Nuggets finally score Jonas Valanciunas, ship out Saric

The Denver Nuggets wanted Jonas Valanciunas at the NBA Trade Deadline, but it took until Tuesday for them to finally land the big man — shipping out Dario Saric in trade with the Sacramento Kings, according to ESPN.

Valanciunas, 33, signed with Washington for three years and $30 million last summer. He’s been a starter most of his 13-year career but had taken a backseat to 2024’s No. 2 pick Alex Sarr and after a midseason trade, Domantas Sabonis. The 6-foot-11 vet has great hands and touch from anywhere on the court, even knocking down some threes. Nobody would confuse the 265-pounder that plots for a stretch big but he certainly is effective and has had good runs on solid teams where he has played in the playoffs for the Raptors, Grizzlies and Pelicans in the past. Last season Valanciunas averaged 11.5 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists through 49 games with the Wizards, then 8.7 points and seven rebounds a contest in 32 games with the Kings.

The former fifth overall pick has played in 58 playoff games but didn’t win the title with the Raptors, traded just before that playoff run for Marc Gasol. Still, the Lithuanian is a monster big man and a strong rebounder.

All it cost Denver was Saric, who just picked up his $5.4 million player option for the 2025-26 season. The 31-year-old Croatian big man signed with the Nuggets on the taxpayer mid-level exception of 10.6 million over two years last summer. Saric has played in just 16 games last season, despite being listed as healthy for the entire campaign. In that, he’s only come away with a plus-minus in the positive four times. Saric averaged eight points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game for the Golden State Warriors a year ago, and that had fallen to 3.5 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game in his limited action for the Nuggets.

Simply, Saric was thought to be the solution to the Nuggets’ long-known issue of backing up three-time MVP Jokic. But Saric has struggled so much in his 210 minutes this season that he went months without playing, and those stints were broken up by just a handful of minutes.

The trade was a straight-up swap. So why did the Kings do it? Well, the Nuggets are on the hook for two more years and $20 million of Valanciunas’ deal and Sacramento gets to save about $15 million. It allows them to keep Malik Monk while adding Dennis Schroder, if wanted.

It’s a shrewd move by Ben Tenzer and Jonathan Wallace, making a second major trade in as many days.

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