The Denver Nuggets have been making moves left and right through the first couple of days of free agency, and now seemed poised to compete with the best teams in the league after not having enough on the roster to do so last year. With guys like Bruce Brown and Tim Hardaway Jr. coming to town in free agency, that means that some of the familiar faces who have been around the organization for a while will not be returning, and it was confirmed on Wednesday that a champion and fan-favorite wouldn’t be returning to Denver.
Vlatko Cancar is expected to leave the NBA for Europe, with one EuroLeague club currently in advanced discussions, per sources.
More 👇https://t.co/Lkk7BMSXmn
— Donatas Urbonas (@Urbodo) July 2, 2025
Vlatko Cancar, who has been a bench piece on Denver’s roster since 2019, will be heading to Europe to continue his basketball career after six seasons with the Nuggets. The 28-year-old only played in five seasons, as he missed all of the 2023-24 campaign due to an ACL tear he suffered in a World Cup preparation game in the summer of 2023.
The Slovenian forward appeared in 143 games for the Nuggets and averaged 3.4 points per game. He saw his most run in Michael Malone’s bench rotation in the championship season when he appeared in 60 games and averaged a career-high five points per game on .476/.374/.927 shooting splits. When playoff time came around, his minutes were dashed, as he only appeared in five games and didn’t score a single point.
Cancar’s best outing with the Nuggets came back in November 2022 when he put up 19 points, four rebounds, five assists and three blocks in an overtime victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. He then followed that up with a dunk from the free throw line against the Houston Rockets just a week later in a play that shocked everyone watching.
Did Vlatko Cancar attempt an in-game free-throw line dunk!? pic.twitter.com/yLKPq0oKCA
— Andy Bailey (@AndrewDBailey) December 1, 2022
Cancar was a great locker room guy, but the ACL injury threw off his career trajectory and pushed him out of Denver’s rotation when he was finally healthy. While he had a great relationship with Nikola Jokic due to their European ties, his presence on the roster wasn’t contributing to winning. In the end, this is the right move for the Nuggets, as they were able to use his roster spot to bring in a guys who will be able to contribute to winning in the playoffs.
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, who finished in 11th place in the EuroLeague this past season, is the club that is currently the favorite to land the forward.
Cancar will always be a champion in Denver, and always be a guy that fans cheer for no matter where his career path takes him in the future.
