The Denver Nuggets restricted free agent center Timofey Mozgov is being courted by the Russian team Lokomotiv Kuban. They are offering Mozgov a four year contract, according to reports on Sportando.net.
Andrey Vedischev, president of Lokomotiv Kuban, confirmed to Championat that the Russian team made an offer to Timofey Mozgov for the next four years.
"We are really hoping to have him in the roster with us next season for our first campaign in Euroleague. One of our goals is to bring back in the team players from the region of Krasnodar, and Timofey is one of them" said Andrey Vedischev to Championat.
And Alexander Cherynkh, who writes for Sports.ru tweeted this out this morning:
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p>Lokomotiv can be considered Mozgov's hometown team, and they make their Euroleague debut next season. Hope he stays in the NBA though.</p>— Alexander Chernykh (@chernykh) <a href=”https://twitter.com/chernykh/statuses/353876647969169408″>July 7, 2013</a></blockquote>
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What does this mean for the Nuggets? If Mozgov were to sign with the Russian club the Nuggets would retain his free agent rights if he were to try to get back into the NBA. Denver faced a similar situation when former player Linas Kleiza elected to sign a contract with the Greek club Olympiacos B.C. in 2009.
It had been rumored that Mozgov was perhaps working on a four-year deal to return to the Nuggets, but it has been pretty quiet on that front. If Mozgov leaves the Nuggets for Kuban he would be the third Denver free agent to leave the team. Leaving only Corey Brewer as the remaining Denver free agent yet to sign a new contract.
Mozgov has spent part of this off-season working out and living in Las Vegas.
