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It appeared as though the Denver Nuggets were finally able to address their longstanding lack of a quality backup center, but after their trade for Jonas Valanciunas with the Sacramento Kings was reported, news of his desire to return to Europe and play for Panathinaikos came out.
The Nuggets have already put their feet down and said that they intend to keep Valanciunas and have him honor his contract, which runs for two more seasons at around $10.2 million a year. And while Valanciunas is back in his home country of Lithuania at the moment, which only adds more fuel to the fire of the rumors that he's signing with Panathinaikos, the Nuggets are not budging.
But it doesn't appear as though it was Panathinaikos that approached Valanciunas with the possibility of him foregoing the final few years of his NBA contract to return to Europe. According to George Zakkas of SDNA, it was Valanciunas' camp that gave Panathinaikos a “guarantee” that he would be released from his NBA contract despite not communicating this with the Nuggets brass.
This in turn has caused a state of confusion for both Panathinaikos and the Nuggets, two teams that would want nothing more than to have Valanciunas play for them next season. On the one hand, it's rather ballsy from Valanciunas' representatives to guarantee anything without coordinating this desire of theirs to their parent NBA team.
Maybe Valanciunas' representatives were not anticipating a trade to the Nuggets and instead would have found it easier to strike an agreement with the Kings. But the Nuggets are not going to let Valanciunas go without a fight.
Will Jonas Valanciunas let go of a guaranteed $20 million from the Nuggets?
At this point, the only reasonable compromise that Valanciunas and his camp can strike with the Nuggets should he desperately want to play for Panathinaikos is that he'll give up the entirety of the $20.4 million he's still owed over the next two seasons.
Alas, that is such a big amount of money to give up; the highest-paid player in the Euroleague last season, Sasha Vezenkov, made a relatively paltry $4.3 million (3.7 million Euros), according to Basketnews. At best, Valanciunas is about to give up around $11 or so million provided that Panathinaikos gives him a contract similar to that of Vezenkov's.
Maybe Valanciunas is done playing backup minutes for any team, and there's no shot he's going to start for the Nuggets other than in games where Nikola Jokic isn't present. And perhaps having the chance to star for a team is worth the millions of dollars he's going to give up in any potential move to the Greek giants.
