What’s The LATEST on Jonas Valanciunas & The Nuggets? | ft. Marc Stein

What’s The LATEST on Jonas Valanciunas & The Nuggets? | ft. Marc Stein

What is up everybody? I’m out here in Las Vegas at the Westgate Superbook here. A little room here in the back with my guy Mark Stein and the Nuggets are kind of like the last remaining story or one of the last remaining stories here with this big Val news. Uh we should get into it. Man, this is a weird situation. It’s been going on for like two weeks. Our kind of our first chance to talk to it. Yeah. Talk about it. Yeah. So, here’s what happens. The Nuggets are making all these moves and there’s excitement. the first 48 hours of free agency, I think the Nuggets owned free agency and everything was great. Then all of a sudden, we get word that, hey, Big Val, he’s actually not going to come. He’s going he’s on a plane to Greece and he’s going to go play for Panathanikos and forego his his salary. So, what happened? Let’s just walk through it. What happened that led to that? Well, look, I mean, this has been a wild story. A story I have to say that’s really interested me cuz I mean I think you know I love my international hoops. So this one this one has a lot of layers but basically Jonas Valenunis he has multiple representatives. He is represented by Excel Sports in the States but he also has a Lithuanian agent and the Lithuanian agent clearly was in talks with Panathanakos, one of the absolute powers of Greek basketball in the Euro League. And so there were talks that the Nuggets were not aware of that Valenunis had really strong interest. And look, he might still have that interest, right, to go play in Greece. But the Nuggets were not made a breast of any of this. I don’t know even how much his American representation knew all this was was coming. So can I actually interrupt there because this is one of the things I want to clear up. How does it work when players a lot of players have an international agent and a local agent? How does that work? Well, it’s agency to agency, you know, it’s up to them to kind of make these agreements, but you know, a lot of times, I mean, Valenunis has been in the league for 13 years. So, it’s a little bit different with him because he’s been around the block. But, you know, if you’re an agency trying to sign an an overseas player, you might need to bring if he already has an existing agent, you might need to bring that agent into your agency. But look, I mean, Excel Sports, we all know they’ve got Jokic, they’ve got Murray, the Nuggets have a fantastic working relationship with Excel Sports. So, the Nuggets and the Kings agree to this trade and never anticipate anything going wrong. In fact, it’s a trade featuring two Excel guys, Dario Sharic going to Sacramento for Valenunis. So, the Nugget the Nuggets I think were shocked that it that this would even become an issue, right? And the truth is, look, there’s a whole there’s a whole way the story is being covered in Greece, in Europe, in Lithuania, because all the comm, you know, Panathanos officials are still talking like, “We’re going to get this guy. We’ve got to deal with him.” Oh, yeah. They’re still, they still believe it. I I saw the Panathnonos owner this week saying that Yonas wants to be here. Well, we need to hear that from Valenunis. Like I’m not saying I have not spoken to Valenunis. I don’t know exactly where he stands. I can’t tell you on a scale of 1 to 10 how badly he wants to go to leave the NBA and go back to Europe. I think only he can speak to that. But I would say this, like hearing from the Panathanakos owner, him talking about what Valenunis wants doesn’t mean a heck of a lot. We need to hear that from Valenunis. And based on everything I know, the Nuggets have never flinched. They are going through with this trade. You and I are recording this on a Saturday. I’m kind of half looking at my phone because this trade could happen at any moment on this Saturday. This is I reported this on Friday night. Sat this Saturday the 12th of July. This is the first day that the deal can actually go through and be made official by the league because the Nuggets, as I understand it, the Michael Porter Jr. deal had to be all the way finished. every single element done before the Nuggets could proceed to this trade because of sequencing reasons, right? It’s by the time this comes out, the trade is could be official. If not, it’s going to be official here in the near future and then this process can really start. Valenunis will be a Nuggets player. And I’m sure the dialogue has already begun to some degree behind the scenes because the teams agreed to this trade more than 10 days ago. both sides are operating as if the trade is going to get done. So I like I think he’s going to be a nugget. I really do. I I I really don’t expect otherwise. And everything I’ve heard is that the Nuggets are resolute about this and they have to be. If you look at their roster, they have a fantastic roster, but you have to have a backup center. We’ve saw this with Joic last year. 37 minutes a game. Really has worn himself out over the last two years. So this is not a thing like, oh, he doesn’t want to be here. Denver should just do you want a player who doesn’t want to be here. They have no option in my opinion. They have to force because I think there was this assumption that let him go. We’ll unlock the mid level. We’ll go get Al Horford, guys. Al Horford is technically available because we have not seen him officially commit to a team. But around the league, the other 29 teams are operating under the strong belief that Al Horford will end up going to Golden State. So even if even if the Nuggets said, “You know what, Yonas, go back to Europe. You’re good. we’re going to move on. They they don’t have someone to pivot to. They don’t they they don’t have a shot at Horford. So unlocking the mid level doesn’t do them any good. There is no center as good as Valenunis for them to get. So like I said, I am sure Panathanakos still wants him. Maybe there are people in Valenunis’ life who would like him to go to Greece. Maybe the player himself, maybe Valenunis himself deep down would rather go back to Europe than stay in the NBA. All I’m saying is I want to hear Valenunis say that. I don’t want to listen to the owner of a team in Greece that wants him. And you know, Valenunis, he made the public appearance earlier this week at that summit. And so, realistically, my expectations weren’t super high that we were going to get clarity, but it did open up the chance that Valenunis himself might just tell us exactly where things stand, and he really didn’t. So, we really didn’t. We really didn’t learn. I’m sure he was advised not to. I mean, we really didn’t learn a lot more, but eventually this thing is going to the trade’s going to go through and then it will start to play out. And just to be clear, the Nuggets can have would have to release him for him to be able to play a absolutely correct. He like he cannot he is under contract in the NBA. The way basketball works, it’s called a letter of clearance. If he does not have a letter of clearance stamped by FIA, but that comes from the Nuggets, he cannot join another team. He can’t just say, I’m going to play for Panathanakos because that’s what I want. Even if he even if that’s even if he’s like, I am done with the NBA and I want to leave unless the Nuggets, bless it, he can’t go. He can’t go play for them. So that’s where Denver really does have the upper hand here. And that’s why I do say my expectation is he is going to be in Denver for next season. It’s such a weird situation and the thing I keep wondering is there’s a lot of more European players. I mean this I wonder if this is a thing that might become more common. We saw it with Vasenkov. Now he’s a smaller player. Vasenkov was. He’s not as big of an impact player as as Valunis, but we saw it with him last year. And I wonder if the Have you heard is the league looking at this very closely? Because they don’t want a trend. No, but I I to me it’s way too soon to call it a trend. I mean, Vizenkov came over here with a lot of hype. Yeah, he was the he was a a pretty recent MVP in the Euro League, signed a deal in Sacramento. It just didn’t pan out. He you know, Valenunis has been a very good NBA player for a long time. I think they’re two distinct cases. Valenunis has been here for 13 years. M again, I haven’t spoken to him. Maybe he does want to go back, you know, maybe he’s just ready to go back to European basketball. And if he is, you know, you could understand it because he’s been here so long. You know, Vzenkov was he had conquered everything individually he could in Europe. Came to the NBA, didn’t find the success he was hoping for, got traded to Toronto. Toronto happily let him out of his deal cuz he said, “I’m giving back all I’m giving you my I’m I’m giving back my whole salary,” which was like 6.5 million. So, it was good capwise for the Raptors. They had no dead money going onto their books. and Vizenkov is the kind of player that he can walk back into Europe and get top dollar going back to Europe as a recent Euro League MVP. So that deal did make sense for all sides. Like we’ve been saying if Valent even if Valenuna says I am forfeiting my 10.4 million for this season like you said that doesn’t solve the Nuggets problems. That hurts the Nuggets. But why I say I wonder if it becomes a trend is it is I don’t think players go into it thinking oh if this doesn’t work out I will just forego my my contract but this is an example of it happening if it does happen two years in a row albeit under different circumstances. I do wonder if that could create the trend and then maybe that’s a leverage play the same way pre- agency is a leverage play. Well, and and and that’s a thing where like there’s been such a vacuum of hard information. Again, like I feel like the teams agreed to the trade. Was it July? If it wasn’t July 1st, it was July 2nd. So, we’re already like it’s July 12th or whatever whatever today is. It’s hard to keep track of the days out here. So, like there’s been such a long period where like we’re all trying to figure this puzzle out with very little information. And just my consistent stance on it has been when we know exactly where Valenunis stands, this thing will be a lot easier to evaluate. And I would think even the n like if he comes to the Nuggets and says, “Guys, I just I am ready to go home.” I mean, yes, they can force him to stay and they I’m sure they would still want him to stay, but like they’re not going to love the sound of that or the idea of that. I mean, they obviously want a player who wants to be here and wants to be Joic’s backup, but I just I think part of the issue in the coverage of this has been there are so many people saying this is what Valenunis wants and they’re speaking for him and like like I’m sorry, but I don’t think the owner of a team in Greece should be the one saying what he wants. I mean, you know, he can say whatever he wants, but I I guess I’m not going to believe it until I, you know, I hear it. I’d like to hear it from the player. That’s just that’s just me. And your expectation is this probably won’t be dragged out too much longer. Today is the first day that this can officially happen. And I’m hoping we hear something about where this is trending. I mean, look, that would be nice that when the trade goes through, then the Nuggets will be able to address this. I mean, that’s one. The Nuggets have not been able to make any public comment about it because Valenunis, as we’re taping this, and let’s just check to make sure. I mean, he’s still a Sacramento K. So, so like the, you know, the Nuggets can’t talk about this yet, but yes, it would be nice if once the trade is consummated that is it Ben Wallace or Ten Wallace? I I kind of like Ten Wallace, but we like Ben Wallace. I guess I’m wrong. I just think Ten Wallace is a little bit more clever. Ben Wallace, that’s that’s a layup, but So, it’s Ben Wallace. That’s what That’s what we’re going with for the moment. Yeah. So, you would like to think that that Ben Wallace will will be able to, you know, at least give us the Denver perspective on this, which is another major thing we’ve been missing from this whole story. Like to this point, it came out that Panathanos had a verbal agreement with him, whatever it is. And look, Valenunis did fly to Athens. There is no denying that he went to Now, was that just a stopover on the way home to Lithuania with his summit appearance? was that again we like everyone is guessing. Yeah. And and the only one who can really answer that is the player himself. But like yes, I’m with you. I really hope that when this trade is official that we will hear a definitive statement from the Nuggets. But one other thing I reported this week um you know I was told by someone from Expel Sports categorically the Nuggets have not promised him his year 2 guarantee because there are two years left on Valenunis’ deal. you know, he he’s he’s on the books this season for 10.4 million. He has a $10 million non-g guaranteed year on his contract for 2026 27. The Nuggets have not promised him we’re guaranteeing that. So, I don’t know where that story started or where that came from, but that that hasn’t happened. And part of what’s tough about this is it it benefits Denver both to force him to play this year for Denver, but also to not guarantee his contract because they very may very well may not want him to be on the roster next year or on the it doesn’t make sense that they would make that promise without seeing how seeing how he fits first, seeing how it goes. But again, here’s the thing. You just have it’s been 10 days. You know that there have been discussions between Excel Sports and the Nuggets. We don’t know this. Has Jokic picked up the phone and spoken to Valenunis? It certainly seems plausible that that could have happened by this point. I think eventually we will hear what kind of dialogue has taken place over the past 10 days or so. And look, I’ve been, like I said, I’ve been super into the story. I’ve been captivated by the story. But you love this story. But but there, you know, like it would be nice to have more data to work with and more clarity to work with. And I I hope I hope we are nearing that. Oh, I hope so, too. I fully expect Valentunas to be a Nugget when the season starts. Are you excited about Let’s Let’s pretend all of this gets smoothed out and it’s fine. Are you unbelievably excited? Unbelievably excited. I just I think the Nuggets have put together a very good roster. But I also like having Valenunis and Joic on the same team. They’re very interesting players. And you know, I even like the Serbian and Lithuanian. You know, these are two basketball powerhouses in Europe. These are two uh big time centers coming out of Europe. And I just love the idea of them both being on the same because I I have to say something I’ve like we’ve spent so much time and energy and personally so much digital ink covering all the contractual nuance of of this thing. I’ve been wondering is he as good a backup for Jokic as people actually think. I think he is. And part of this is they haven’t had a backup. It’s been DeAndre Jordan, you know, a little bit. Dario Sarich was brought in. So, they haven’t had even just like a replacement level backup center for a while. Valenunis, I think, is better than that. And yeah, I do think he’s pretty good. David Adelman in the Nugget summer league broadcast talked about him being having a similar skill set to Joic and the ability. Oh, wait. So, Adelman did talk about it. That’s he he Yes, he actually did. You know, now that you now you now that you mentioned it, yes, he did actually talk about how he liked his skill set because it they can play the way Jokic plays when Valenunis is on the court. Well, I need to hear it from Ten Wallace or Ben Wallace or whatever whatever the DNVR style book says we’re we’re we’re using. I I need to hear them weigh in. Yeah. Well, we’re probably I expect us to hear about this very very soon. Today is the first day we can hear about it, but Mark Stein’s been chasing the story, covering the story for 12 days. 12 days. All good. All good. International intrigue. I know. There you go. Everybody, thanks for tuning in. Hit that like button on the way out.

DNVR Nuggets Podcast has Marc Stein join Adam Mares to talk about the NEW Latest on the Jonas Valanciunas Saga with the Denver Nuggets & More. Marc Stein joins the show live from Las Vegas to break down the bizarre situation between Jonas Valanciunas, the Denver Nuggets, and Greek powerhouse Panathinaikos. Why is the trade taking so long? Could Valanciunas really walk away from the NBA to return to Europe? We cover all the latest updates, inside sources, and what it means for Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets’ championship hopes.

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