Nuggets Decline Vlatko Čančar’s Team Option: What It Means for Both Parties
Vlatko Čančar is set to play for Slovenia in early July at an Olympic Qualifying Tournament after missing the 2023-24 season with a torn ACL.
The Nuggets are declining Čančar’s 2024-25 team option, a league source told The Denver Post. However, Čančar is likely to re-sign with Denver in free agency on a one-year minimum contract. This arrangement would increase his salary for the upcoming season and save Denver cap space on the margins.
The deadline for Denver to exercise or decline Čančar’s $2.35 million team option was this Sunday. Čančar, 27, missed the 2023-24 NBA season but was kept on the Nuggets’ roster after tearing his left ACL during an international game last August in preparation for the FIBA World Cup. The Slovenian forward is expected to return from his 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.
Čančar will become a free agent on July 1 and can sign a new minimum contract that would be mutually beneficial for him 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, to de-incentivize signing younger players for a cheaper minimum.
Čančar 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 have been under the structure of his previous deal if the Nuggets exercised the team option. Meanwhile, for the Nuggets, if Čančar re-signs, his cap hit would be $2.09 million, the same as a two-year veteran’s. This would save Denver about $260,000 in cap space, a small but important amount for a team already over the first luxury tax apron as free agency nears.
Čančar has spent his entire NBA career in Denver, playing in 130 games and starting 11 across the last five seasons. The organization values 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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