Jonas Valančiūnas might not back up Nikola Jokić, after all.
Just two days after reports surfaced about an agreed-to player swap between the Sacramento Kings and Denver Nuggets that would send Valančiūnas to Denver and fellow veteran big man Dario Šarić to Sacramento, news broke about Valančiūnas’ interest in playing overseas.
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Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews first reported Thursday that Valančiūnas is considering leaving the NBA to play for Greek club Panathinaikos Athens.
Longtime NBA insider Marc Stein confirmed Urbonas’ report that a return to Europe is enticing for Valančiūnas, a 33-year-old center from Lithuania.
Stein reported Valančiūnas could seek a buyout from his NBA contract to join Panathinaikos Athens.
Even though Denver and Sacramento agreed to the Valančiūnas-Šarić trade, the exchange cannot be made official until Sunday.
Trading for Valančiūnas was part of a Nuggets offseason reset that began with the franchise trading forward Michael Porter Jr. and an unprotected 2032 first-round pick to the Brooklyn Nets for forward Cameron Johnson. Denver also agreed to a one-year deal with free-agent wing Bruce Brown, who played a key role for the Nuggets during a 2023 run to their first NBA title.
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Valančiūnas was expected to give Denver depth at center behind Jokić, a three-time league MVP.
Valančiūnas was drafted No. 5 overall in 2011 by the Toronto Raptors yet didn’t make his NBA debut until the 2012-13 season. Before that, he played for pro club Rytas Vilnius in Vilnius, Lithuania.
The 6-foot-11 Valančiūnas has played 13 seasons in the NBA. He spent 2012-19 with the Raptors, except he was traded midway through the 2018-19 campaign, which ended with the Kawhi Leonard-led Raptors winning the NBA Finals. Valančiūnas was shipped off to Memphis, where he played through the 2020-21 season. He was with the New Orleans Pelicans the next three seasons.
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In 2024-25, he split time between the Washington Wizards and Kings. In 49 games, and 12 starts, with the Wizards, Valančiūnas averaged 11.5 points and 8.2 rebounds in 20.1 minutes per game. In 32 games and nine starts with the Kings, he averaged 8.7 points and 7 rebounds in 16.9 minutes per game.
While Valančiūnas started sparingly this past season, he has been part of his team’s starting five in 848 of the 937 games he’s played during his NBA career. He averaged a double-double in each of the four seasons from 2019-23, a stretch that began with the Grizzlies and ended with the Pelicans.
Over the course of his career, Valančiūnas has averaged 13.1 points and 9.3 rebounds per game while shooting 56% from the field and 34.1% from 3.
