{"id":927800,"date":"2026-07-11T12:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T12:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/927800\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T12:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T12:26:10","slug":"nuggets-waiving-jonas-valanciunas-is-kroenkes-being-smart-not-cheap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/927800\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets waiving Jonas Valanciunas is Kroenkes being smart, not cheap"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are battleships hovering around the Strait of Hormuz right now<\/a> that change direction faster than Jonas Valanciunas can.<\/a><\/p>\n

Not a knock on the big lug. Honest. The hoops wonks on The Grading The Week staff had nothing but pleasant exchanges with Val while he was a member of the Nuggets \u2014 a curious calendar year that came to a curious end this past Wednesday when the franchise waived him.<\/p>\n

By doing it when they did, yes, Stan Kroenke and Josh Kroenke got $10 million in guaranteed salary off their books, leaving a $2-million cap hit that they\u2019re likely to spread out over the next three seasons.<\/p>\n

And sure, the Nuggets\u2019 problems are largely accounting ones now. The franchise is reportedly aiming to stay below the NBA salary cap\u2019s second apron, a hard-ish cap that freezes future draft picks, wipes out mid-level exceptions \u2014 and could leave KSE stuck with paying more than $200 million in taxes on top of projected player salaries in the $210-240 million range.<\/p>\n

Valanciunas\u2019 Nuggets era \u2014 C-minus<\/p>\n

To that end, cutting Big Val was the easy part. While the 6-foot-11 Lithuanian was easily the Nuggets\u2019 most skilled backup to franchise icon Nikola Jokic since Mason Plumlee left for Detroit in December 2000, he was probably the slowest Joker backup of the bunch, too. The former Denver center often looked painfully out of step last winter when facing the West\u2019s best teams.<\/p>\n

In three late-season tussles versus Oklahoma City from February-March, when the Thunder were actually trying, Big Val, per NBA.com, posted Net Ratings \u2014 points scored per 100 possessions versus points allowed \u2014 of -31.0, -120.2 (!) and -62.1. In three matchups against the San Antonio before April 10, when the Spurs were trying, Big Val\u2019s Net Ratings were +13.0, -71.8, and -20.9. In four regular-season tussles with Minnesota, Big Val\u2019s Net Ratings were, in order: -4.7, +13.1, -34.4, and -71.4.<\/p>\n

That explains, at least partially, why the big man\u2019s court time fell precipitously late last season. Valanciunas averaged just 13.3 minutes per game in February. That number was down to 8.6 minutes per game in March.<\/p>\n

Val was one of the reasons the Nuggets didn\u2019t go off the rails without the Joker for a month this past January. But he\u2019ll also turn 35 next spring.<\/p>\n

A year ago, the idea of Val and Jokic on the floor together as dual, pass-savvy, physically strong big men made Nuggets Nation\u2019s eyes light up at the possibilities of creating matchup nightmares. In reality, the Denver coaching staff dealt with the nightmares as smaller, faster opponents knew they could probably blow by either one, if not both, whenever opportunities arose.<\/p>\n

In no blueprint does Valanciunas, even at age 34, fit with remits of \u201cgetting younger\u201d and \u201cgetting more athletic.\u201d Even if those two demands are also front office code for \u201cgetting cheaper.\u201d The Nuggets\u2019 next cuts, you have a feeling, will be much harder. And more painful.<\/p>\n

Tootle\u2019s Colorado legacy\u00a0 \u2014 A<\/p>\n

Denver lost a good man and GTW lost a friend recently when former Regis Jesuit and Colorado Mesa football great Jeff Tootle<\/a> passed away late last month at the age of 63. An NAIA All-American linebacker who went on to play for the New York Giants, Tootle had tackled a run of health-related issues in recent years. But battles to overcome his leg, heart, and prostate never dulled his spirits, his sense of humor, or his love for his family. Jeff\u2019s medical bills were extensive in recent years, and a GTW tip of the cap to those who have already pitched in to help his survivors with impending funeral costs. If you\u2019d like to assist, there\u2019s a GoFundMe page with more details here: https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/honoring-jeff-tootles-legacy-and-memory.<\/a><\/p>\n

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver\u2019s teams.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are battleships hovering around the Strait of Hormuz right now that change direction faster than Jonas Valanciunas…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":927801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[4442,235,8605,3134,1318,12507,88627,29734,37811,1370,99553,3663,3131,17660,1260,405,1232,3369,7198,194387,5847,1268,374253,88628,62,2632,142231,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-927800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-bill-belichick","tag-cancer","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-football","tag-gofundme","tag-grading-the-week","tag-jonas-valanciunas","tag-josh-kroenke","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mason-plumlee","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-more-nuggets-news","tag-nba","tag-new-york","tag-nfl","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-nuggets","tag-nuggets-takes","tag-oklahoma","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-regis-jesuit-high-school","tag-sean-keeler","tag-sports","tag-sports-columnists","tag-stan-kroenke","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=927800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/927801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}