Vezenkov expected to renew talks with Kings after tying EuroLeague final scoring record

Sasha Vezenkov’s MVP season ended with a brilliant performance in the EuroLeague championship game.

Soon it will be time for the Olympiacos star to decide if he wants to stay overseas or bring his talents to the NBA as a member of the Sacramento Kings.

Vezenkov tied a championship game scoring record with 29 points, nine rebounds and four assists in a 79-78 loss to Real Madrid in the EuroLeague final Sunday at Zalgirio Arena in Kaunas, Lithuania. After the game, Vezenkov told European media “we have to keep going” in order to win a championship and “there’s no other choice,” but the 27-year-old forward will have a choice to make.

Sacramento acquired the rights to Vezenkov from the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for the 49^th overall pick in the 2022 NBA draft. The Kings are expected to renew contract talks with Vezenkov in the weeks to come after the two sides failed to reach an agreement last summer.

General manager Monte McNair and coach Mike Brown have both indicated the Kings would wait for Olympiacos to conclude its season before engaging in talks with Vezenkov. Technically, teams must wait until after the June 22 NBA draft to begin negotiations with unsigned draft picks, including those from prior draft years.

“We’ll let him finish the season out and then we’ll talk to him, but we’ve obviously been highly, highly intrigued with him,” Brown said when he went to Greece to watch Vezenkov in early May. “We made a trade to get his rights last year. This is the fourth or fifth time somebody from our organization has come over … so, for us, the interest is at a high level, but we’ll let him finish the season and then he’ll make decisions as well as us when it’s time.”

McNair expressed similar thoughts when he met with Sacramento media after the Kings lost a seven-game series to the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the NBA playoffs.

“We’ve been able to get to know him a little bit, so we’ll sit down and see what our offseason looks like in the next few weeks,” McNair said. “That will be a decision for later in the summer, but right now we’re enjoying watching him in the playoffs.”

Vezenkov is a two-time Greek League MVP who won the EuroLeague MVP award for the first time this season. The 6-foot-9, 225-pound forward averaged 17.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.9 assists while shooting 53.6% from the field, 37.8% from 3-point range and 87.9% at the free-throw line.

Brown said he believes Vezenkov would be a good fit in Sacramento.

“The way we play, he fits in really good,” Brown said. “He shoots the 3 ball. He’s got size. He’s got toughness. He rebounds. All those things are exciting with the way we play the game of basketball, so we’ll let him finish out his season, and then we’ll make decisions from there.”