Udonis Haslem Wants European Center to Honor His Contract, Join Nikola Jokic on the Nuggets

The Denver Nuggets looked at all of their woes in the 2024-25 NBA season and have seemingly addressed them this offseason. Their main issue was their lack of depth at the center position, which they solved by trading for big man Jonas Valanciunas. Unfortunately, there was some doubt about whether he’d even suit up for the Nuggets, but a Miami Heat legend has declared the Lithuanian center has to honor his contract for the upcoming season.

At the time, it seemed like an amazing trade for the Nuggets to acquire Valanciunas. Shortly after, reports revealed that the big man’s camp and the Greek team Panathinaikos were also in talks about a contract.

Typically, players make the transition overseas once they can no longer produce on the NBA level, but that wasn’t the case for Valanciunas. He has plenty left in the tank, and Udonis Haslem recognizes that.

“[Jonas Valanciunas] was trying to haul his a** to Europe, but he can’t go nowhere,” Haslem said on The OGs. “Man averaged around 12 and 8 in 16 minutes last year. You’ve got to come here, boy.”

The 6-foot-11 big man actually averaged 10.4 points and 7.7 rebounds in 20 minutes of action per game.

Denver has, interestingly, never had a big man of Valanciunas’ caliber to back up Jokic since the Serbian’s rise to stardom. During Denver’s 2023 championship run, DeAndre Jordan was their backup big.

“As great as Joker is, man, he averaged about 40 minutes a game in the playoffs last year. That’s too much for anybody. So you bring somebody in, and even though [Jokic]  comes out of the game, you don’t have to worry about anything. [Valanciunas] is going to hold his ground,” Haslem predicted.

Denver, anyway, didn’t have any intention of letting Valanciunas forego his NBA duties. As a result, Nuggets vice president of basketball operations, Ben Tenzer, had two words when asked if Valanciunas will begin the upcoming season with Denver.

“Yes, absolutely,” Tenzer said on Denver’s Altitude Sports Radio.

Valanciunas has yet to make a grand entrance with the Nuggets and speak publicly on this entire fiasco. Regardless, Denver won’t have to worry about reinforcements for Jokic any longer. In addition to Valanciunas, the Nuggets have also added Cam Johnson, Tim Hardaway Jr. and brought back Bruce Brown, putting together arguably the best supporting cast around the three-time MVP.