The Denver Nuggets officially traded for veteran center Jonas Valanciunas on July 13, 2025. The trade expelled Dario Saric from their core to the Sacramento Kings. The move was taken to back up Nikola Jokic and finally fix the team’s long-standing depth issue at center.

The Nuggets have a message for Jonas Valanciunas after trading for the veteran big man to be Nikola Jokic's backup.

It's taken a while for the trade to go through, but veteran center Jonas Valanciunas is officially a Denver Nugget. On Sunday night, the Nuggets announced they acquired Valančiūnas from the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Dario Sarič.