The Nuggets are declining Vlatko Cancar’s 2024-25 team option, a league source told The Denver Post, but Cancar is likely to re-sign with Denver in free agency on a one-year minimum contract that would both increase his salary for the upcoming season and save Denver cap space on the margins.
The deadline for Denver to exercise or decline Cancar’s $2.35 million team option was this Sunday. Cancar, 27, missed the 2023-24 NBA season but was kept on the Nuggets’ roster after he tore his left ACL during an international game last August in preparation for the FIBA World Cup. The Slovenian forward is expected to make his return from the injury for his country’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament in early July. Slovenia will compete against New Zealand, Croatia, Greece, Egypt and the Dominican Republic for one of four remaining spots in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Cancar will become a free agent on July 1 and can sign a new minimum contract that would be mutually beneficial for himself and the Nuggets. Minimum salaries for NBA players increase each of their first 10 years of service, but the league reimburses teams for any amount of money committed over the minimum salary of a two-year player, in order to de-incentivize signing younger players for a cheaper minimum.
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Cancar is a five-year veteran entering the 2024-25 season, meaning his minimum salary on a newly signed contract would be $2.43 million — about $80,000 more than his salary would’ve been under the structure of his previous deal if the Nuggets exercised the team option. Meanwhile for the Nuggets, if Cancar re-signs, his cap hit would be $2.09 million, the same as a two-year veteran’s. It would save Denver about $260,000 in cap space, a small amount that’s nonetheless important for a team that’s already over the first luxury tax apron as free agency nears.
Cancar has spent his whole NBA career in Denver, playing in 130 games and starting 11 across the last five seasons. The organization has valued the reserve’s positional versatility and floor-spacing at 6-foot-8, 236 pounds. He averaged a career-high 5.0 points and 2.1 rebounds in 2022-23 when the Nuggets won their first championship in franchise history, also shooting 37.4% from three on increased attempts (1.9).
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