The Denver Nuggets' offseason plans are going to come with some decisions based on salary, and one easy money-saving move the Nuggets can do is to cut Jonas Valanciunas. That move may seem shrewd, but it's a business, after all, and the Nuggets are well into the luxury tax zone for next year. The Nuggets are keeping their options open, minus trading Nikola Jokic, and if their plans don't include Big Val, he'll likely head to Europe to play.
Valanciunas has been in contact with European teams, including a team from his home country in Lithuania. It would be a homecoming for Big Val, who started his professional career in Lithuania before being drafted by the Toronto Raptors in the 2011 draft. Valanciunas sat down with the podcast "PIKENROLAS" and revealed that he has also received interest from two other European clubs.
The Nuggets could almost be doing Big Val a favor
Valanciunas will cost the Nuggets $10 million next season if they don't waive him by July 8th. They save $8 million if they do, as he's only guaranteed $2 million, which they can stretch over three years to lighten the cap hit. It's an option they should definitely take for a player who was having a hard time cracking the rotation without a lack of injuries at the end of the year.
Plus, it would almost be a favor to Big Val. He'd be most likely heading to one of the better teams in Europe, wherever he would land. He could have a chance to compete for a championship, which seems maybe a little further off for the Nuggets than it had seemed before the playoffs began.
And he'd probably be a featured member of the team, instead of just filling up the end of the bench as he watches someone run the non-Jokic minutes during the small ball unit.
The Nuggets can't bring Valanciunas back
The Nuggets can't bring back Big Val next year if they are serious about fixing their defensive issues. The reason he was on the bench for the small-ball unit that head coach David Adelman crafted up late in the season was because of the hole he would create for the Nuggets at the top of the second and fourth quarters.
This would be a mutually beneficial, win-win scenario for the Nuggets and Big Val. The Nuggets move on from an experiment that didn't pan out, and Valanciunas gets a chance at a starring role closer to home for what would amount to a minimal cap hit for the Nuggets next season.
Big Val's already making plans for after his exit, and he probably knows the writing is on the wall on this decision for the Nuggets.
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