Shams: Kings Trade Jonas Valunciunas to the Nuggets for Dario Saric; *UPDATE* - Trade is Now Official

[Coach Carter]

Not this year, though

Last year, followed up by final 4 this year is pretty good.

I know. And this year should be our turn but we lost to Monaco and finished 3rd.

Spanoulis revenge

[Sixers in 4]

https://leaguealertsofficial.com/nba/jonas-valanciunas-exit-nba-for-lucrative-european-deal/

He is officially committed to go to Greece and willing to give back his full salary.

So Nuggets got to dump Saric contract for free. They win the trade

[JDR720]

The Nuggets are cursed to never have a quality backup C.

[mademan]

How much does Denver have to spend now? And do they go for it with Horford or something? Or do they wait on the possibility of Beal?

[SpreeS]

By numerous you mean 3?. Only Childress and Delfino back in the day and Mirotic when he joined Barcelona made 5+.
Maybe Kirilenko also but i cant recall.

If you go back in time Dominique Wilkins had signed for Panathinaikos in 1995 for 3,5mil.
In today's money i guess that's a lot more.
He was granted a 4 store villa of his choosing, 2 cars and all taxes paid by the team.

Teams like CSKA Moscow, Panathinaikos, Fenerbahce, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Olympiacos can offer big contracts and offer amenities of that kind. There's also no salary cap in Europe.

According to the first inflation calculator that popped up on Google, that would be equal to $7.2 million net income in 2024.

Europe economy was way stronger compared to now. Also the biggest NBA contract was DRob with 7.3mln usd (bruto) in 95. So Dominique 3.5mln netto in europe was equal to NBA the biggest contract.

NBA growth is phenomenal, now Curry contract alone is bigger than combined 3 or 4 smallest Euroleague teams budgets.

[mkot]

https://leaguealertsofficial.com/nba/jonas-valanciunas-exit-nba-for-lucrative-european-deal/

He is officially committed to go to Greece and willing to give back his full salary.

So Nuggets got to dump Saric contract for free. They win the trade

And if they can use that money to get Al Horford that's even better. He is THE perfect fit

[magee]

With all the civil unrest going on in the US, I don't blame him for wanting to go back and be closer to home.

[grindtime22]

If Valanciunas leaves for Greece it sucks, but he has to walk away from $10 million guaranteed dollars to do so. This could be a tactic to get Denver to guarantee the third and final year of his current contract.

Regardless, even if the Nuggets are stuck with a dead cap hit on Valanciunas, nobody else was going to take Saric’s deal from them without draft-pick compensation. The Kings did them a favor.

Id rather have Sarics cap hit of 5 million for 1 season than Vals 10 million for 2 or 3 seasons.

I entirely disagree. Valanciunas has two years remaining on his existing contract at 10M per season, with only 2025-2026 guaranteed. He’s also a useful and competent NBA player making a reasonable salary. His contract would be easily movable, even if his 2026-2027 salary is guaranteed. Saric nay be cheaper, but he isn’t playable.

Not only that, the Nuggets are in the apron, so saving that five million this season isn’t going to give them money to sign a center in free agency.

Denver is trying to win a second championship with Jokic, saving five million with Saric runs counter to that goal and is the kind of stuff that got Calvin Booth fired.

I'm pretty sure they have successfully ducked the aprons for the moment.

[Jailblazers7]

With all the civil unrest going on in the US, I don't blame him for wanting to go back and be closer to home.

100%, especially if he’s got family flying in for visits during the season. I wouldn’t risk people I know getting caught up in ICE detention.

[Mrakar]

Nuggets shouldnt give him a cent, he needs to give it all back. He will anyway get it under the table since Panathenaikos owner is crazy MFer.
How this wasnt known before the trade?

[Ambrose]

Big loss for Denver. Right back to having zero competent bigs behind Jokic

[Tomazan]

Not this year, though

Last year, followed up by final 4 this year is pretty good.

I know. And this year should be our turn but we lost to Monaco and finished 3rd.

Fener was better this year.

[GSP]

Jonas is a loser if hes seriously considering this and not just using it as a negotiating tactic. By far best chance he has at a ring but i suppose some players just like posting empty calories double doubles on teams w/ no expectations. I see why Raptors traded his ass for Marc lol and won a title for it

[LAvision]

Moral of the story, spending a year in Sacramento makes you crave Souvlaki and Ouzo...

Trust me, that souvlaki hits hard.

[Tomazan]

Jonas is a loser if hes seriously considering this and not just using it as a negotiating tactic. By far best chance he has at a ring but i suppose some players just like posting empty calories double doubles on teams w/ no expectations. I see why Raptors traded his ass for Marc lol and won a title for it

What are you even talking about? You sound like a complete sore loser yourself.

If he moves back to Europe, he is much closer to home. Do you know that when he was traded to SAC, he lived alone in the US? They decided its better for wife and kids to move back to EU because multiple trades a year and changing locations affects his family, especially kids.

Now they will be either in the same place or 2.5 hour flight away from home. It's not everything about the money or the opportunity to play 10 minutes for Denver without any guarantee that you will not be traded in February.

[mosby]

Jonas is a loser if hes seriously considering this and not just using it as a negotiating tactic. By far best chance he has at a ring but i suppose some players just like posting empty calories double doubles on teams w/ no expectations. I see why Raptors traded his ass for Marc lol and won a title for it

What are you even talking about? You sound like a complete sore loser yourself.

If he moves back to Europe, he is much closer to home. Do you know that when he was traded to SAC, he lived alone in the US? They decided its better for wife and kids to move back to EU because multiple trades a year and changing locations affects his family, especially kids.

Now they will be either in the same place or 2.5 hour flight away from home. It's not everything about the money or the opportunity to play 10 minutes for Denver without any guarantee that you will not be traded in February.

That's correct , Denver could dump him to god knows where this winter. Even if not , probably next summer will have to sign a lower contract.

In Greece he has a 3 year guaranteed contract and is close to his family. And if you have money believe me Greece is much nicer than Denver

[slos]

Jonas has my respect. Obviously he didn’t love his transaction last year to a backup C and wants meaningful basketball ASAP. I hope more Euros follow their footsteps.

Vezenkov, Micic, Valanciunas set an example of players giving up 6, 8 and now 10 mil away of NBA money. Looks like NBA Europe is coming faster than we thought.

[BruttoNostra]

That's not how it works, it's either Saric won't get traded or Jonas will have to forfeit his guaranteed money if he decided to play back in overseas but the cap hit of his salary will always be there in Nuggets cap space regardless.

Thanks for clearing that up. I assumed correctly I was too stupid to know what the outcome would be.

That is not my understanding at all.

Typically, a salary cap is dollar for dollar. If a player agrees to forgo future earnings, it is taken off the cap. JV's entire salary will be deducted from the Nuggets cap if, following the trade, he consents to a zero buyout.

Edit: I googled it and it was confirmed by other sources the other poster doesn't know what he is talking about

This!
Saw it in the 12th page, but waited with a response hoping someone else will bring the correct answer.
Seems like a lot of confusion about it lately, it's already a second thread recently where a buyout (where a player might even give up some of the money) is confused with a waiver.
Anyway, if JV gives up the entire amount, it sucks for Nuggets, but it's better than having Saric' $5M on the books

[LuDux1]

Should be "Valanciunas Considering Not Playing Overseas"

[durden_tyler]

Not the worst Euro backup scrub since he’s playing like 5 minutes per game in the important (playoffs) games anyway.


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