[Scotto] Denver Nuggets forward Peyton Watson is having a breakout season and will be one of the top restricted free agents this summer. After rebuffing trade interest, the Nuggets want to re-sign him this summer.
I really hope we can make the numbers work to keep him, but wherever he ends up I hope he lives up to the incredible potential he’s shown this season. I loved his game last season as well but he’s really stepped it up.
He’s improved so much.
He would flash but also disappear way too often the past few years. This year he’s been really good most of the time.
Feels like you would have to move one of Braun or Cam to make it work, no? Which would you prefer?
I think we may have to move both and would if it came to it. Maybe one and we let Val off to Greece this time around.
Yeah Valanciunas leaving seems like a sure thing. Would you rather move Braun or Cam if you had to choose one?
Braun, but also neither? Id rather have a shooter where braun is and watson
They have to trade AG. It’s the only way
no they dont
Yes they do. They’d be like at like 220 mil(ish) otherwise. Watson is getting 28m+
this literally says they’re gonna get rid of cam but they can go over the cap anyway
60 m jokic
50 m murray
32 m gordon
22 m braun
that’s 160 million to 4 players without Johnson. They literally do not have the space for another 26-30m guy without going far deeper into luxury tax than any non warriors KD team has done
he’s not getting that much be real
The Lakers will certainly offer him that. Good 3 and D player who fits great next to Luka and Reaves longterm.
Watson is getting 28m+
Do you really think so? I know he looks great this season, but his resume just isn’t very long. If this is an outlier season for his outside shooting, that would sink the Nuggets financially
Defense will translate and he can create his own shot. Lakers will bid that for him easily
Jokic really likes PWat and they have a good relationship, I’m sure they are going to make it a priority to keep him around.
They don’t have to make any numbers work lol there’s not a single rule preventing the nuggets from paying him any amount of money
The rule preventing them from resigning him is that the team can only pay as much as the owner wants to let them.
No not really it’s more about being in the second apron or whatever.
For a team with a top 5 player in the league at the tail end of his prime, going into the second apron can be worth the punishment. This is a team that could have two more years of championship window if they do things right. Personally I think they have other moves they should make before they commit to the second apron, but either way the point still stands that the nuggets are one of the very few teams in the league that it actually makes sense to go into the second apron if necessary.
I would do it for sure because of those reasons.
I mean we have to have the money to afford him while also fielding a competitive team around several other very expensive contracts?
Is that not wildly obviously what I meant in the first place?
I think what OP is saying is you are letting ownership off the hook for not being willing to spend money with the way you are saying it. You should be saying something like :
“I really hope we can keep him. If he leaves it’s because ownership was incredibly selfish, stupid, and shortsighted and I will blame them for years to come.”
Yes? They can sign Peyton Watson to any amount of money they want without having to do any other move to get rid of other players at all lol
Sure. We’ll be deep into the luxury tax, considering Jok Jamal AG and Braun alone are going to be ~$164 mil next year. The 2nd apron will be looming. I’m not sure why you’re so confused by the phrase “make the numbers work” in relation to making a competitive offer for PWat alongside the luxury tax, but I’m not going to dive into this weird argument further.
They will most likely be above the 2nd apron regardless of whether they pay PWat 30 a year or 15 a year or nothing at all so it really makes no difference
Idk why people are downvoting you. The Nuggets have no excuse for losing him. If you aren’t willing to go into the second Apron with a top 10 all time player after you basically refuse to hardball negotiate with other players to keep your payroll low you should absolutely be criticized for it.
The 2nd apron was just so cheap owners can have a legitimate excuse to be cheap. Take it from a guy who’s spent plenty of time with his team in the 2nd apron, there are legitimate difficulties that it prevents in making trades/adding to your roster. I completely understand wanting to avoid it from a GM perspective.
However, it’s really just because the owners don’t want to spend money. And now they have a reason to.
There are reasons to avoid the 2nd apron, but the Nuggets don’t really qualify for those reasons. Usually it’s young teams that have a long future ahead of them and are very close to the apron shouldn’t unnecessarily go into the 2nd apron. The nuggets are :
Not a young team (Their 3 best players are all 28 and older)
Not close to avoiding the 2nd apron. They are so close to it they couldn’t sign Watson to a $15 million contract and avoid the 2nd apron.
Watson is not a luxury to have. They need him to contend. He is already their 4th best player and he will probably become 3rd even if he doesn’t improve due to decline from Gordon. That doesn’t even account for his potential to further improve (he is young and has definitely shown a remarkable ability to improve) and that he plays an unbelievable important position.
It would quickly become the most expensive team in NBA history, and I’m not sure they’d be favored over the Spurs and definitely not the Thunder. So I’m not sure that’s as easy a decision as you make it sound
Hell will freeze over before Stan Kroenke goes into the 2nd apron.
If Jokic wants him to stay he stays
The one time the Nugs didn’t extend one of their rookie contract players early.
Letting Watson and Braun play into restricted free agency was the obvious decision and yet they decided to drop a bag on the dude who can’t do anything besides dunks or layups created exclusively by Jokic.
Watson made a huge leap this year in fairness so this is very much a hindsight is 20⁄20 comment. At the time, it made more sense to extend Run and Layup Man over Watson, who was a fringe player.
Braun was great in their championship run. Seems like the contract was given based on that. He may still pan out.
This will be the first mark walter off-season let’s see what they can cook. Lakers will have more cap space this off-season then most teams
You think AR is going to accept his player option for the last year of his contract making a paltry 18 mil when he’s played at the level of a guard who could be making 35-45 mil?
In fact, I wouldn’t be shocked if the Lakers threw a max at him this offseason so there goes a LOT of that free cap.
Lakers have his bird rights so can go over the cap to sign him.
Not dismissing that but if you delay it, you run the risk of other teams signing him in open free agency. So AR needs to trust that the organization will match a max offer to turn any others down and the Lakers would have to trust that AR will wait until they figure out their moratorium for other players. Yeah it’s been done but I’ve also seen other players take the first max deal at a new opportunity when offered.
Point is, juggle Pelinka, juggle.
Might want to read about the cap. He can agree to a deal as soon as FA and then be signed last in structure. There isn’t the risk you’re representing
That’s literally what I just said. They can verbally agree, then either party can absolutely change their minds. No contract is set in stone until physically signed. There absolutely still remains risk that both parties keep their words until it is signed.
Yeah you don’t know what you’re talking about. Everything in the last 10 years of Shams/Woj free agency reporting is a verbal agreement, those contracts then are cemented later on. No one backs out
No one trades an MVP caliber player in his prime either, but that happened… odds are AR stays in LA. That’s not a certainty though, now is it?
Hey man. It’s okay to be wrong
Saying something isn’t set in stone until it’s physically signed is not wrong. It’s okay to be wrong about other people being wrong
If he struggles again in the playoffs I doubt that. Plus they have expiring in kleber, Rui and kennard which add up to like 40m. On top of LeBron then they have bunch of useless guys on mins and two ways. They also have vandos salary which the can trade away for a valuable player attaching a pick with it. They have 3 picks and 3 swaps available this off season.
I just looked at the Lakers salary table for next year. You got an estimated 56 mil in cap (this number isn’t release yet for 26⁄27, hence the estimation) with all options accepted. If AR wants to get paid, that number shrinks to 20-25 mil which is still a decent amount but it isn’t crazy.
AR’s cap hold is only like 20 mil, he’ll be signed after we use that 50 mil
Here’s a write up I did on it a bit ago:
https://np.reddit.com/r/lakers/comments/1ryazqm/comment/obdqkcj/
articles in the middle of the year said that the plan was to get bron off the books and replace him (somehow) with pwatt and kessler. I am sure any lakers fan would be over the moon for peyton watson. local guy, went to ucla, perfect go to be playing with luka. article at that time was proposing 30 mil a year for him
He’s got a clutch sports agent now, so he’s got the connections to be a large news story this off-season.
Such an own goal not taking Christian Braun into restricted free agency.
After they trade Giannis, I hope MIL throws everything at him.
How are they going to get the cap space?
Depends on the trade to see if it’s possible to outright sign otherwise S&T with DEN if they don’t want to match
Well they will need to resign Dieng so they will probably need to shed like 20m in salary just to reach the salary cap. Do you really see them trading Giannis for 100% expiring salary? To me the most likely trade is some kind of younger all star ish level player and some picks, like Paolo or Franz or Amen Thompson and picks. What team even has the combination of like 50m expiring salary and enough picks to get Giannis? That 25m in Dame money and the large Myles Turner contract are going to make things very tricky for the bucks.
In reality most teams are over the cap. Only real number that matters is the 1st apron.
Dieng will get the Rollins deal so not much of a cap hit.
I’m guessing they get back expiring contracts that they can flip to a team for a lesser bad contract and picks to free up room.
Ya, they can’t keep Cam Johnson at that salary. Good thing he’s expiring. They need to trade for a top 3D guy. Who fits the bill? And no, don’t say MPJ.
Letting Cam Johnson walk after trading MPJ and an unprotected pick would be really rough
It’s not even that, they have to entice one of the cap space team to take him on. They will probably even ask for assets attached since Denver doesn’t have leverage.
It was a trade that reeked of desperation at the time and its aged even worse
Porter wasn’t a fit anymore.
if its because a guy they drafted 30th turned out to be way better than expected it’s not that big of a deal lol
They have to essentially dump cam J or Braun. They need to open up salary space.
Nuggets will sign him even if they have to clear cap space to do it. They’re not letting him walk.
Cmon lakers
What do y’all think he’ll get for his next contract? I’d be surprised if he signs anything less than \(15 mil per season. I’m thinking somewhere around \)15-22 mil
Regardless of what he commands, the Nuggets are already in 2nd apron territory next season with the contracts they currently have. I don’t see how they retain Watson at this point.
He’s getting 25 million easy. Lakers have space and he’s a super ideal fit next to Luka & Reaves.
Agree it will be really hard for Nuggets to keep him
Send CJ back to Brooklyn with their 2026 FRP.
Could Nets facilitate another salary dump? 2033 FRP top-4 protected, Braun, and Nnaji for Sharpe? Need a backup big if Valanciunas doesn’t stick around.
Would make it a lot more manageable to re-sign Watson.
no thanks to Braun on a 5⁄125 contract that hasnt even started yet
Eh, he’s a good young player and we don’t have enough of those. Agreed he’s making too much based on his play this year but still.
I think if anything this proposed trade is too favorable for the Nets.
Id rather just keep DayRon and try to sign Watson instead tbh
Well yeah but they’re going to match and this way we’d get some draft equity. Just an idea.
His play this year has nothing to do with his contract.
You want to take on 2 terrible contracts and give up Day’ron for a Top 4 protected Swap?
I didn’t say swap. Dayron doesn’t have that much value or he would have gotten more than $6M a year to be the backup on a shitty team.
2033 is a swap and no one had cap space to offer more to a RFA.
No teams had the MLE?
Anyway if you are saying it has to be a swap because they already traded 2032 to us then yes that’s an oversight on my part. Would have to at least be unprotected.
Did you forget the Restricted Free Agent part? Dayron was an RFA to the team that had well over $90M in cap , approaching him with an offer sheet would’ve been a waste of time.
Yes 2033 is a swap because 2032 is own outright by the Nets and it’s still an awful prospal even if it was unprotected. I’d be open to taking Cam Johnson back but absolutely not to eating 2 long term salary dumps.
Man I swear some nets fans hate they’re own team. Would be something if marks finds a way to get CJ back Jordi would bring him back to life
CJ back to the nets Mad tv looking guy cooked his value
Lakers gonna have to offer 40m to make the Nuggets second guess the match.
Even at the 30m mark he would put the Nuggets in an extreme cap bind
Thank god, get rid of Scam Johnson, I never want to see this goofball on our court again.
GIVE ME WATSON AND HARTENSTEIN
MAKE THE CALL ROB
What about resigning Ayton and maybe a Westbrook reunion?
Ayton on a player option for 8 mil. He ain’t walking from that
That’s fine. Ayton at 8 mil as a backup center is a good deal imo
😂😂😭😭
Id be okay with Ayton for the right price.
But the man who singlehandedly tore down YOUR entire franchise and front office in ONE WEEK because of a blown layup on Jokic’s 60 point triple double night.
NOOOOO
If you can’t handle him at his Russel, then you don’t deserve him at his Westbrook. Rollercoaster goes crazy
Westbrook was great for us. I don’t really have any regrets about signing him. He was an excellent vet on a minimum contract for us.
He has flaws sure, but he was on a minimum for us and got us through that year.
That is true.
Love Russ and his 110% all the time mentality.
For a minute hed be great
Hartenstien isnt going anywhere hes way too important for OKC.
They need to pay chet and others. He may be the odd man out.
But I wouldnt be surprised
They will get rid of Dort before iHart imo, they have Cason Wallace to replace Dort, none of their young bigs are good enough to replace Hart.
They’d go into the 2nd apron and tax before getting rid of him. Especially if they repeat
I see Kessler being the most realistic option.
The Jazz aren’t getting rid of Kessler unless they truly can’t keep him, they literally just committed to trying to start winning.
Even less realistic than Hartenstein lol.
I see Halle berry being the most realistic option
Can I interest you in one slightly used Nic claxton?
I would have disagreed but Sorber’s injury put us in a bind. If he was healthy he could have really learned from Hart this year and we could have replaced him
OKC will take Harts option or maybe even extend him. They would rather lose Dort than iHart imo. Watson is probably a realistic target though, I hope the hawks throw him an offer.
But people really still think stats in college are the end all be all for how they’ll do in the NBA. Crazy. Good for him
I don’t think anybody thinks that…
If the Nuggets are smart they’ll let him walk and replace him with a rookie
that’s like the opposite of smart
They already made that mistake with Christian Braun. Watson is a nice player but he’s gonna demand a giant contract that is really not worth it for the Nuggets as well as any other team considering that he’s not gonna bring Jokic with him
Watson is not the same thing as Braun, he can actually create for himself and doesn’t just rely on free transition buckets and Jokic like Braun. He averaged 22ppg over like 13 games or something when Jokic was out this season. There is going to be a lot of teams interested in him this summer.
So he’ll be even more expensive probably easily over 30 mil AAV. I don’t see a way in hell the Nuggets can keep him and blowing up the roster to keep him would be really dumb when there are alot of good 3&D forwards in this years draft
I don’t see how they keep him either but they can’t just rely on late first round picks to contribute when they are trying to win now.
Well like I said thats the hole you box yourself into when you do stuff like handing out 125 million to Braun or paying Jamal Murray 60 million in 2029
I mean yeah we can talk about how bad some of the nuggets contract extensions have been all day but my point is they shouldn’t not sign a good young player because he might turn into Braun, they should not sign Braun in the first place.
jamal murray is gonna be all nba
murray has played up to his contract this season