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.