Denver Gazette beat writer Vinny Benedetto takes you around the NBA and inside the Nuggets locker room:

NBA Insider

The silly part of the NBA offseason is here.

It arrived Monday when news spread that Panathinaikos Basketball Club tried to buy out the remaining year of Nikola Jokic’s contract. Nuggets fans will remember the Greek club’s name. It’s the same team that last summer tried to lure Jonas Valanciunas to Athens, even though Valanciunas still had a couple of years left on his NBA contract.

Club owner Dimitrios Giannakopoulos admitted on the Euro Insider podcast to trying the same thing with Jokic.

“I did make a very serious proposal this year both to his team and to him,” Giannakopoulos said. “I got a rejection. I know that he has one more year of a contract.”

Jokic is yet to sign a contract extension with the Nuggets. Earlier this summer, he explained he plans to wait to do so until next year. Next summer, Jokic can ink a five-year extension worth nearly $360 million, which would be the largest contract in NBA history. Contracts of that size don’t exist in European basketball.

Giannakopoulos vowed to make another run at Jokic next summer when he could become an unrestricted free agent. It wouldn’t be the most outlandish moment of his career.

The Greek pharmaceutical giant was recently banned from all Greek basketball arenas for a year and was fined 50,000 euros following statements he made on his Instagram stories during the Greek Basketball League finals, according to a report by Greek publication Sport24. That’s in addition to a previous six-month ban for his on-court conduct earlier in the series.

Those are just the latest in a long line of controversies surrounding Giannakopoulos. In addition to many incidents with referees, EuroLeague executives and his own club’s fans, the 52-year-old reportedly led a team of bodyguards into the offices of Gazzetta, a Greek publication, where in 2011 he threatened employees over comments on the website that he considered inaccurate. Former NBA player Dino Radja recently admitted to hitting Giannakopoulos during a confrontation in the locker room in 1999.

Now, Giannakopoulos is trying to orchestrate what would be an unprecedented move to sign a player of Jokic’s caliber away from the NBA in his prime.

“Let’s wait until next year,” he said on the podcast.

What I’m thinking

If the NBA’s investigation team wasn’t aware of the possible deal between Kawhi Leonard and Daktronics, this thing is going to drag out a lot longer.

The Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast dropped a recent episode that detailed the relationship between Leonard, his representation, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and Daktronics, a company that produces scoreboards and videoboards. Roughly a week before, Torre’s team put out a podcast about Leonard quietly becoming a part owner of USL Championship club Rhode Island FC.

The soccer team recently said they have not been contacted by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, the New York City-based law firm hired by the NBA to conduct the investigation into potential salary cap circumvention. Other reports indicate the investigation had already cleared the relationship between Leonard and Daktronics.

If there’s more to look into after Torre’s latest work, it looks increasingly likely this won’t wrap up before the season starts.

That’s going to be a real problem, as a proposed trade that would send Leonard back to Toronto is being held up until the investigation concludes.

What I’m following

• When the Nuggets formally announced the addition of Alpha Diallo, the social media post had the former Providence Friar in the No. 11 jersey that previously belonged to Bruce Brown. The Nuggets have two open roster spots with Peyton Watson still navigating restricted free agency and rookie Bryce Hopkins remaining unsigned. The Nuggets started last season with one open roster spot. Brown remains an unrestricted free agent.

https://twitter.com/nuggets/status/2084757557713998101

• Nuggets fans can make plans this week. The NBA is starting to roll out its schedule with the opening week and Christmas Day games announced Tuesday and the NBA Cup schedule to be released Wednesday. The full schedule drops Thursday.

What they’re saying

The NBA mourned the loss of Don Nelson Sunday. The coach with the second-most wins in NBA history died at 86. Memorials flowed in from across the basketball globe.

“Don Nelson revolutionized NBA basketball through his fearlessness, ingenuity and deep conviction,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said. “He spent nearly 50 years in the NBA — winning five championships as a player with the Boston Celtics before building one of the most successful and pioneering coaching careers in league history. He brought an unmistakable personality to everything he did, and his impact on our sport will continue to be felt for generations.”

Nelson coached the Bucks, Warriors, Knicks and Mavericks in a coaching career that started in 1976 and ran until 2010.

“Nellie … You didn’t just draft me. You believed in me. You saw things in my game before I ever realized I could do them. I’ve said it a million times and I will always say it: I don’t think my career could have turned out how it did without you being my first coach and giving me the freedom to play my game. I can only say THANK YOU. For everything,” Dirk Nowitzki posted on X.

“RIP legend.”

Nelson also pushed for Golden State to draft a small sharpshooting guard out of Davidson back in 2009.

“One of the big reasons I was drafted by the Warriors was because of Don Nelson,” Stephen Curry said in a statement. “The story is he never liked rookies, but from Day 1 he challenged me and gave me an opportunity to be my best self on the court. He taught me a lot during our one season together and I’ll never forget the night he became the winningest coach in NBA history in Minnesota. We were so happy for him. … He had an immeasurable impact on the sport and will go down as one of the greatest minds in the history of the game. He’s a true icon and will be missed by the countless number of people he touched, including myself, during a legendary career.”

Former Nuggets coach George Karl also shared his thoughts on Nelson’s impact.

“Nellie is the first one who believed in me, other than my dad, coach (Dean) Smith, coach (Bill) Guthridge and the Carolina family,” George Karl posted. “Forever grateful for that.”