{"id":788088,"date":"2026-07-09T00:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T00:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/788088\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T00:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T00:44:12","slug":"nuggets-waive-jonas-valanciunas-hoops-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/788088\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets Waive Jonas Valanciunas | Hoops Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nuggets have decided to let go of center Jonas Valanciunas<\/a>, league sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link<\/a>). Valanciunas\u2019 $10MM salary for 2026\/27, which was already partially guaranteed for $2MM, would have become fully guaranteed<\/a> if he hadn\u2019t been waived on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"\"Valanciunas was traded from Sacramento to Denver last offseason in exchange for Dario Saric<\/a> and became the Nuggets\u2019 primary backup center behind Nikola Jokic<\/a>. The 6\u201911\u201d Lithuanian made 65 appearances (six starts), averaging 8.7 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 13.4 minutes per contest while shooting 58.2% from the floor. However, he barely played in the first round of the playoffs vs. Minnesota, totaling just 25 minutes across four outings.<\/p>\n

Around the time Denver acquired him last year, Valanciunas reportedly sought<\/a> a move to the Greek club Panathinaikos, but the Nuggets were unwilling to negotiate a buyout since they envisioned him playing a role for them in 2025\/26. A year later, his $10MM salary was determined to be too onerous for a team operating in tax apron territory.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets will have until August 29 to decide whether they want to keep the big man\u2019s entire $2MM partial guarantee on the 2026\/27 books or spread his cap hit across the next three seasons using the stretch provision<\/a>. Taking the latter route would reduce his \u201926\/27 cap charge to about $667K.<\/p>\n

Assuming he clears waivers, Valanciunas will have the freedom that he didn\u2019t have during the 2025 offseason to pick his next team as a free agent.<\/p>\n

Shams Charania of ESPN reports (via Twitter<\/a>) that multiple NBA teams are expected to have interest in the former fifth overall pick. The Knicks<\/a> and Lakers<\/a> were identified as possible suitors in recent days, though that was before they reached<\/a> deals<\/a> with Andre Drummond<\/a> and Kevon Looney<\/a>, respectively, so it\u2019s unclear whether they still have Valanciunas on their radar.<\/p>\n

Even if Valanciunas does receive some NBA interest, a return to Europe looks like a real possibility. Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com<\/a> hears that the 34-year-old will strongly consider a two-year contract offer from the Lithuanian team Zalgiris Kaunas if he clears waivers. It\u2019s a relatively safe bet that Valanciunas will reach free agency, since any team that submits a claim would be responsible for guaranteeing his full $10MM salary for 2026\/27.<\/p>\n

As for the Nuggets, they\u2019re currently at about $203.4MM in guaranteed salaries for eight players officially under contract. That figure doesn\u2019t account for qualifying offers for restricted free agents Peyton Watson<\/a> and Spencer Jones<\/a>, new minimum-salary deals for Marvin Bagley III<\/a> and Tyus Jones<\/a>, and roughly $5.6MM in unlikely incentives for Cameron Johnson<\/a> and Aaron Gordon<\/a> that count toward the team\u2019s apron salary.<\/p>\n

In other words, even after waiving Valanciunas, the Nuggets will have their work cut out for them if they hope to remain below the $221.7MM second tax apron.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nuggets have decided to let go of center Jonas Valanciunas, league sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,3902,85],"class_list":["post-788088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-jonas-valanciunas","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}