Report: Nuggets wanted trade for big but instead Denver’s picks got him to another team

The Denver Nuggets lost out on bringing a solid veteran center to the Mile High City on Wednesday when the Sacramento Kings swooped in using a Nuggets second-round pick and another of their own, plus youngster Sidy Cissoko to acquire Jonas Valanciunas.

One NBA insider reports that the Nuggets were pursuing the former Wizards big man, who would’ve spelled Nikola Jokic. Denver has long had an issue of playing competently in the 10 minutes a night the three-time MVP rests. The team has gone about a dozen different routes with a double-digit amount of names since Mason Plumlee left that role to sign with Detroit in 2020.

Valanciunas, 32, signed with Washington for three years and $30 million this past summer. He’s been a starter most of his 13-year career but has taken a backseat to 2024’s No. 2 pick Alex Sarr. 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, Grizzles and Pelicans in the past. This season Valanciunas has averaged 11.5 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists through 49 games.

The Kings now have the two best Lithuanian players in the world in Valanciunas and Domantas Sabonis. And get to pair their new big with longtime NBAer and former Raptors teammate DeMar DeRozan. Though it’s the deal to get DeRozan his former Bulls teammate Zach LaVine this week that helped get Valanciunas. In offloading the disgruntled De’Aaron Fox for LaVine, the Kings picked up Denver’s second-round pick from the Spurs, which they used in the package for Valanciunas.

San Antonio had been holding onto that selection since early 2022 when the Nuggets sent out Bol Bol and PJ Dozier with the pick for Bryn Forbes in a three-team deal that included Boston. Forbes played just 40 games including in the playoffs for the Nuggets, where they got wrapped up by the Warriors in five games. His stint in Denver was pretty forgettable and his NBA career ended quickly after when he was jailed for family violence charges.

Went back to see how the Nuggets offloaded the 2028 2nd in the first place… that the Kings used to get Jonas today. And come on… pic.twitter.com/hJoWJ99jHM

— Jake Shapiro (@Shapalicious) February 5, 2025

Meanwhile, the Nuggets didn’t have their own 2029 pick, unlike the Kings who stapled theirs in the trade, because Denver sent it out with Reggie Jackson this past summer for no good reason other than to save money. The 34-year-old point guard got cut by Charlotte and is playing for the 76ers yet the Nuggets had to dump him with three seconds just to get off a rather meager $5 million deal which expires this summer.

A few weeks ago Charlotte traded some of those Denver seconds with the Suns, who the Nuggets used some seconds to jump in the draft for DaRon Holmes. The second swap landed Phoenix Nick Richards, another backup center the Nuggets might have used.

So it’s for a few failed moves, one in trying to bring in talent, one shipping off salary and another in moving up in the draft, that the Nuggets still remain light in the frontcourt behind Jokic and will likely tax Aaron Gordon again with backup center duties in big games.