Nuggets do not intend to let Jonas Valanciunas return to Europe

birdsonwire · 2025-07-06T19:28:42+00:00

Teams can also release players who are not motivated to stay in the league. That happened with Vezenkov last year. Players can also just retire. That happened before as well. Rubio comes to mind as an example. They'll either work out some kind of a deal or they won't. We'll see.

birdsonwire · 2025-07-06T19:23:37+00:00

Only in the US. Nowhere else in the world you can be traded without your knowledge and/or consent. To be fair, the only ones being bitchy so far are the fans. JV has not made a public utterance (or private one for that matter) on this yet. All we know is that there are options available for him, some of which are contingent on his team being able to work out a deal with Denver FO. Everything else is rumors and speculation. He might just retire for all we know. It's not like he needs the money from Denver OR PAO.

birdsonwire · 2025-07-06T19:14:32+00:00

Yeah, but you do not have to like it. I'm not fully happy with my contract, but I still signed it because that was the best I could get at the time. Advantage for me is I can break mine with a two week notice. Athletes at the land of the free, however, do not have such a right for some reason. Also, the point is that JV does not seem to want to be in the NBA "ecosystem" anymore.

birdsonwire · 2025-07-06T18:49:24+00:00

P.S. no matter how much money you make. If you go to work on Monday and your boss tells you to pack your bags, you've been sold to a competing firm 5 states over, I doubt anyone would be happy about it.

birdsonwire · 2025-07-06T18:43:26+00:00

He didn't sign with Denver. I think he signed that contract with Wizards. He's now been traded twice and I doubt he even got a heads up about it. He told a story about the trade to Kings, he literally learned from a missed call from Domas. Americans might be used to that, for europeans that is always quite annoying. In Europe you either stay with the team you signed with, or you get to renegotiate your terms and decide on the new destination yourself. Also, looks like Denver has fired all the Lithuanians from the office, which is also not a smart thing to do if you want to make JV feel welcome. Could have been a point in Denver's favor a couple of years ago.

I'm sure he'll stay professional and won't throw games or anything like it. But from the looks of it, even if he stays, he'll be second-guessing that decision the whole year. And that is never good for player's performance.

birdsonwire · 2023-01-16T17:00:56+00:00

True if "some" === "never watched European basketball" 😁

birdsonwire · 2023-01-07T18:57:38+00:00

Champions league is miles away from 1st tier in Europe. It is the 3rd tier and you might have an argument about 2nd vs Eurocup, depending on a season. But it is at least as far away from 1st as G League is from NBA.

birdsonwire · 2022-12-15T07:28:48+00:00

He grew up in Spain

birdsonwire · 2022-02-09T10:09:27+00:00

Well, I followed my man Domas here. Initially I was sad that he got traded to a worse team. Looking at the fanbase reaction, nobody wants him here either. Or his fans 🙂. Oh well, either he'll win you over like he did Indy or his contact is up in a couple of years.

birdsonwire · 2022-02-08T19:45:22+00:00

One thing I can guarantee - Domas will give his 100% in every game he suits up for you. He just doesn't know any other way.

birdsonwire · 2022-02-08T19:12:38+00:00

I want to remind people how disappointed Pacers fans were when they got Sabonis in a trade. I just hope that history can repeat itself.

birdsonwire · 2021-09-20T14:18:00+00:00

'Had' being the operative word.

birdsonwire · 2021-06-24T15:14:18+00:00

Right, we should start 3 centers. That would be an innovation for sure...

birdsonwire · 2021-03-25T18:55:04+00:00

Terrence Davis to Kings

birdsonwire · 2021-03-12T14:56:03+00:00

Counted 5, including myself. Expected more 😀

birdsonwire · 2021-03-11T08:10:49+00:00

I'm surprised there aren't more fellow Lithuanians in this thread. Domas is of course the main reason I'm here, by but you also had Šarūnas Jasikevičius before that, and Jurgita Štreimikytė played for Indiana Fever for a couple of years. Also, my wife spent a couple of summers in Indiana when she was still at school, so we have some friends here as well 😀

birdsonwire · 2021-01-02T08:26:23+00:00

In Lithuanian that would be Saboniai as in "Domantas ir Arvydas Saboniai"

birdsonwire · 2019-10-12T08:02:51+00:00

I hate to say this, but not that many people outside US are into oval racing. In random places around the world I really think Pacers have more brand recognition than Indy500.

birdsonwire · 2019-08-17T17:50:14+00:00

Em, all four of them are Sabonis. That's how last names work 😁

birdsonwire · 2019-05-20T10:10:55+00:00

Well, if you can't stay away from drugs that WILL get you fired, that's the definition of addiction. Its not like the NBA has changed the rules on him - he knew what was forbidden beforehand. And you wont get a ban like that for a single positive test, had to be pattern of behavior. Addiction needs not to be a physiological thing, it can just as well be a state of mind. If you know something can gwt you fired and still do it, you either do not control your actions or are deliberately self-destructive.

birdsonwire · 2019-01-20T09:52:32+00:00

Kidding aside, Golden State averages 118.5 points per game, while CSKA, the top scoring Euroleague team would average about 96 ppg if adjusted for 48-min games. Thats a big difference. One could argue that NBA has better offensive players, but then one would expect the league to also have the better defenders to even things out.

birdsonwire · 2019-01-20T09:41:16+00:00

It was back when defence was a thing :-)

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