Kings, Bjelica agree on 3-year, $20.5M deal
The Sacramento Kings announced Saturday the signing of forward Nemanja Bjelica. The contract is valued at $20.5 million over three years, according to Yahoo Sports' Shams Charania.
This comes days after the Serbian backed out of a reported one-year deal worth $4.4-million with the Philadelphia 76ers.
There were rumblings Bjelica preferred to head back to Europe to be closer to his family before he entered negotiations with the Kings' front office. He was able to secure a longer deal with far greater pay compared to his original agreement with Philadelphia.
Bjelica had played all three seasons of his career with the Minnesota Timberwolves, who withdrew their qualifying offer to him after agreeing to terms with forward Anthony Tolliver earlier this month.
The 30-year-old will provide the young Kings roster with a veteran presence capable of knocking down threes at a high rate. He'll add to Sacramento's already loaded list of power forwards, with rookie big men Marvin Bagley III and Harry Giles atop the list, along with last season's leading scorer Zach Randolph.
Bjelica averaged 6.8 points and 4.1 boards last season, going 41.5 percent from downtown on 2.7 3-pointers per game.