Asked on Wednesday about the possibility of signing star center Nikola Jokic to a maximum-salary extension this offseason, Nuggets vice president of basketball operations Ben Tenzer said league rules prevent him from getting into specifics, but he added that Jokic’s end-of-season comments about wanting to be a Nugget “forever” are a very positive sign for the team, per Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette.
“You’ve heard what he said about his happiness here,” Tenzer said. “We feel really comfortable with that relationship.”
The Nuggets’ top basketball executives addressed upcoming decisions on several other players during Wednesday’s media session, with Tenzer indicating that the team feels good about Peyton Watson‘s situation ahead of restricted free agency and hopes he’s “here a long time.” Executive VP of player personnel Jon Wallace noted that Denver also wants to re-sign another RFA-to-be, forward Spencer Jones.
“Spencer’s done himself a lot good, a lot of favors this past year, specifically how he stepped in, defended, made shots,” Wallace said. “He was just a big part of what we did, but we feel confident. He’s a homegrown guy. You want to reward those guys with them sticking to the plan and really developing themselves. We feel confident where we are.”
The Nuggets also hold a $2.41MM team option on 2023 second-round pick Jalen Pickett, but they weren’t ready to commit to a decision on that option as of Wednesday. Tenzer told reporters that the front office is “still evaluating,” as Benedetto relays.
Here’s more on the Nuggets:
- Denver began the draft with the No. 26 pick, but traded out of the first round on Tuesday. Wallace said trading up was also a consideration and that the team would’ve targeted a point guard in that scenario, writes Bennett Durando of The Denver Post (subscription required). However, he said it “got a little expensive” to move up, and the Nuggets didn’t want to overpay. “It was a heavy point guard draft,” Wallace said. “I think everybody in this room would agree that there were a lot of guys we liked (in the first round). But they just didn’t fall to our area. We tried to make some moves to get up. It just didn’t work. We’re not the only team that wants elite point guards.”
- Sources tell Durando that the Nuggets felt as if there was a significant drop-off in talent after the first 20 picks or so, which is one reason the team opted to move down from No. 26 to No. 35. Denver used that pick to draft Arkansas big man Trevon Brazile, then selected St. John’s forward Bryce Hopkins 49th overall. “We saw some guys that addressed some needs,” Wallace said, “in terms of length, recovery, defensive ability, versatility, rebounding, toughness. So we saw the opportunity to do that with guys who’ve been coached hard, played in good programs.”
- According to Tenzer, the Nuggets are still weighing whether to sign Hopkins to a standard or two-way contract, Durando writes. It sounds like Brazile will be on the standard 15-man roster.
- When ESPN cameras showed a live feed of the Nuggets’ draft room during the draft ahead of the No. 26 pick, team governor Josh Kroenke looked agitated, leading to a round of speculation on social media about what was going on. Tenzer and Wallace laughed off that moment, with Wallace suggesting it was “blown out of proportion,” as Durando details in another Denver Post story (subscription required). A team source tells Durando that the Spurs didn’t tell Denver which prospect to draft on their behalf until the last minute, delaying the Nuggets’ attempts to complete the trade and call in the pick. “We were waiting for the other side to kind of finalize what the decision was, and at that time, it was like, you know, you’re on the clock,” Wallace said. “So you’re kind of waiting, and it was like, ‘Hey, what did they decide?’ So it was one of those types of issues. It wasn’t an internal issue by any means.”
