Denver Gazette beat writer Vinny Benedetto takes you around the NBA and inside the Nuggets locker room:
NBA Insider
Peyton Watson and Michael Porter Jr. have a lot in common, despite having wildly different games.
From going from an elite high school prospect to not playing much in college before joining the Nuggets to earning former coach Michael Malone’s trust as young players to having their final games with Denver hampered by injury, the two forwards have shared a lot of similar experiences. The latest example is not being happy about how their time with the Nuggets ended after winning the championship together in 2023, Watson’s rookie season.
On Monday’s episode of Porter’s podcast, Curious Mike, he said he knew he was being traded after Denver came up short against Oklahoma City in a seven-game series in 2025.
“I was getting shot up with all types of stuff in my shoulder joint every game to try to hoop. They were saying like ‘Man, if you keep shooting up your shoulder like this, it’s going to deteriorate the joint. You’ve got to chill.’ But I’m like, ‘Man, we’re in the playoffs. I’ve got to do whatever I can do to get out there for my team.’ I didn’t really feel like we were deep enough as a team for me to sit out,” Porter reflected.
“If that happened before I had gotten paid, you know, I don’t think I would’ve put myself in that position to play that poorly in that Oklahoma City series. I literally couldn’t even lift my arm. It was crazy. I don’t think I would’ve put myself in that position to get so much hate and for people to think that I didn’t play well and wasn’t helping the team, because eventually, that’s what got me traded was the fact that I didn’t have a good playoff series.”
Watson came to understand Porter’s situation a year later. After a breakout month in January, Watson suffered a hamstring strain Feb. 4. A re-aggravation during rehab held him out until March 22. By that time, the Nuggets had just 11 regular-season games left.
“Two or three weeks into my rehab, I felt like they were kind of ramping me back up too quickly, but at the same time I know that I’m young. I know that I do heal pretty fast,” Watson said. “At the same time, I was trying to get out there as soon as possible.”
The 23-year-old was eased back into the rotation, while Denver was fighting for home-court advantage in the first round. He played between 20 and 23 minutes in the four games before re-straining the hamstring in Utah on April 1. It was no joke.
“The doctors came back, and they were like it looks the same way that it did when you injured it the first time, which was a Grade 2 hamstring strain,” Watson shared.
That meant another 4-to-6 week timeline. The Nuggets’ season ended April 30. Watson estimated he was at 75% health late in the series.
“I just didn’t feel healthy,” Watson said.
“I just knew I hadn’t progressed far enough in my rehab. I knew that this is the most intense level of basketball.”
Now, Watson is a Cleveland Cavalier after agreeing to a four-year contract extension worth $88 million. Denver netted a couple of draft picks in the deal — Cleveland’s first-rounder in 2031 and Sacramento’s second-rounder in 2032. He heard the chatter that he held himself out of the playoffs to protect his payday.
“Still, to this day, I’m getting chastised about that. People are saying I quit on the team. Anybody who knows Peyton Watson knows the last thing I am is a quitter. I’ve never cheated the game,” Watson said.
“That hurt me, because I felt like I had given Denver my all and it was a really sickening feeling.”
Like Porter, who the Nuggets drafted amid questions about the health of his back, there’s regret Watson couldn’t give the team that took a shot on him in the draft after hardly playing at UCLA more due to what he feels like was a mishandling of the initial injury.
“I feel like if I would’ve maybe taken my time more from the jump and approached it more cautiously, me and the training staff, I felt like we could’ve gotten on top of it and I would’ve been good throughout the postseason,” Watson said. “But I feel like we kind of rushed it and didn’t take the right approach.”
Brooklyn Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. (17) jokes around with his good buddy, Denver Nuggets guard Peyton Watson (8), before the tipoff of a game at Ball Arena on Jan. 29, 2026. (The Gazette, Jerilee Bennett)
What I’m Thinking
Circumstance did Watson no favors.
Announcing that he was going to miss most or the entirety of the first-round series would’ve given the Timberwolves a competitive advantage, while failing to do so gave fans the idea that Watson was closer to playing than reality.
Someone close to the situation told The Denver Gazette that Watson was not ready to participate in full-court scrimmages by the time the series ended. The fact that Watson was then going into restricted free agency after switching agents in the middle of the season fueled speculation.
Things only got worse when Rich Paul discussed the matter before Watson was shipped to Cleveland in a sign-and-trade maneuver.
“When you’re dealing with those injuries, you have to be very careful in your return. Guys want to play. You have to protect them from themselves in that moment, because you’re up for a contract and it’s the playoffs and (he’s) had a pretty good year,” Paul said.
“It’s important to protect that.”
Watson tried to clarify on Porter’s show.
“I think a lot of people took that out of context,” he said.
“I wasn’t healthy. He (Paul) was protecting me from myself, because I was still considering playing to help the team out.”
Whatever the trust is, it’s a tough situation for a young man who was hoping to have his biggest postseason role yet.
“If we got to the second round, I was 100% planning on playing,” Watson said. “There’s nobody in the world that was going to stop me from playing in the second round. I just wasn’t healthy enough.”
What They’re Saying
Spencer Jones took to LinkedIn, his preferred social media medium, to talk about the trip to Puerto Rico that most of the Nuggets made last week.
“I think we needed it this year more than most,” Jones wrote.
“It was a loud offseason for us. We moved some guys, added five-plus new faces and there was plenty of speculation about what our team would look like. Once the dust settles though, none of it really matters. This is our group. Embrace it, eliminate the noise and figure out how to win together. And honestly, the best part had very little to do with basketball. We hooped, but we also went to a concert, got on a boat, had dinners and just hung out. A few days away from the job where you can actually get to know the guys you’re about to spend the next eight months with. The basketball part will always come. We’re all pros. But trust and chemistry doesn’t just show up on the first day of training camp. Teams that get together, win together.”
What I’m Hearing
The Nuggets will hold training camp in Boulder starting at the end of the month. The week will conclude with an exhibition game against the Jazz. It should’ve been an opportunity for Cody Williams to play in a return to Boulder, but he was traded to Minnesota on Saturday.
What I’m Following
Nikola Jokic reportedly played through an illness and led Serbia to a victory over Italy in a FIBA World Cup qualifier on Monday afternoon. Jokić had eight points and eight rebounds in a 76-64 win that capped an unbeaten summer for the Serbians.
After trading Julius Randle and Naz Reid this offseason, Minnesota addressed its need for a forward by signing Jonathan Kuminga to a two-year contract.
Kyle Lowry will become the second player in Raptors franchise history to have his number retired. Lowry’s No. 7 banner will be raised next to Vince Carter’s No. 15 after Toronto’s game against Philadelphia on Jan. 10.