Yardbarker: Linas Kleiza

Another Luxury Tax Hit, Linas Kleiza Leaves Denver for Greece

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:24:10 -0500

by Tim PovtakFiled under: Nuggets, EuroleagueIt's not that the Denver Nuggets didn't like Linas Kleiza -- George Karl liked him a lot -- but not enough to pay him twice. Not for a backup forward, no matter how intriguing his skills.It's basic economics. The luxury tax struck again.Kleiza, 24, just agreed to a two-year, $12.2 million deal with the Greek team Olympiakos, according to agent Bill Duffy. It was first reported on Yahoo!.Another Luxury Tax Hit, Linas Kleiza Leaves Denver...

Kleiza leaving Nuggets for $12M from Olympiakos

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:34:56 -0500

Restricted free agent forward Linas Kleiza of the Denver Nuggets is taking his game to Europe. Nuggets executive Mark Warkentien says Kleiza has chosen to play for Olympiakos, agreeing to a two-year deal worth more than $12 million. Warkentien said Kleiza's agent, Bill Duffy, informed him of the signing Monday. Duffy was flying back from Europe and unavailable for comment.

Nuggets' Kleiza inks 2-year Olympiakos contract

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:28:45 -0500

DENVER (AP) -- Denver Nuggets executive Mark Warkentien says forward Linas Kleiza has chosen to play for Olympiakos, agreeing to a two-year deal worth more than $12 million.

Kleiza leaves Nuggets for $12M Olympiakos deal

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:28:45 -0500

DENVER (AP) -- Denver Nuggets executive Mark Warkentien says forward Linas Kleiza has chosen to play for Olympiakos, agreeing to a two-year deal worth more than $12 million.

Kleiza headed to Greece

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:07:11 -0500

Olympiakos has plucked another young NBA player in his prime. Denver’s Linas Kleiza is headed to Greece. Per Yahoo Sports… Denver Nuggets restricted free-agent forward Linas Kleiza(notes) has agreed to a two-year, $12.2 million contract with Greek team Olympiakos, his agent Bill Duffy told Yahoo! Sports on Monday. The contract has an opt-out clause, which allows Kleiza to [...]

Greeks Continue Raiding Mid-level NBA Talent

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:50:33 -0500

Olympiakos has stolen Linas Kleiza from Denver with a 2-year, $12.2 million deal... which continues a trend of big Greek teams (and foreign teams as a whole) taking mid-level guys who just can't seem to get the money they're looking for in the US. I'm actually surprised none of them came after Big Baby with $5 million.

This summer, Josh Childress opted to stay in Greece, while Von Wafer will go there. And Walter Hermann signed in Spain. Hardly game-changing names crossing the pond, but this is really only the beginning. More mid-level guys are going to get richer offers overseas... especially as the cap shrinks over the next season or two.

This could be a trend that creates a talent gap where guys looking for more than mid-level money end up looking to other sources to get it. Meanwhile, NBA GM's will have to continue looking for ways to plug holes in their roster... leaving them no choice but to throw more money at lesser talent... which will throw the whole system out of whack.

Before you think I'm getting ahead of myself, ask yourself this: If you were at 25 year-old guy with no allegiance to any one team, would you take $5 million to play 82 games in the NBA, or would you take $7 or $8 million to play 30 or 40 games in Europe?

You could play two seasons worth of hoops yet only put one NBA year of wear on your body... while making two or three times what you would have made. For a lot of these guys, that's a great option. It won't be long before more teams start looking to the NBA for players like that. And it won't be long before our valuable role players start disappearing for two or three year stretches.

I don't know how huge an effect that will have on the NBA, but I'm willing to bet it's noticeable.

Linas Kleiza heads to Greece

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:15:05 -0500

It shouldn't be easy, Nuggets fans. But this is the price you pay for the sins of the front office, coaching staff and players. Linas Kleiza can play. He can play both forward positions, one of them well. One of his best friends gets to count the owner of the Denver Nuggets as his father. Linas dropped 41 in a game as a Nugget just 2 1/2 years ago. Linas can drive. Sometimes, Linas can shoot. And Linas can contribute. More than eight points and 3.5 rebounds in 19 minutes per game on his...

Linas Kleiza head to Greece

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:15:05 -0500

It shouldn't be easy, Nuggets fans. But this is the price you pay for the sins of the front office, coaching staff, and players. Linas Kleiza can play. He can play both forward positions, one of them well. One of his best friends gets to count the owner of the Denver Nuggets as his father. Linas dropped 41 in a game as a Nugget just two and a half years ago. Linas can drive. Sometimes, Linas can shoot. And Linas can contribute. Over eight points and three and half rebounds in 19 minutes...

Report: Linas Kleiza to Olympiakos

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:31:36 -0500

On his twitter, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports has reported that former Denver Nugget Linas Kleiza has signed with the Greek team Olympiakos. Here was his exact tweet: “Den FA forward Linas Kleiza has agreed to a 2-year, $12.2 million with an opt-out next year with Greece Olympiakos, a source told Y! Sports.” Obviously, unlike when [...]

Linas Kleiza May Be Bolting for Europe

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:30:53 -0500

Olympiakos (yes, them again) are reportedly about to scoop up the Nuggets forward: “Linas Kleiza is very close to signing a contract with Olympiacos despite his dream is to continue in NBA. The player confirmed the proposal made by the Greek team. ‘Olympiacos showed interest in me. I would like to stay in NBA, but if I have to go back to Europe, why not in Greece?’ said the forward.”

Kleiza in line for qualifying offer

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:38:29 -0500

Some of the final pieces of preparation for free agency for the Nuggets will fall into place in the next couple of days, before teams can start negotiating with free agents on July 1. The Nuggets are expected to extend a qualifying contract offer to forward Linas Kleiza, which would mean [...]

The Nuggets offseason: Linas Kleiza...

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:49:00 -0500

As we did last summer, Denver Stiffs will look at each of the Nuggets offseason decisions in detail beginning with free agents first. In no particular order, I've decided to start with small forward Linas Kleiza who's essentially a restricted free agent. I say essentially because Denver will likely exercise their $2.7 million qualifying offer to Kleiza, meaning that Kleiza could sign with another team for more giving the Nuggets the right to match any offer.

The Good: When motivated, Kleiza is a first-rate scorer off the bench. It's rare to have a reserve player who not only can hit an open three-pointer but also can create his own shot when the shot clock is winding down. During the nine games that Carmelo Anthony missed in January due to the broken hand injury, Kleiza (still coming off the bench) had games with 21, 18, 26, 27, 18 and 16 points. All but one of those games were wins.

In Game 2 of the conference finals, Kleiza demonstrated his value yet again with 16 points and eight rebounds (three offensive) off the bench to spark the Nuggets to a 106-103 victory. The Nuggets don't come back from LA with a split without Kleiza's contribution. Often forgotten is Kleiza's 2008 playoff performance against the Lakers, as well. While most of the Nuggets played like cowards in that series, Kleiza showed no fear in Games 1 through 3 against the purple and gold (of course, the Nuggets were easily swept in that series). And continuing on the "no fear" path, Kleiza isn't afraid to take big shots, either. This was evident when Kleiza nailed the biggest shot of the 2008 Beijing Olympics when his three-pointer with 2.1 seconds left gave Lithuania a victory over favored Argentina.

The Bad: Once on a trajectory to be a real offensive force off the Nuggets bench in a poor man's Manu Ginobili-type role, Kleiza reverted in 2008-09 and it was all mental. Before the Clippers game on Halloween, Kleiza was on the verge of signing at four-year, $25 million contract that was suddenly withdrawn by Nuggets owner Stanley Kroenke because, behind-the-scenes, the Chauncey Billups trade was in the works. Had Kleiza signed that deal, acquiring Billups might not have been possible.

So while it might be understandable that Kleiza would be upset, rather than turn the contract snub into a motivation tool Kleiza sulked his way through a very inconsistent season. For those who saw Kleiza play live regularly, you probably noticed that his body language was notably different than from the season before when he had more of a cold blooded shooter mentality. Remember those nine games he filled in for Melo above? Well in two of them, he shot 0-for-6 and 1-for-6 on back-to-back nights (one win, one loss...go figure).

And throughout last season, Kleiza had a lot of those "off nights": 1-for-8 on opening night, 2-for-8 in that Clippers game after the contract fiasco, 2-for-7 a few nights later against the Warriors, 3-for-9 against the Clippers again, 1-for-5 against the Magic, 1-for-6 against the Sixers, 1-for-7 against the Kings, and so on. In March, Kleiza went three straight games making only one shot against at least five attempts. In the game before that stretch, he shot 2-for-7 against the Nets (to be fair, everyone was awful in that game) and in the game before that, 3-of-9 against the Clippers again. In fact, Kleiza went five consecutive games without a three-pointer made in February, seven consecutive games without a three-pointer made in March and over the entire month of March, Kleiza made just six three-point shots against 31 attempts. Ouch.

Oh, and he's a sieve as a defender, too. Too slow to defend super quick small forwards and too short to defend power forwards.

Possible Replacement(s): If Kleiza walks - either because he takes an offer from another team that the Nuggets don't match or the Nuggets don't offer him the qualifying offer in the first place - his primary replacement would be Renaldo Balkman whom I advocated to be the small forward sub off the bench in the playoffs over Kleiza in the first place. Since Nuggets head coach George Karl jerked Balkman's minutes around so much in the regular season, it's hard to evaluate what Balkman's contribution would be in Kleiza's spot. What we do know for sure, however, is that when given consistent minutes Balkman produces. Note Balkman's March stretch (the same time that Kleiza was struggling mightily). From the March 6th game against the Jazz to the March 20th game against the Wizards, Balkman averaged 10.7 points and 10.7 rebounds (almost five offensive) per game while shooting well over 50% from the field. Against the Thunder on March 11th, Balkman had more offensive rebounds than defensive rebounds!

But unlike Kleiza, Balkman cannot create his own shot and feeds primarily off of offensive rebound put-backs (something Kleiza doesn't do particularly well).

Beyond Balkman, a non-Kleiza future might include more playing time for Sonny Weems, who allegedly performed well in the NBDL, but Karl is reticent to give young players ample playing time. Or, if the Nuggets re-sign Dahntay Jones but part with Kleiza, they could go small and feature J.R. Smith and Jones together in Kleiza's place. And of course there might be a free agent swingman out there that the Nuggets could poach for the league minimum as they did with Jones and Andersen last summer. If there's one thing that grows on trees in the NBA, it's 6'6"-to-6'8" "swingmen" in need of a minimum contract, just ask Julius Hodge and DerMarr Johnson.

The Verdict: IF the Nuggets can somehow keep Kleiza for the $2.7 million qualifying offer without jeopardizing other dealings (more on that below), I say do so, even if it means creeping into the luxury tax a bit. First off, paying a guy $2.7 million who could pop for 15-20 points on any given night is a steal by NBA standards. Secondly, I believe there's real value to having someone on your team who's been around a while, knows his teammates' tendencies on the floor and knows the "system" (who am I kidding, the Nuggets don't have a system). And finally, if Kleiza's last five games and postseason play were any indication, I believe he's come to accept the contract issue and may perform even better next season knowing he'll be an unrestricted free agent at season's end.

That being said, if re-signing Kleiza - even at just $2.7 million - comes at the expense of re-signing Chris "Birdman" Andersen or acquiring a legitimate big man, it's best to let Kleiza walk. Balkman filled in admirably behind Melo this past season and can do so again next season to fill the void that would be left by a Kleiza departure. But it should be acknowledged that over the course of his four season tenure in Denver, Kleiza has been a producer off the bench. If the dollars are right and there aren't better deals to be had, Kleiza should be welcomed back.

Kleiza’s Days as a Nugget Just About Over

Sun, 03 May 2009 21:16:51 -0500

Linas Kleiza should be relishing this time - it’s exciting to be competing in the playoffs, especially when your team looks like it can make it all the way to the Conference Finals. Playing with Chauncey and K-Mart in their primes, with a surging Nene, a strong Melo, and a surprisingly potent bench in Carter [...]

Pickup of the Night: March 21

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 05:02:23 -0500

LINAS KLEIZA (Den, SF) He's been having an up-and-down season to this point, but recently he has begun to pick it up again. And what's not to like about a team that has scored over 100 points a game in every game since February 25th and over 115 points a game the past 5 games? But seriously, pick this guy up if your desperate for 3 balls, points and percentages. Last night he put up a pretty good line of 23 points on 9-11 shooting with 4 rebounds in only 23 minutes.