Vlatko Cancar Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Vlatko Cancar Confirms Move To EuroLeague

July 4th, 2025 at 10:04am CST by Luke Adams

Making an appearance on DNVR Sports’ Denver Nuggets podcast on Thursday (YouTube link), veteran forward Vlatko Cancar confirmed that he plans to sign with Olimpia Milano as a free agent.

Reporting earlier this week indicated that Cancar was expected to sign a two-year contract with the Italian club, which competes in the EuroLeague.

“After the season and before the free agency, I was talking with my agent, and then I was asking, ‘What’s going on with Denver?'” Cancar said (hat tip to Eurohoops). “Unfortunately, they came out with the news where it was kind of like a remodel. … They want to say thank you for everything that you did, but they’re trying to move on now and bring some new energy, bring some new players. And then I accepted it. I said OK, I’m glad I was part of the team for six years. For me, it was OK.”

Cancar was never a major rotation piece for Denver — he set a career high in 2022/23 when he averaged 14.8 minutes per game across 60 regular season contests, but he made just five brief postseason appearances in garbage time during the team’s championship run that spring.

He has played even less during the last two seasons as he has dealt with major left knee issues. He tore his ACL in August 2023 in an exhibition game prior to the FIBA World Cup, then underwent another procedure on the same knee in December 2024. The 28-year-old, who was able to play in just 13 games for the Nuggets across the past two seasons, indicated he’s looking forward to being healthy and having an opportunity to play a more significant role in Italy.

“Milano came straight away and they were eager to bring me in,” Cancar said. “And then, obviously, I got that feeling of being wanted and being important.”

The 49th overall pick in the 2017 draft, Cancar came stateside to join the Nuggets in 2019. Across six years and 143 regular season games with the team, the 6’8″ forward averaged 3.4 points and 1.8 rebounds in 10.7 minutes per night. He was known to be good friends with Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic.

Free Agency Notes: Cancar, Nuggets, Turner, Middle Class, Spending Power

July 2nd, 2025 at 11:39am CST by Dana Gauruder

Veteran forward Vlatko Cancar is expected to leave the Nuggets and head to Europe next season, Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com reports. The Italian team Olimpia Milano has emerged as the leading candidate to sign Cancar, Urbonas adds, with a report from Aris Barkas of Eurohoops suggesting the two sides are on track to complete a two-year deal.

Cancar, 28, has spent the past five seasons with Denver. He has battled health problems in recent years, having missed all of 2023/24 due to a torn ACL and then undergoing another knee surgery this past season. In 13 total appearances in 2024/25, he averaged 1.8 points and 2.5 rebounds in 11 minutes per contest.

Cancar is an unrestricted free agent after playing on a one-year veteran’s minimum deal.

Here’s more news on the free agent front:

Nikola Jokic lamented the Nuggets’ lack of depth after the team was eliminated by the Thunder in the playoffs. That issue has been addressed, as The Denver Post’s Bennett Durando notes (subscription required). Denver agreed to trade Michael Porter Jr. and replace him with Cameron Johnson from the Nets, made another agreed-upon trade for big man Jonas Valanciunas, and reached agreements with Tim Hardaway Jr. and Bruce Brown in free agency.
Despite a report from the Indianapolis Star’s suggesting they went higher, both The Athletic and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link) contend that the Pacers’ best offer to Myles Turner was in the $20-22MM per year range. Turner agreed to a four-year, $107MM deal with Central Division rival Milwaukee on Tuesday. According to Spencer Davies of RG.org, Turner would have stayed in Indiana for $25MM per year, but the organization held firm, offering a three-year, $66MM contract, with no player option on year four.
The Athletic’s John Hollinger notes that the league “middle class,” solid rotation players but not superstars, are doing surprisingly well in free agency. He points out that eight such players received some or all of a team’s non-taxpayer mid-level exception on the first day of free agency.
Factoring in all the reported moves prior to Wednesday, Spotrac contributor Keith Smith examines the remaining spending power of all the Eastern Conference and Western Conference teams.

Nuggets Notes: Draft, Free Agency, Alexander

June 27th, 2025 at 9:55pm CST by Eli Cohen

The Nuggets didn’t make a single selection across two nights of the 2025 NBA draft. However, just because there were no picks called for Denver didn’t mean there was no activity on the part of newly promoted general manager Ben Tenzer, writes Bennett Durando for the Denver Post.

“We had our targets. We looked hard at those targets,” Tenzer said. “Had to evaluate where they would get to, could we get there? It’s tricky. But I would say we were moderately close (to trading for a pick) in a couple of different scenarios.”

The 2025 draft saw steep price tags when it came to trading up or into the draft. The Pelicans traded a valuable 2026 first-round pick to move up 10 spots in the first round, while the Grizzlies traded a future first-rounder and multiple seconds to move from 16 to 11.

Even picks in the early second round ended up costing a handful of future assets, which the Nuggets ultimately decided wasn’t worth the cost of doing business.

The Nuggets did strike a deal this week to add at least one member of the 2025 rookie class, however, having agreed to sign undrafted free agent Tamar Bates out of Missouri to a two-way contract. Denver is also believed to be signing Iowa State’s Curtis Jones to an Exhibit 10 deal.

We have more Nuggets notes:

Denver will lean on their newly hired executive vice president of player personnel, Jon Wallace, to help find ways to fill out the roster in a way that gives them the best chance at building another championship team, writes Durando in a separate piece. Durando calls the former Timberwolves executive a relative outsider who will bring much-needed perspective on the roster’s needs. “We’ve gotta make sure that we find some more shooting,” Wallace said. “Obviously, address some of the defensive concerns. But I think we have both young individuals here that can step up and do that as we continue to develop them, as well as we’ll look outside and see what makes sense.”
Durando points out that free agents Russell Westbrook, DeAndre Jordan, and Vlatko Cancar don’t quite fit that description, though Wallace added that bringing in a backup center who can offer a different look could be effective. “It may be more (of a) run-and-jump, rim-protecting big as opposed to a guy that we play through off the elbows and through the center of our offense,” he said.
Second-year guard Trey Alexander will not be back with the Nuggets next season, reports Vinny Benedetto for the Denver Gazette (Twitter links), who says the team wants to go in a different direction with that two-way slot. The 6’4″ shooting guard played just 117 minutes at the NBA level in 2024/25, though he excelled with the Nuggets’ G League team. In 30 total NBAGL outings, Alexander averaged 25.8 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists, and 1.6 steals in 37.0 minutes per game, posting a shooting line of .462/.395/.817 and earning G League Rookie of the Year honors.

Nuggets’ Cancar Cleared To Return, Discusses Knee Surgery

March 9th, 2025 at 10:52am CST by Luke Adams

Nuggets forward/center Vlatko Cancar, who underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in the fall, was cleared to return earlier this week and was technically active in Denver’s games on Wednesday and Friday, though he didn’t play at all.

According to Bennett Durando of The Denver Post, after Cancar injured his knee in November, he spent two weeks seeking out medical opinions and had multiple surgical options to consider, including waiting until the end of the season to go under the knife or undergoing a cartilage transplant, which would have been a more serious procedure with a longer recovery time.

“To me, (the cartilage transplant) was never an option because it’s a longer period. You have to rehab for 12 months,” said Cancar, who missed the 2023/24 season with a torn ACL in the same knee. “We kind of sat down and talked this through, the whole training staff. … The coaches and everybody knew what I’ve been through before, so they were like, ‘Whatever you do, we’re going to support you.’

“And then after, I think it was just an easy decision for me (to have surgery immediately), the reason being I knew I was going to get back healthy during the season rather than the offseason. Because back home, you’re not really in focus mode that much.”

As Durando explains, the opportunity to recovery from surgery while having access to the Nuggets training staff appealed to Cancar, who wouldn’t have had the same resources over the summer in his home country of Slovenia. The 27-year-old also liked the idea of addressing the issue sooner rather than later and returning before the end of the season so he could be available for the playoffs.

According to Cancar, his surgeon discovered some lingering scar tissue from his ACL injury during the procedure, which involved shaving off a bit of cartilage.

“When I was playing, I didn’t really notice it,” Cancar said. “But once he went in, he was like, it took him more time to get rid of the scar tissue than actually to do the cartilage shave. … It’s a good thing and a bad thing that I went under the knife, because he cleared a lot of scar tissue, but at the same time set me back a little bit more.

“Everything went smooth. I wanted to be back before, but I think (the team) said to be a little bit more patient and give me a little bit more time. Now I just have to build tolerance, because not pain, but soreness and stiffness now is going to be there a long time.”

Cancar wasn’t a regular part of the Nuggets’ rotation prior to the injury, logging just 34 minutes in four appearances off the bench. But he had a couple solid outings in mid-November, including scoring five points and grabbing four rebounds in 11 minutes in the game in which his injury occurred.

As Durando writes, Cancar will likely remain a “deep-bench” reserve for Denver as long as the team stays healthy, as reflected by his two DNP-CDs this week.

Injury Notes: Hart, Gafford, Ball, Cancar

February 11th, 2025 at 1:18pm CST by Luke Adams

Josh Hart hasn’t had to miss any time due to right knee soreness, but he has continually shown up on the Knicks‘ injury report as a result of the issue, notes Stefan Bondy of The New York Post. The 29-year-old forward said on Monday that he isn’t sure whether or not he’ll need to undergo an offseason procedure on the knee.

“We’ll see what it calls for at the end of the season,” Hart said. “But, like I said before, I’m a servant to (my teammates) this year. I want to make sure I put these guys in the best situation. It’s not just for them. It’s also for (head coach Tom Thibodeau). I want to make sure that I’m available to him, I want to make sure when I’m out there, I’m playing at a high level and playing the game the way I know how to play. If I’m out there, I’m healthy enough. And I’m good.”

Hart has certainly achieved his goal of playing at a high level this season. Appearing in 51 of 52 possible games, he has scored 14.4 points per game, with career-best marks in rebounds (9.6 per game), assists (5.7), steals (1.5), field goal percentage (55.4%), and free throw percentage (80.6%).

Here are a few more injury-related notes from around the NBA:

The Mavericks‘ frontcourt situation went from bad to worse on Monday night, as starting center Daniel Gafford exited the game vs. Sacramento and didn’t return due to what the team called a right knee sprain (Twitter link). Dallas big men Dereck Lively (fracture in ankle) and Anthony Davis (adductor strain) are already expected to be unavailable for at least the next few weeks, so the club would be extremely shorthanded up front if Gafford has to miss time too.
Hornets guard LaMelo Ball, who has battled ankle issues for multiple seasons and just recently returned from a left ankle sprain, sat out the final three quarters of Monday’s loss to Brooklyn due to right ankle soreness (story via ESPN.com). While Ball said after the game that he didn’t think the injury was serious, the Hornets could hold him out of their final game before the All-Star break on Wednesday in order to give him an extra week to rest.
Nuggets forward Vlatko Cancar, who underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in early December, will remain on the shelf through the All-Star break, but there’s a chance his return isn’t too far off, according to head coach Michael Malone (Twitter link via Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette). Malone said over the weekend that Cancar might make it back to the court before Peyton Watson does — Watson was ruled out for at least four weeks on February 3 due to a right knee sprain.

Northwest Notes: Edwards, Caruso, Timberwolves, Cancar

January 13th, 2025 at 8:35pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards was fined again by the league, this time for making obscene gestures toward an official. It’s the fifth time Edwards has been docked by the league this season. He’s also tied for the league lead with nine technicals. Head coach Chris Finch says he has spoken with Edwards about both issues.

“It’s been addressed for sure,” said Finch, per Chris Hine of the Minneapolis Star Tribune (Twitter link). “It’s been addressed organizationally, individually. I think he’s aware. We’re all aware.”

Finch believes Edwards will do a better job of controlling his emotions, Hine adds in another tweet.

“He’s extremely self-aware. I think he has emotional control for sure,” Finch said. “I think he’s frustrated on many levels. I think some of that frustration is certainly in & around the whistle no doubt, but he’s just got to figure it out, play through it and he’ll be fine.”

We have more from the Northwest Division:

Alex Caruso is no longer listed on the Thunder injury report, signaling that he’ll suit up for Tuesday’s game against Philadelphia, Joel Lorenzi of The Oklahoman tweets. Caruso, who signed a four-year extension last month, has missed the past 10 games with a left hip strain.
The parties involved in the Timberwolves’ ownership battle met for a final time on Jan. 10, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic tweets. Arbitration hearings were held in early November and it was expected to take a few months for a ruling. The decision will likely be handed down within the next 30 days. The dispute over control of the franchise between minority owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez and principal owner Glen Taylor moved to arbitration in July.
Vlatko Cancar traveled with the Nuggets to Dallas over the weekend and went through a full pregame workout, Grant Afseth of the Dallas Sports Journal tweets. Cancar underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on Dec. 4. At that time, the team indicated that Cancar would be reexamined in eight weeks. The forward/center is currently inked to a one-year, $2.1MM veteran’s minimum deal.

Nuggets’ Vlatko Cancar Undergoes Knee Surgery

December 4th, 2024 at 4:12pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Nuggets reserve forward Vlatko Cancar had a successful left knee scope this week, Denver announced Wednesday (Twitter link). He will be reexamined in eight weeks.

The 6’8″ vet played in just four games this fall for the 11-8 Nuggets, averaging 2.3 points on 57.1% shooting from the floor, including 50% shooting from deep. He had been serving as the third-string, small-ball center behind MVP Nikola Jokic and new free agency acquisition Dario Saric to open the season.

As Bennett Durando of The Denver Post notes, Cancar has been away from the team since injuring the knee in a 122-110 victory over Memphis on November 19. The ailment was initially referred to as a sprain, but Cancar underwent further medical consultation and ultimately landed on an arthroscopic procedure as the best path forward.

The Nuggets selected the Slovenian standout with the No. 49 pick in 2017, though he remained overseas until 2019/20.

Cancar became a full-time rotation player in 2022/23, his best NBA season to date. The 27-year-old subsequently missed the entire ’23/24 season with a torn ACL in the same knee, and has since fallen further down head coach Michael Malone‘s depth chart.

A recovery timeline of eight-plus weeks means Cancar’s comeback will likely happen after this year’s February 6 NBA trade deadline. The forward/center is currently inked to a one-year, $2.1MM veteran’s minimum deal, meaning his money owed would be an afterthought in any deal. Still, he could be added as outgoing money to match salaries as part of a larger transaction for the capped-out Nuggets.

Nuggets’ Cancar Out For ‘Foreseeable Future’ With Knee Injury

November 21st, 2024 at 1:58pm CST by Luke Adams

Nuggets forward Vlatko Cancar, who exited Tuesday’s game in the second quarter due to what the team referred to as a left knee sprain, will be out “for the foreseeable future,” head coach Michael Malone said on Thursday, per Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette (Twitter link).

Cancar and the Nuggets are weighing potential treatment options for the knee injury, according to Malone, who said the ailment is “not necessarily” season-ending, according to Bennett Durando of The Denver Post (Twitter link).

“It could go a couple different ways. We’re still gathering information, letting the knee calm down a little bit,” Malone said. “So I don’t want to get doom and gloom. But he’s out for the foreseeable future.”

Asked if the decision will come down to a surgical vs. non-surgical approach, Malone replied, “I’m not gonna go into all the details, but some different options will be on the table for Vlatko, and we’ll try to educate him.” He added that the next steps for the 27-year-old will likely be determined within the next week.

While a sprained knee ligament typically results in at least a multi-week absence on its own, Cancar’s injury caused additional concern on Tuesday because it affected the same knee in which he tore an ACL last summer. That ACL tear caused him to miss the entire 2023/24 season.

Cancar re-signed with the Nuggets on a one-year, minimum-salary deal this past offseason. The Slovenian forward had appeared in just four games so far this season, having sat out six due to a sprained ankle and three as a DNP-CD. However, he logged double-digit minutes on Sunday for the first time this season and did so again on Tuesday before injuring his knee. Malone referred to Cancar’s play in those games with the second unit as “really, really effective.”

The Nuggets are already missing one frontcourt piece as a result of a significant injury. First-round pick DaRon Holmes sustained a season-ending Achilles tear during his Summer League debut in July.

Nuggets Notes: Jokic, Westbrook, Cancar, Murray

November 20th, 2024 at 8:40am CST by Luke Adams

After a pair of dismal performances in New Orleans and Memphis during the first two games of a Nikola Jokic-less road trip, the Nuggets bounced back on Tuesday, securing a 12-point victory in a rematch with the Grizzlies. It was a group effort, writes Bennett Durando of The Denver Post, with Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., Christian Braun, and Russell Westbrook among those who had strong showings and made up for the absence of the three-time MVP, who has been out for personal reasons.

“We’re not always going to have the luxury of being able to rely on one person,” Nuggets forward Peyton Watson said prior to the game. “… Without him, our mindset should change. I don’t think that it should stay the same. I think we should all take it upon ourselves that we have more responsibility. … I think that’s something that’s a privilege, being able to be in these situations and be counted on and have the pressure on us.”

Head coach Michael Malone, who said before the game that he wasn’t sure whether or not Jokic would be available when the Nuggets return home on Friday to host the Mavericks, also stressed the importance of learning to win when the superstar center isn’t available.

“All we talked about all day long is: ‘We’ve lost two in a row, and don’t waste on energy on who’s not here; we have enough talent in the room to get the job done,'” Malone said, per Durando.

Here’s more on the Nuggets:

Westbrook finished Tuesday’s win with 12 points, 10 rebounds, and 14 assists, making him the first player in NBA history to reach 200 career triple-doubles (story via ESPN.com). “It’s hard to put into words,” teammate Julian Strawther said of the accomplishment. “Two-hundred triple-doubles is a lot. I don’t even know if I’ve got 200 career games.” It’s possible Westbrook’s record will eventually be broken by a current teammate — Jokic ranks fourth on the league’s all-time triple-double list with 136.
Nuggets forward Vlatko Cancar exited Tuesday’s game in the second quarter due to a left knee sprain and didn’t return, as Durando details for The Denver Post. It’s the same knee in which he tore his ACL last summer. Asked after the game if there’s any fear of another tear, Malone said he had yet to speak to the medical staff. “I would hate to be premature with any speculation in terms of what happened,” the Nuggets’ coach said. “When I spoke to him at halftime, he was in good spirits. He seemed to be fairly pain-free. It just felt a little uncomfortable when he came down. So we’ll get with our training staff, and we’ll kind of get a better idea of what’s going on with that. And hopefully it’s nothing major and we can get him back out there, because I thought Vlatko with that second unit was really, really effective.” Prior to the injury, Cancar had scored five points and grabbed four rebounds in 11 minutes of action.
Murray, who signed a four-year, maximum-salary extension this offseason, had struggled entering Tuesday’s game, averaging 17.3 points per game on 39.9% shooting (30.2% on three-pointers). The standout guard enjoyed one of his best nights of the season in Memphis on Tuesday, pouring in 27 points on 10-of-20 shooting. Speaking to Tony Jones of The Athletic, Murray said he’s fully healthy and just needs to be more assertive offensively. “I take full accountability,” Murray said of his recent slump. “It’s not easy when you aren’t playing well. It hasn’t been easy with guys like Nikola and Aaron (Gordon) out. We were fully capable of winning these last games. But, for me, I have to play better. I have to take account for that. It starts with me.”

Northwest Notes: Dillingham, Wolves, Hendricks, Nuggets

July 19th, 2024 at 2:32pm CST by Rory Maher

Timberwolves guard Rob Dillingham, the No. 8 overall pick of last month’s draft, has been receiving advice from Mike Conley and John Wall as he prepares for his rookie season, writes Chris Hine of The Star Tribune.

Dillingham said he reached out to new teammate Conley for defensive advice. As for Wall, the former All-Star point guard is a North Carolina native who went to Kentucky, just like Dillingham.

“That’s my guy,” Dillingham said of Wall. “He been knowing me, texting me and stuff. At Kentucky, he came to all our games. I just hit him after the [Pelicans] game. I was super mad because I didn’t play that well. I just hit him, and he was just telling me to play my game.”

Here’s more from the Northwest:

Michael Rand and Hine of The Star Tribune recently discussed which Timberwolves players participating in Summer League have the best odds of becoming rotation members in the future. Despite struggling so far in Las Vegas, Dillingham will be given “every chance” to be Conley’s backup at point guard next season, according to Rand and Hine, who also expect fellow first-rounder Terrence Shannon to carve out rotation minutes in 2024/25. Former second-round pick Leonard Miller has impressed at Summer League, but he’s more likely to contribute in 2025/26 than ’24/25, per Rand and Hine.
Second-year Jazz forward Taylor Hendricks bounced back with a strong performance at Summer League on Wednesday after struggling on Monday, notes Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune. A lottery pick last year (No. 9 overall), Hendricks contributed 23 points (on 9-of-10 shooting), nine rebounds, one steal and one block. “I think he was just more aggressive and more physical right from the start,” said Summer League coach Sean Shelden. ” … How you stick in a rotation, how you stick in the NBA, is just playing like how he did tonight.”
In a subscriber-only story for The Denver Post, Bennett Durando breaks down the Nuggets‘ projected depth chart for next season. Durando has Christian Braun sliding into the starting lineup at shooting guard, with Russell Westbrook, Julian Strawther, Peyton Watson, Vlatko Cancar and Dario Saric as Denver’s first five off the bench. Westbrook will reportedly sign with the Nuggets after he finalizes a buyout with Utah and clears waivers.