Jonas Valanciunas is finally going back to Europe after Nuggets exit

Jonas Valanciunas, 34, started his pro career with Lietuvos Rytas — Zalgiris' biggest rival — now he'll suit up for Kaunas, closing his NBA career

BY JAKE SHAPIRO

Jul 15, 2026, 5:00 PM

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Jonas Valanciunas officially signed a two-year deal with EuroLeague club Zalgiris Kaunas on Wednesday, the Lithuanian team announced. Per BasketNews, the center is expected to earn approximately $5.5 million over the two-year deal.

“WARNING: the paint is CLOSED until further notice,” Zalgiris posted on social media. “Jonas Valanciunas is back in his homeland.”

WARNING: the paint is 𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐃 until further notice.

Jonas Valanciunas is back in his homeland. 🔥⚡ pic.twitter.com/oRSEcIcC6B

— BC Zalgiris Kaunas (@bczalgiris) July 15, 2026

Valanciunas, 34, started his professional career with Lietuvos Rytas — Zalgiris’ biggest rival. Now he’ll suit up for Kaunas. The move likely closes the book on his NBA career and starts a new chapter after a bizarre year in Denver.

One week ago, the Nuggets waived Valanciunas before his $10 million salary became fully guaranteed, opting to eat just $2 million of dead money instead. Denver saved roughly $8 million off the luxury-tax bill — tens of millions more once you factor in repeater-tax penalties — and replaced him with Marvin Bagley III on a minimum deal.

Last offseason, the Nuggets and Valanciunas quietly amended the final year of his three-year deal — originally signed with Washington in the summer of 2025 — per Jake Fischer of The Stein Line. The adjustment moved the guarantee date on Valanciunas’ $10 million salary for 2026-27 from June 29 to July 8, ostensibly giving Denver more flexibility to include his contract in an offseason trade rather than making a decision before free agency opened.

To get Valanciunas to agree? Denver sweetened the pot: his salary would now pay a minimum of $2 million even if he was waived before the new guarantee date. Previously, his salary could have been reduced to zero if he was released by June 29.

The Nuggets handed Valanciunas $2 million of guaranteed money he didn’t previously have, not out of generosity, but so they could push the decision date past the start of free agency. And then they used that exact window to cut him anyway, saving roughly $8 million off the tax bill. The later guarantee date also meant Valanciunas couldn’t become a free agent until after the league’s annual moratorium, boxing him out of the first week of free agency while Denver ran the clock — which is why he likely asked for compensation.

As Ryan Blackburn put it: “I need to know what Denver’s process was in giving him an early $2 million partial guarantee for this offseason knowing that there would be a salary crunch.” He added: “Congrats on going back home. This was always a foregone conclusion.”

Denver restructured the guarantee knowing European interest was there, knowing the salary crunch was coming, and knowing they’d almost certainly cut him. They engineered the exit a year in advance, and made themselves eat millions for no real reason.

hen there was the Panathinaikos saga from last summer. Valanciunas reportedly tried to return to Europe a year ago, even arriving in Athens to complete a deal with the Greek powerhouse.

The Nuggets refused to negotiate a buyout. They held him for a season, played him sparingly down the stretch, a spectator in a win-or-go-home Game 6 against Minnesota — then waived him for nothing anyway. When he did play any real minutes in that series, the Nuggets won both games.

Valanciunas, the all-time leading NBA scorer among Lithuanian players, finishes his NBA career with averages of 12.8 points and 9.0 rebounds across 1,002 games with six franchises. He was the No. 5 pick in 2011, spent seven-plus seasons in Toronto, and earned a reputation as one of the most reliable traditional centers of his generation.

Now, Denver’s backup frontcourt will be a big question to start the 2026-27 season.