Jonas Valanciunas To Sign With Zalgiris Kaunas

Valanciunas had been under contract for next season, but Denver waived him last Wednesday ahead of the deadline for his $10MM salary for 2026/27 to become fully guaranteed. Instead, he received a $2MM guarantee on the final season of his three-year deal.

The 34-year-old big man reportedly tried to leave the NBA for Europe 12 months ago when he was being pursued by Panathinaikos in Greece. He traveled to Athens last July in anticipation of accepting a three-year offer, but the signing fell through when the Nuggets were unwilling to negotiate a buyout.

After being acquired last summer from Sacramento in exchange for Dario Saric, Valanciunas became Denver’s primary backup to Nikola Jokic. He appeared in 65 games, making six starts and averaging 8.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 13.4 minutes per night while shooting 58.2% from the floor. However, he was barely used in the playoffs, logging 25 total minutes in four games in Denver’s first-round loss to Minnesota.

Reports last week indicated that multiple NBA teams had interest in Valanciunas once he cleared waivers. The Knicks and Lakers were listed among the possible suitors, but they both found other options for backup big men.

Valanciunas’ preference seemed to be a return to Europe, where he was a star for several years before coming to the NBA in 2012. With Zalgiris Kaunas, he will join a roster that includes several players with NBA ties, including Carsen Edwards, Saben Lee, Nigel Williams-Goss and Sterling Brown.

The move appears to close the NBA chapter of Valanciunas’ career after 14 seasons with Toronto, Memphis, New Orleans, Washington, Sacramento and Denver. He earned second-team All-Rookie honors in 2013, appeared in 1,002 regular season games (854 starts) and finished with career averages of 8.7 points and 5.1 rebounds.

As we noted last week, Denver will have until August 29 to decide whether to keep Valanciunas’ entire $2MM partial guarantee on its books for the upcoming season or use the stretch provision to spread it out over three years. That would leave his cap charge for 2026/27 at about $667K.