{"id":11122,"date":"2025-07-15T07:51:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T07:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/11122\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T07:51:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T07:51:05","slug":"david-adelman-talks-jonas-valanciunas-nuggets-second-unit-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/11122\/","title":{"rendered":"David Adelman talks Jonas Valanciunas, Nuggets’ second unit competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2014 All four of the Nuggets\u2019 offseason transactions have been finalized by the league office after Sunday\u2019s announcement of a trade with Sacramento that turned out to be unexpectedly controversial<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jonas Valanciunas is officially a Nugget<\/a>, and Dario Saric is officially a King, despite a seemingly ill-fated attempt to intervene by the Greek club Panathinaikos. When the Nuggets agreed to the trade, league sources have said they were unaware that Valanciunas was mulling a three-year contract from the EuroLeague powerhouse, an offer that would require him to be released from his NBA contract with cooperation from Denver.<\/p>\n

One problem: Denver had already been celebrating the Valanciunas acquisition internally. The 33-year-old Lithuanian big man<\/a> is an ideal fit to anchor the second unit and shoulder a heavier load than Nikola Jokic\u2019s previous backup centers. The team has made it clear that Valanciunas is expected to honor his contract<\/a>, while also understanding that efforts must be made to help him feel comfortable and content with the idea of spending at least a year in Denver.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s owed $10.4 million for the upcoming 2025-26 season, and he has a non-guaranteed salary of $10 million for 2026-27, the last year of his NBA contract.<\/p>\n

In league circles, Valanciunas is widely respected for his professionalism. How he navigates this situation publicly will be telling, as uncertainty lingers regarding how he\u2019ll feel as the NBA season draws closer. During a series of otherwise cryptic comments in Lithuania last week, he said he was planning to travel to Denver<\/a> and meet with the team at some point. However, the timing of that trip is unclear because he also reported to his national team\u2019s training camp<\/a> this week ahead of the EuroBasket tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I am sure, I\u2019ll definitely let you know,\u201d he said on Monday about his future, according to BasketNews<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Considering Denver\u2019s stance, other major developments seem unlikely until Valanciunas himself is willing to speak more directly.<\/p>\n

And so it\u2019s business as usual from the Nuggets\u2019 perspective. They\u2019re operating under the expectation that Valanciunas will be on the court for them in October, when the season begins. He was just one piece of their sprawling offseason puzzle, a series of moves that added depth and flexibility to David Adelman\u2019s rotation, plus a handful of new assistant coaches.<\/p>\n

Adelman spoke briefly with The Denver Post on Sunday at the NBA\u2019s Las Vegas Summer League, offering insight on Valanciunas and the second unit.<\/p>\n

The Valanciunas \u2018point center\u2019 concept<\/p>\n

Adelman shared on an ESPN broadcast<\/a> last week that he envisions Valanciunas as a \u201cpoint center\u201d in Denver \u2014 an odd label at surface level considering his career average of 1.4 assists per game. The first-year Nuggets coach provided some clarification on what that means to him Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a bona fide, big-time center over the last decade who you can put in a bunch of different spots all over the floor,\u201d Adelman told The Post. \u201cAnd when I say \u2018point center,\u2019 I mean someone you can play through in the half-court. I don\u2019t 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 handoffs, playing off the elbows, posting him up against smaller lineups, his ability to make others better.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the assist numbers that matter to me. It\u2019s his ability to start ball movement through the impact of who he is. So he\u2019s an enormous get. I\u2019m super excited about getting him here, getting him acclimated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second unit \u2018open competition\u2019<\/p>\n

When asked if he\u2019s thought up any lineups to put around Valanciunas yet, Adelman said \u201cI think it\u2019s way too early,\u201d stressing that bench minutes are up for grabs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose guys have to compete for spots. That\u2019s new guys included. They all know that,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re very excited about some of the things those guys have done through their careers. We expect them to come to compete like they\u2019ve done, and there\u2019s a reason they\u2019ve all played in rotations across the league. But this is going to be an open competition. I hope our young guys understand that. \u2026 And all those guys will complement Jonas. It\u2019s gonna be the guys who earn these spots that get to play with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nuggets have signed Bruce Brown and Tim Hardaway Jr. to veteran minimum contracts to bolster a mostly young bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it just gets you through the season to have more depth. I think the young guys that end up getting on the court, you hope there\u2019s a combination of youth and the experience that we\u2019ve gained,\u201d Adelman said. \u201cBut again, all that\u2019s earned. And this is only July. Right now, guys should be working to earn those spots, earn those minutes. And then I think the combinations take care of themselves. That\u2019s how you find out what flows well together, what guys will flow well with some of our starters who\u2019ll come back in to play with the second unit. You really would like to have a long rotation to start the season and then let things play out as they will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other notes from Adelman<\/p>\n

On whether the Nuggets have a minutes benchmark they want to keep Nikola Jokic under after he was fourth in minutes per game last season:\u00a0\u201cWe know that one of the most important things we have to do next season is take care of him, and make sure that he is the best version of himself if we\u2019re lucky enough to get to that playoff spot. So yeah, it\u2019s a concern. But it needs to be talked about. It needs to be done the right way. That\u2019s what we\u2019re gonna do.\u201d<\/p>\n

On differences between Cam Johnson and Michael Porter Jr.:\u00a0\u201cBoth guys in that trade are extremely unique players. \u2026 They both shoot the ball really well. I see Cam as a guy that can be in more off-ball actions, which will help us. It alleviates some pressure on the ball-handling. But we\u2019ve always, to have Aaron (Gordon) and Jamal (Murray) and Nikola bring the ball up, and to have a guy like Cam that can go play two-man game will just add in another element, another level to that offense. \u2026 Beyond the basketball thing, Michael was a great teammate, and now just talking to Cam last night, great personality. He\u2019s gonna fit in the locker room really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally Published: July 14, 2025 at 2:54 PM MDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 All four of the Nuggets\u2019 offseason transactions have been finalized by the league office after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[1750,402,4132,6430,3832,4133,4134,1840,1753,352,4142,11054,1754,4137,4138,2114,2558,8220,4139,355,1756,4140,11055,99,4141,447],"class_list":["post-11122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-aaron-gordon","tag-basketball","tag-bruce-brown","tag-cam-johnson","tag-colorado","tag-contract","tag-david-adelman","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-espn","tag-front-range","tag-jalen-pickett","tag-jamal-murray","tag-jonas-valanciunas","tag-julian-strawther","tag-las-vegas","tag-latest-headlines","tag-michael-porter","tag-more-nuggets-news","tag-nba","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-nuggets","tag-peyton-watson","tag-sports","tag-tim-hardaway","tag-trade"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}