{"id":759125,"date":"2026-07-12T20:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T20:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/759125\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T20:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T20:32:13","slug":"should-the-jonas-valanciunas-era-in-denver-be-labeled-a-failed-experiment-denver-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/759125\/","title":{"rendered":"Should the Jonas Valanciunas era in Denver be labeled a failed experiment? \u2013 Denver Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

For years, the biggest structural weakness on the Denver Nuggets roster has been hiding in plain sight. Nikola Jokic is the best player in the world when he is on the floor. The problem has always been what happens the moment he steps off it. <\/p>\n

The Nuggets have cycled through backup centers throughout Jokic\u2019s tenure. None of them have been able to provide the kind of stability the second unit needs to survive its non-Jokic minutes. <\/p>\n

When Denver acquired Jonas Valanciunas last offseason<\/a>, it finally felt like the long-standing issue had been addressed with a real, established veteran capable of holding the fort. But it didn\u2019t last long.<\/p>\n

One season later, Valanciunas is out. And Marvin Bagley is in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On a recent edition of the midday show on 104.3 The Fan, host Josh Dover didn\u2019t dance around what the Valanciunas era actually amounted to.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a failed stint. You can\u2019t call it anything but that,\u201d Dover said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a blunt assessment, but a fair one. Bringing in a veteran of Valanciunas\u2019 pedigree to fix a specific problem, then moving on from him after a single season, doesn\u2019t leave a lot of room for a more generous interpretation. The signing could have been a multi-year solution. It became a one-year detour.<\/p>\n

What frustrates Dover most about the outcome isn\u2019t the initial signing. It\u2019s how the situation was managed once Valanciunas arrived.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really loved the signing. It was like, \u2018Wow, they actually addressed a backup center for Nikola Jokic,’\u201d Dover said.<\/p>\n

That reaction was widely shared across Denver at the time. Valanciunas was exactly the kind of player the Nuggets had been missing. <\/p>\n

A big body. A capable scorer in the post. A rebounder. A veteran who understood his role and could operate within the structure of an offense built around another elite big. On paper, the fit was as clean as any backup center signing the Nuggets had made in years.<\/p>\n

But paper and playing time are not the same thing. And Dover pointed directly to where the disconnect happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cInsert David Adelman and completely ruin the addition that was Jonas Valanciunas,\u201d Dover said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a pointed critique. Adelman\u2019s rotation decisions throughout the season limited Valanciunas\u2019 minutes in ways that made it difficult for the veteran to find any real rhythm. Rather than settling him into a consistent role behind Jokic, the deployment felt inconsistent and, at times, tentative. <\/p>\n

A player like Valanciunas needs reps to be effective. He needs to know when he\u2019s playing, how long he\u2019s playing and what kind of possessions he\u2019s being asked to run. Without that consistency, even a talented backup becomes ineffective, and the eye test on Valanciunas\u2019 season reflected exactly that reality.<\/p>\n

Dover made his conclusion clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at it as a failed experiment, because of the coach,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That distinction matters. This wasn\u2019t a case of the player failing to perform. It was a case of the coaching staff failing to put the player in a position to succeed. <\/p>\n

Now, Denver moves on to Marvin Bagley, a different kind of player entirely, one built around athleticism rather than post presence. They\u2019re hoping the fit with Adelman\u2019s system works better this time around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For years, the biggest structural weakness on the Denver Nuggets roster has been hiding in plain sight. Nikola…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-759125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759125","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=759125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}