is coming off a second team All-NBA season, and partnering him with Jokic could significantly bolster Denver’s title chances.

The Nuggets couldn’t afford to give James another $50MM contract with Jokic ($59MM) and Jamal Murray ($50.1MM) already on their books for 2026/27 and beyond. Aaron Gordon ($32MM) and Cameron Johnson ($23MM) will also limit the Nuggets’ financial flexibility, but James might be willing to accept a smaller salary to join a team that would give him a chance to win a fifth ring.

There seems to be a growing sense around the league that this will be James’ final season with the Lakers as the team focuses on building around Luka Doncic and prioritizes cap space for the summer of 2027. James has been an All-NBA selection in each of his seven seasons since coming to L.A. in 2019 and delivered a title in 2020.

And-Ones: Jefferson, ESPN, Vancouver, Expansion, 2024 Moves

July 22nd, 2025 at 11:38am CST by Luke Adams

Richard Jefferson has reached an agreement to return to ESPN (and ABC) for next season and is expected to remain on the network’s top broadcast team with Mike Breen, reports Andrew Marchand of The Athletic. However, Doris Burke‘s spot alongside Jefferson and Breen on that team remains up in the air, Marchand adds.

Jefferson reportedly drew interest from Amazon Prime Video before agreeing to remain with ESPN.

If ESPN does decide to replace Burke, Tim Legler is the leading candidate to replace her on the network’s top broadcasting team, according to Marchand, though he says that a two-person booth is also a possibility.

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

The Raptors and Nuggets will play a preseason game in Vancouver, B.C. on October 6 as part of the league’s Canada Series, the NBA announced today in a press release. It will be a busy week or two for Vancouver in terms of NBA activity, with the Mavericks also said to be holding their training camp in the city. The Raptors announced today that their training camp will take place in Calgary, Alberta, so it won’t be a long flight to Vancouver for them.
While NBA owners may not be eager to expand the league beyond its current 30 teams immediately, there’s still a sense that it will happen sooner or later, according to John Hollinger of The Athletic. As Hollinger explains, the NBA’s European league project is a bigger priority at the moment and the league likely also wants to get its local TV situation worked out before expanding.
Kevin Pelton of ESPN revisits the biggest offseason moves from 2024 in order to reevaluate the grades he gave them a year ago. In some cases, that meant a major readjustment downward — the Pelicans originally got a B-plus grade for their Dejounte Murray trade, for example, and now get an F. However, other moves look much better than did a year ago, including the Trail Blazers‘ acquisition of Deni Avdija, which Pelton bumped from a C-plus to an A-minus.

Nuggets Sign Curtis Jones To Two-Way Deal

July 21st, 2025 at 3:12pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

July 21: The Nuggets have officially signed Jones to a two-way contract, per NBA.com’s transaction log.

July 20: Undrafted free agent former Iowa State guard Curtis Jones has agreed to a two-way deal with the Nuggets, his NEXT Sports agent Austin Walton tells Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).

As Charania notes, Jones’ Summer League performance for Denver’s Summer League squad clearly inspired the signing. The 6’4″ swingman notched averages of 14.6 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.6 blocks in just 20.2 minutes per game, with shooting averages of 54.9% from the floor and 46.7% on three-pointers.

Jones spent his first two NCAA seasons with Buffalo, which included a 2023 All-MAC honor, before transferring to Iowa State. Last year, he was named the Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year and to the All-Big 12 first team for his play. In 34 bouts, he averaged 17.4 PPG, 4.2 RPG, and 2.3 APG, with shooting splits of .430/.374/.845.

Reporting after last month’s draft indicated that Jones had agreed to sign with Denver, but no further details were provided at that time, so it was presumed to be a training camp agreement. His strong Summer League showing lined him up to join Tamar Bates and Spencer Jones as the Nuggets’ two-way players.

Jonas Valanciunas ‘Fully Committed’ To Honoring Nuggets Contract

July 21st, 2025 at 10:50am CST by Luke Adams

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.

Stein’s Latest: Simmons, CP3, Clippers, Nuggets, Simons, Mavs

July 21st, 2025 at 10:01am CST by Luke Adams

After his Stein Line teammate Jake Fischer reported that the Kings and Knicks look like the top candidates to land Ben Simmons, NBA insider Marc Stein suggests within his latest Substack article that at least a couple more clubs are in the mix for the former No. 1 overall pick.

According to Stein, Simmons has drawn interest from the Celtics since free agency began and has also had some recent conversations with the Suns.

While a couple of those teams could offer Simmons a portion of their mid-level exception, most of them have tax- or apron-related concerns that would make a minimum-salary offer more likely for the former 76er, who celebrated his 29th birthday on Sunday. Phoenix would cross the tax line with even a veteran-minimum signing, New York has used its full taxpayer mid-level exception, and Boston is currently operating slightly above the second tax apron.

Simmons is a three-time All-Star who has made a pair of All-Defensive first teams and was the Defensive Player of the Year runner-up in 2021, but he has battled back issues in recent years and has been a tricky fit in lineups that feature any other non-shooters. In 51 total appearances for the Nets and Clippers last season, he averaged 5.0 points, 5.6 assists, and 4.7 rebounds in 22.0 minutes per game.

Here’s more from Stein:

Following up on Lawrence Frank‘s comments on Saturday about the Clippers “strongly, strongly considering” Chris Paul, Stein suggests that most rival front offices view the veteran point guard as “the Clippers’ signee to lose.”
With Jared Dudley and J.J. Barea set to occupy the top two spots on David Adelman‘s bench in Denver, the Nuggets don’t intend to hire an assistant specifically for their third front-of-bench position. Instead, the plan is to rotate assistants in and out of that role depending on game-to-game scouting responsibilities, Stein explains. Ognjen Stojakovic, a holdover from Michael Malone‘s staff who is close with Nikola Jokic, is one coach expected to be in the rotation for that third assistant slot, Stein adds.
League sources confirm to Stein that the Celtics are continuing to explore the trade market for recently acquired guard Anfernee Simons.
The Mavericks will congregate in Canada this fall, according to Stein, who says the team’s training camp will be held in Vancouver, B.C.

Nuggets Notes: Adelman, Johnson, Braun, Murray, C. Jones

July 19th, 2025 at 8:20pm CST by Arthur Hill

David Adelman will enter his first full season as Nuggets head coach with the type of roster that former coach Michael Malone was hoping for, along with sudden pressure to win big, writes Sean Keeler of The Denver Post. Adelman didn’t face those kinds of expectations when he took over for Malone late in the season, but he guided the team to the second round of the playoffs and a seven-game series with eventual champion Oklahoma City.

The new management team bolstered the roster by trading for Cameron Johnson and Jonas Valanciunas and adding Bruce Brown and Tim Hardaway Jr. in free agency. Keeler states that it’s how the roster should have looked in 2023/24, when former general manager Calvin Booth decided to emphasize the development of young players over defending the NBA title.

“We think we’ve given ourselves a chance to give (Adelman) some tools, to have some resources to where we can be competitive,” said executive vice president of player personnel Jon Wallace. “Obviously, the season has to play itself out. But do we feel confident? Yes. But like I said, there’s a lot of basketball to be played. These guys have to gel. (Adelman’s) got to put his new philosophies in. So, time will tell.”

Johnson, who was acquired from Brooklyn in a trade involving Michael Porter Jr., expressed his excitement about being with a title contender again during an introductory news conference on Friday, Keeler adds.

“I want to win,” he said. “At the end of the day, I want to win. I want to win a championship. And obviously, we have the pieces to do it here. And that’s what I’m most excited about.”

There’s more on the Nuggets:

There are varied projections about what Christian Braun‘s extension might look like, but it’s reasonable to expect an average annual value of at least $30MM, Bennett Durando of The Denver Post states in a mailbag column. If he does reach that figure, Durando adds, the Nuggets will face a cap squeeze in 2026/27 with the starting lineup plus Zeke Nnaji combining for more than $200MM against a second apron currently projected at $222.4MM. Team salary could increase depending on how management handles Peyton Watson‘s potential extension, Valanciunas’ non-guaranteed contract and the options they hold on four rookie-scale contracts.
Nuggets fans should be encouraged by reports of Jamal Murray workouts during his time in Las Vegas, observes Troy Renck of The Denver Post. Murray, who struggled through a disappointing Olympics experience last offseason, has trained with Denver’s Summer League team and taken part in private workouts with some of the league’s best players.
A strong Summer League showing should help Curtis Jones land Denver’s final two-way spot, tweets Harrison Wind of DNVR Sports. The rookie guard out of Iowa State, who gets an A from Keeler in a full story examining his play in Las Vegas.

Nuggets’ Tenzer: ‘No Concerns’ About Valanciunas Reporting To Camp

July 18th, 2025 at 3:12pm CST by Luke Adams

Speaking to reporters at a press conference on Friday, Nuggets general manager Ben Tenzer said the team has “no concerns” about the possibility of newly added center Jonas Valanciunas not showing up for training camp this fall, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter video link).

“We’ve had great conversations with him,” Tenzer said. “There’s been nothing but healthy conversations in terms of him honoring his contract and him excited to be a Nugget.”

Two days after the Nuggets reached a trade agreement with the Kings early in free agency to acquire Valanciunas in exchange for Dario Saric, the Lithuanian big man’s future became a hot topic of discussion, as word broke that he was close to accepting a three-year contract offer from the Greek team Panathinaikos.

There’s some precedent for a European-born player giving up his entire guaranteed NBA salary in order to secure his release and get FIBA clearance to play for a non-NBA team — Sasha Vezenkov did it just last year. However, the Nuggets were never motivated to let Valanciunas out of his contract, even if he were willing to forfeit his full $10.4MM salary, since they’ve long had their eye on him and view him as an ideal backup for star center Nikola Jokic.

As rumors about Panathianikos continued to swirl, reports indicated that the Nuggets had told Valanciunas’ camp they expected him to honor his contract, and the trade was officially completed this past Sunday. Since then, head coach David Adelman has spoken about how he envisions using Valanciunas, and now Tenzer has publicly confirmed that there are no plans for a buyout.

For his part, Valanciunas hasn’t publicly said he intends to report to the Nuggets and play out the 2025/26 season in the NBA, so it’s possible he could still look to press the issue. But for the time being, all signs are pointing to him being in Denver this fall.

Valanciunas’ contract features a non-guaranteed $10MM salary for 2026/27 in addition to his $10.4MM guaranteed salary for the coming season.

Cap Notes: Bulls, Nuggets, Harden, Minott, MLEs

July 18th, 2025 at 11:22am CST by Luke Adams

When the Bulls traded Lonzo Ball for Isaac Okoro earlier this month, they had to use a portion of their existing Zach LaVine traded player exception worth $17MM+ to absorb Okoro’s $11MM salary, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac. Chicago couldn’t simply use Ball’s $10MM outgoing salary for matching purposes due to an injury protection clause in his contract, Smith notes.

The $10MM owed to Ball for the 2025/26 season would be fully guaranteed if he were waived today, but his contract includes an Exhibit 3 (“prior injury exclusion”) clause which would let the team off the hook for the full amount if he suffers a specific injury — presumably, a major one related to his surgically repaired knee.

It sounds as if the NBA required the Bulls to treat Ball’s salary as non-guaranteed due to that Exhibit 3 clause, which means it wouldn’t count for $10MM for outgoing purposes, as we explain in our glossary entry on the trade rules for non-guaranteed salary. That meant another exception had to be used to take on Okoro’s incoming $11MM.

The move will still hard-cap the Bulls at the first tax apron for the 2025/26 league year — instead of using the expanded traded player exception (taking back more than 100% of Ball’s salary), they used a trade exception generated during the previous season. Either move creates a hard cap at the first apron.

Here are a few more cap-related housekeeping notes worth passing along:

The Nuggets used a portion of the traded player exception generated in their Michael Porter Jr./Cameron Johnson swap to acquire Jonas Valanciunas‘ $10.4MM salary from Sacramento, creating a new TPE worth Dario Saric‘s outgoing $5.4MM salary in the process, ESPN’s Bobby Marks reports for Sports Business Classroom. Denver could’ve used Saric’s outgoing salary to legally match Valanciunas’ incoming amount without touching the Porter TPE, but doing so would’ve created a first-apron hard cap. Because the Porter TPE was created after the regular season ended, using it doesn’t result in a hard cap for Denver.
The 2025/26 salaries for Clippers guard James Harden and Celtics guard Josh Minott are now fully guaranteed. Neither Harden nor Minott received a fully guaranteed first-year salary at the time they signed earlier this month, but that was just a technicality so that the Clippers and Celtics could avoid guaranteeing their second-year options for 2026/27. Harden’s $39.2MM salary for ’25/26 became guaranteed after July 11, while Minott’s $2.4MM salary was guaranteed after July 15.
Once Damian Lillard officially signs with Portland, there will be just four NBA teams who still have their entire $14.1MM non-taxpayer mid-level exception available and remain far enough below the first tax apron that they could use the entire thing. Those teams are the Wizards, Hornets, Bulls, and Warriors. However, Chicago and Golden State still have to resolve restricted free agency for Josh Giddey and Jonathan Kuminga, respectively, so there’s no guarantee they’ll remain on that list. That will make Washington and Charlotte two teams to watch closely for the rest of the offseason and perhaps into the season, since that MLE flexibility makes them candidates to take on unwanted salary in trades.

Nuggets Notes: Valanciunas, Adelman, Rotation, Holmes, Wallace

July 17th, 2025 at 5:21pm CST by Rory Maher

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.”