The NBA’s second apron claims yet another victim. Could Nuggets’ cost-cutting eventually cost them Nikola Jokić?

Quietly, Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokić can become a free agent next summer.

We say, “Quietly,” because in early July, when the three-time NBA MVP had also yet put pen to paper on a $278 million contract extension over four seasons, Jokić told reporters following his native Serbia’s FIBA World Cup qualifying match, “My idea and desire is to stay in Denver. I’ll probably sign next year. My desire is to play the rest of my life in Denver.”

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And it makes sense. By waiting until next offseason, the 31-year-old can sign a record five-year, $360 million extension, which would keep him under the Nuggets’ control until 2032.

In the meantime, the Nuggets have done little to satiate Jokić’s desires. For fear of the second apron (and there is real fear; New York Knicks owner James Dolan said earlier this summer that a team would have to be “suicidal” to spend into the second apron), Denver did not re-sign restricted free agent Peyton Watson, instead trading him to the Cleveland Cavaliers for little but draft capital in a four-year, $88 million sign-and-trade transaction.

The draft capital is nothing to dismiss. In exchange for Watson, the Nuggets received a first-round draft pick and a second-round selection, either of which could be flipped to acquire another piece to a puzzle that produced 54 wins last season and lost in the first round of the playoffs (without Watson, who missed the series because of a right hamstring injury).

But do we really expect the Nuggets to spend further into the luxury tax for the necessary help to continue contending for championships? They won the title in 2023 and ever since have been dismantling the roster around Jokić, for fear of spending.

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They had no choice but to let Bruce Brown walk for a balloon payment in 2023 free agency, but in 2024 they lost Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for nothing in situation similar to the current one involving Watson. They could have retained Caldwell-Pope on the three-year, $66 million contract he received from the Orlando Magic, but it was too rich for their blood.

That is rich in itself, since the Kroenke family, who owns the…

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Author : Ben Rohrbach

Publish date : 2026-08-20 13:46:00

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