The Denver Nuggets continue to remake their roster, this time addressing the bench front-court as they trade Dario Saric to the Sacramento Kings for Jonas Valanciunas (per Shams Charania of ESPN). The 32 year old Valanciunas is coming off a season where he scored 10.4 points and snagged 7.7 rebounds in 18.8 minutes a game between the Washington Wizards and the Kings. Saric is coming off a year where he was unfortunately benched early and contributed very little, even with Aaron Gordon missing multiple stretches of the season with a calf issue. According to Jake Fischer, there are no additional terms – this is a one-for-one trade to get Denver a backup center and save Sacramento money.
Valanciunas is not going to help with the Aaron Gordon starter minutes, but he will definitely help Denver keep the paint scoring and rebounding up in ways Denver was often unable to last year. This uses Denver’s newly-created traded player exception from the Michael Porter Jr. / Cam Johnson trade, and doesn’t use up an extra roster spot because they were able to move Saric. Valanciunas is under contract for this year and next at around $10 million a season, which gives Denver some needed stability at the bench center role as well as someone who can spot-start when Jokic needs a game off. Last year was Jonas’s first year in a majority-bench role and he is not exactly an imposing defensive presence, but now Denver’s guards will have a center they can run a pick-and-roll with who can score and rebound, and hopefully that will help the non-Jokic minutes be more sustainable. The Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer era of the front office does not seem to be slowing down at all in pursuit of that goal!
