David Adelman on Jonas Valanciunas, Nuggets offseason moves: Second unit an “open competition”

LAS VEGAS All four of the Nuggets offseason transactions have been finalized by the league office after Sunday s announcement of a bargain with Sacramento that turned out to be unexpectedly controversial Jonas Valanciunas is officially a Nugget and Dario Saric is officially a King despite a seemingly ill-fated attempt to intervene by the Greek club Panathinaikos When the Nuggets agreed to the deal league sources have revealed they were unaware that Valanciunas was mulling a three-year contract from the EuroLeague powerhouse an offer that would require him to be published from his NBA contract with cooperation from Denver One challenge Denver had already been celebrating the Valanciunas acquisition internally The -year-old Lithuanian big man is an ideal fit to anchor the second unit and shoulder a heavier load than Nikola Jokic s previous backup centers The group has made it clear that Valanciunas is expected to honor his contract while also understanding that efforts must be made to help him feel assured and content with the idea of spending at least a year in Denver He s owed million for the upcoming - season and he has a non-guaranteed salary of million for - the last year of his NBA contract In league circles Valanciunas is widely respected for his professionalism How he navigates this situation publicly will be telling as uncertainty lingers regarding how he ll feel as the NBA season draws closer During a series of otherwise cryptic comments in Lithuania last week he explained he was planning to advance to Denver and meet with the club at various point However the timing of that trip is unclear because he also revealed to his national club s training camp this week ahead of the EuroBasket tournament When I am sure I ll definitely let you know he mentioned on Monday about his future according to BasketNews Considering Denver s stance other major developments seem unlikely until Valanciunas himself is willing to speak more directly And so it s business as usual from the Nuggets perspective They re operating under the expectation that Valanciunas will be on the court for them in October when the season begins He was just one piece of their sprawling offseason puzzle a series of moves that added depth and flexibility to David Adelman s rotation plus a handful of new assistant coaches Adelman spoke briefly with The Denver Post on Sunday at the NBA s Las Vegas Summer League offering insight on Valanciunas and the second unit The Valanciunas point center concept Adelman shared on an ESPN broadcast last week that he envisions Valanciunas as a point center in Denver an odd label at surface level considering his career average of assists per battle The first-year Nuggets coach provided a few clarification on what that means to him Sunday He s a bona fide big-time center over the last decade who you can put in a bunch of different spots all over the floor Adelman reported The Post And when I say point center I mean someone you can play through in the half-court I don t envision him getting a rebound and pushing the ball up I do think specific of the things we already do work with him playing five-out with back-side dribble handoffs playing off the elbows posting him up against smaller lineups his ability to make others better It s not the assist numbers that matter to me It s his ability to start ball movement through the impact of who he is So he s an enormous get I m super excited about getting him here getting him acclimated Second unit open competition When sought if he s thought up any lineups to put around Valanciunas yet Adelman stated I think it s way too early stressing that bench minutes are up for grabs Related Articles DaRon Holmes II on returning to championship speed at Summer League It just takes specific time Keeler Nuggets Michael Porter Jr might be your Lex Luthor But to this Denver family he ll perpetually be Superman Nuggets fall to Timberwolves Spencer Jones continues to impress Summer League takeaways Nuggets DaRon Holmes II returns from torn Achilles at scene of the crime after resilient year This is Round Sure Kansas City s Tamar Bates signed -way contract with Nuggets That doesn t mean he s a Broncos fan Those guys have to compete for spots That s new guys included They all know that he declared We re very excited about certain of the things those guys have done through their careers We expect them to come to compete like they ve done and there s a reason they ve all played in rotations across the league But this is going to be an open competition I hope our young guys understand that And all those guys will complement Jonas It s gonna be the guys who earn these spots that get to play with him The Nuggets have signed Bruce Brown and Tim Hardaway Jr to veteran minimum contracts to bolster a mostly young bench I think it just gets you through the season to have more depth I think the young guys that end up getting on the court you hope there s a combination of youth and the experience that we ve gained Adelman revealed But again all that s earned And this is only July Right now guys should be working to earn those spots earn those minutes And then I think the combinations take care of themselves That s how you find out what flows well together what guys will flow well with particular of our starters who ll come back in to play with the second unit You really would like to have a long rotation to start the season and then let things play out as they will Other notes from Adelman On whether the Nuggets have a minutes benchmark they want to keep Nikola Jokic under after he was fourth in minutes per championship last season We know that one of the preponderance fundamental things we have to do next season is take care of him and make sure that he is the best version of himself if we re lucky enough to get to that playoff spot So yeah it s a concern But it requirements to be talked about It requirements to be done the right way That s what we re gonna do On differences between Cam Johnson and Michael Porter Jr Both guys in that deal are extremely unique players They both shoot the ball really well I see Cam as a guy that can be in more off-ball actions which will help us It alleviates specific pressure on the ball-handling But we ve inevitably to have Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray and Nikola bring the ball up and to have a guy like Cam that can go play two-man match will just add in another element another level to that offense Beyond the basketball thing Michael was a great teammate and now just talking to Cam last night great personality He s gonna fit in the locker room really well Want more Nuggets news Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis