The Denver Nuggets are expected to sign superstar center Nikola Jokic to a contract extension this offseason.
The No. 3-seed Nuggets were bounced in the first round of this year’s NBA playoffs by the No. 6-seed Minnesota Timberwolves. Naturally, talks after the loss have focused on the future of Jokic, the team’s best player, who has just one more guaranteed season on his contract, with a player option for one more season after that.
Last year, the Nuggets offered Jokic a three-year, $212 million extension, which he declined because he would be able to sign a four-year, $278 extension this summer. Although some Nuggets fans are worried their star might consider testing the open market once his contract is up, a prominent NBA insider is telling fans not to worry, because he expects “Big Honey” to re-sign in Denver.
Nikola Jokic Likely To Re-Sign With Denver
According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, Jokic is expected to sign a contract extension this summer with the Nuggets. Speaking on Stephen A. Smith’s radio show this week, the scribe reported what he’s heard regarding Jokic’s potential free agency.
“This is a team that has a lot of questions now going into the offseason. I will tell you, the Denver Nuggets, from their top brass on down to that organization, they believe Nicole Jokic at his word. He wants to be there,” Charania said (via RealGM). “This is not a situation where he’s talking about potentially leaving, or looking elsewhere. Or saying ‘Hey, I need you guys to do this. I need you guys to do that.’ He’s very, very internally and externally, ‘I’m here, no matter what, I’m re-signing.'”
Nuggets Could Make Other Changes
Although the Nuggets expect to re-sign Jokic, the team is expecting to make other changes to its roster after a surprising first-round exit against the banged-up Timberwolves.
“There are going to be changes in Denver. I don’t know how much, but there’s going to be some level of change. Whether that’s tinkering a couple a couple players around… But they are so strapped financially moving forward in whether it’s the tax, whether it’s approaching the aprons, that there’s going to be a lot of a lot of conversations about players on this roster,” Charania reported.
Taking a look at the Nuggets’ cap sheet, the team has several big decisions to make this summer, on top of inking Jokic to an extension.
Swingman Peyton Watson is a restricted free agent, and he is expected to be courted heavily by teams with cap space, which could lead the Nuggets to make a difficult choice of whether to match his offer sheet or let him go.
Backup center Jonas Valanciunas has a partially guaranteed contract for next season, and the Nuggets may choose to waive him and let him go back to Europe to finish his career.
The team may also explore trading the big contracts of forwards Cam Johnson and Aaron Gordon, though it would be surprising if Jamal Murray was moved.
From a free-agent perspective, both Bruce Brown and Tim Hardaway Jr. figure to outprice the Nuggets with superior offers on the free-agent market.
It’s going to be a big summer in Denver, as the team will do everything it can to convince Jokic to return to the only franchise he’s played with and commit to the team long term.
Nuggets Expected To Extend Nikola Jokic