On the latest Pickaxe and Roll, Ryan Blackburn breaks down the surprisingly complicated situation between the Denver Nuggets and Jonas Valanciunas, who no longer wants to play in the NBA and appears to have signed a contract in Greece. Where do the Nuggets go from here?
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Ο ΒΑΛΑΤΣΙΟΥΝΑΣ ΘΑ ΠΑΙΖΕΙ ΣΤΟΝ ΠΑΝΑΘΗΝΑΙΚΟ…
The funny think is that Panathinaikos is signing him for back up center behind Matias Lessort 😅
The one thing that Europe has which is better than the NBA is the atmosphere. There you can buy a ticket to a game for like $10-30 dollars US. The prices are very reasonable. So the best fans can afford to go which makes it a very rowdy environment. Electric environment. In the USA the games are so huge that it cost thousands to go to playoff games. As a result if you get a lot of people who dont typically watch most games that get to go to the biggest games. The hardcore fans simply get priced out
Denver fans begging for 40 year old Al Horford 😂
ye as the people say 4m in greece is like 8-10m to nba, cause when we say 4-5 we meen after taxes and we always meen the money he will take on his hand. So a 3 year deal equivalent to 8 to 10 million in nba money near his country dosnt sound that bad.
Free Jonas,he wants to leave,find an American center,what happened to them and cant find a good American center?This is not NBA,its Euroleague.Europeans are the stars in NBA,only Curry and Lebron are good and Lebron is almost 40.
Jonas opts for happiness – good for him.
Nuggets knew from the first moment. Murrey Jokić and Vala have the same manager
Here we go again playing Jokic 45 minutes a game
This is probably a lot simpler than we think. He got offered a great opportunity in Denver. He then got an opportunity to make a bunch of money and live in Greece for a few years. That is a pretty simple decision for anyone who doesn't want to live under a psychopathic narcissistic rapist traitor.
There is nothing strange about choosing a job outside of this newly fascist dictatorship.
I think the disconnect here is that most Americans can't fathom that the NBA isn't the be-all and end-all for European players. Panathinaikos pays well. You get to play in a better environement. Live in a city that isn't a car-infested hellscape. And he gets to immediately compete for a championship that in Europe carries more prestige than the NBA championship.
You're an idiot if you think a playoff backup center isn't the biggest missing piece. Game 7 against Wolves, Jokic was gassed. Jokic sits during OKC series, and we're toast.
Greek basketball fan here. Seems like Valanciunas has made a decision to play in the Euroleague for-what-seems-like the favorites club to win it. They were among the top 3 contenders to win it before he joins (?). If he does, they become the #1 favorites no doubt. Valanciunas has always been a starter besides his last season in the NBA and he feels he'd rather play in the Euroleague rather than being in the shadow of Jokic. As has been discussed in video and in comments as well, the salary in Europe is net rather than gross so the difference is not that big since 10.3m gross is around 5.5m net. Panathinaikos is offering 4m net per year for 3 years while Denver is offering 5.5m net for one year. It's not about the money, he's made over 140m $ in his career, he joins a Euroleague powerhouse, he'll be treated like royalty there, and he's gonna be playing at least 24 mins there and that only because Panathinaikos also have the current best Center in Euroleague as well (Mathias Lessort).
Bonus: Type "OAKA basketball atmosphere" in youtube and you might get a feeling about the motivation of Valanciunas, Kendrick Nunn, Juancho Hernangomez, Jerian Grant, Cedi Osman to go play there.
Greek basketball reporters say that from the 10M contract per year, Jonas will get only 5M after taxes. So the difference from 4M (+bonuses for Euroleague and Greek Championship) is not that big to prevent the player from coming to Greece. In addition to that the contract offered from PAO is for 3 years (3X4M) and the contract from Denver is for 2 years (2X5M). But, money is not a problem or a motive for Jonas to stay or leave the NBA because in 13 years he has made over 150M. What, I believe, is the real motive is that he wants to create a family and be closer to his home country, is his friendship with Sarunas Jasikevicius who will be next year's coach of PAO and in the top of all the atmosphere that every player comes accross the Greek OAKA Basketball court. Where 18.000 people sing and shout his name. In Greece we don't shout "Defence" with smiles, sitting on our chairs. In Greece we shout standing uo, player's name with rythm and passion.
Is there a place where I can keep up to date with who is on the Nuggets team now that there are changes happening in the off-season?
Tell him no. Problem solved
Let him leave. Get Horford instead!
I've got a great suggestion for a backup big that's he's now in the euroleague. He has an NBA out clause on his contract until July 15th.
Philip Petrusev
Ryan you got to talk faster bro. Probably a slow learner in High School and University. Keep up the good work.
The Kings knew. Shitty franchise.
The Litavania is a bum. Better for him to leave. Unprofessional. We need someone that is hungry like a wolve. Bring Holford. Zivela Srbija. The Croatian loser is gone. Thank God.
5:01 I wonder what happened with that guy from abu dhabi? Possibly offered JV cash under the table?
I think Al signs in Denver; why play at 39 unless you want a chip. Joker is best path to that chip.
5:04 jonas will walk away with about 4 million. After he pays fed tax, state tax, Jock tax, agent fees, nba escrow holdings and others. If he plays for PAO, he pays none of those and will walk away with about 4.3-4.6 million per year.
We need to pump the brakes just a little. What we know is that he went to Athens to meet with their team. That could be signing a contract or it could be hearing them out and meeting them in person to decide. It sounds like there's a good chance he takes that deal, buf until there is an official report that JV has signed the contract with Greece, this is still speculation and hearsay.
Bring Mathias Lessort
for everyone saying well get the 14 million and just use it elsewhere, do you not understand that the market has already been picked over? al horford has made it clear he wants to play for the warriors or the lakers, otherwise he'll retire, and chris boucher isnt a good option, denver cant trade money for a player so they might just be absolutely fucked as far as backup center goes. i dont care what anyone says, come at me in the replies, but i think jonas making a decision to go overseas, basically forcing the nuggets hand to release him from his contractual obligations, while he's still under contract in the nba is a shitty thing to do. he made the decision to sign the contract in the first place, now he's in a way better situation in denver than he wouldve been in sacremento. be a grown man and honor your commitments, play at least a year with denver if not fulfilling your contract, then go to europe and sign with whoever you please.
Apparently he really doesn'care about winning a chip. He definitely would have had a chance in denver with him in the new line up! 😢
Yes Jock would play. He signed with the Grizz however.
What if they can somehow make a trade for Wendell Carter jr,
The fact that you don't know anything about Euroleage shows u re ignorance about the sport.Panathinaikos is 7 times Euroleage champion,show some respect,or at leat do some research before speaking.Valanciunas being from Europe knows the value of the club thats he is dumping you league.
Nuggets not a contender without a tier 1 backup center.
Al Horford on Warriors ain’t winning the chip. Horford on Denver will be great. THEY CAN PLAY TOGETHER MORON!!!!
They will use $14 mil MLE
I believe that as the level of Euroleague increases, every European player would love to return to Europe and play for teams like Panathinaikos.
At this point, I’m going to trust Tenzer and Wallace to make something good happen…I think they’ve earned it
How can you speak for 50 minutes and say nothing
If we can get Al instead of Jonas it’s a huge win