Nemanja Bjelica, after spurning Sixers, reportedly discussing deal with Kings

So much for the excuse about spurning the 76ers because he wanted to play in Europe.

Yahoo Sports reported Wednesday afternoon that Nemanja Bjelica plans to discuss a potential free-agent deal with the Sacramento Kings. This comes one day after the 6-foot-10 Serbian forward informed the Sixers that he wanted to remain in Europe this coming season.

Bjelica, who played for the Minnesota Timberwolves the past three seasons, had reached an agreement July 5 with the Sixers on a one-year, midlevel exception for $4.45 million.

Bjelica flew to Europe when the Timberwolves' season ended and was scheduled to have a physical with the Sixers last week. The team said that visa complications prevented Bjelica from taking the physical.

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The 30-year-old was looking for a better deal with more years than the one he agreed on with the Sixers, EuroHoops reported.  Bjelica also said he thought staying in Europe would be best for the family.

"It's not about the coach [Brett Brown] of the Philly organization," he told The Athletic on Tuesday. "Brett Brown, he's a great guy and a great coach. The most important thing for me is family and some kind of stability."

The Sixers rescinded their rights to JJ Redick, Amir Johnson, Marco Belinelli, and Ersan Ilyasova in order to free up cap space. They eventually re-signed Redick and Johnson to one-year deals. But Ilyasova (Milwaukee Bucks) and Belinelli (Spurs) returned to two of their former teams.

Bjelica was supposed to take Ilyasova's place as a sharpshooting big off the bench. The Sixers were also impressed that he was versatile enough to play small forward.

He averaged 6.1 points and 3.8 rebounds during his three seasons in Minnesota. Bjelica averaged a career-best 6.8 points this past season while shooting a career-best 41.5 percent on three-pointers. He became an unrestricted free agent after the Timberwolves rescinded their qualifying offer to sign Anthony Tolliver.

Bjelica's spurning is a bad look for a Sixers team that was unable to lure any of the three free-agent targets they coveted. LeBron James signed a four-year, $153 million contract with the Los Angeles Lakers. Paul George signed a four-year, $137 million deal to return to the Oklahoma City Thunder. And earlier Wednesday, news came down that the San Antonio Spurs are trading Kawhi Leonard to the Toronto Raptors.