{"id":351737,"date":"2025-10-19T12:08:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T12:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/351737\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T12:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T12:08:11","slug":"why-peyton-watson-hasnt-feared-injury-amid-nuggets-contract-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/351737\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Peyton Watson hasn’t feared injury amid Nuggets contract talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

By not fearing injury this offseason, Peyton Watson<\/a> believes he helped himself avoid one.<\/p>\n

Extreme caution would have been justified. Not only is he on the clock to sign a contract extension<\/a> with the Nuggets by Monday, but around this time last year, he was nursing a strained hamstring, unable to play in any of Denver\u2019s preseason games. The injury occurred while he was playing pickup a few days before training camp. The memory remains fresh in his mind.<\/p>\n

The lesson taken from it was not to scrimmage less, though. Just the opposite.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like last summer, I didn\u2019t play as much, and I got that soft-tissue injury right before the season,\u201d Watson said Thursday when asked about staying healthy amid contract talks. \u201cMy body wasn\u2019t able to withstand going from just shooting spot-(up) shots to playing a live-action game. \u2026 I\u2019ve played a lot more this summer, and I honestly think it was the best thing I could have done for my body. \u2026 This is the best I\u2019ve felt going into a season.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s paying dividends from more than just a conditioning standpoint, too. Watson\u2019s increased ball-handling responsibility has been one of the most unexpected developments of the Nuggets\u2019 preseason. When coach David Adelman was asked this week to pinpoint a player he\u2019s especially excited about, he went through three stages of answers: a joke (\u201cJokic\u201d), a few lines of self-aware coach-speak (\u201cthe team in general\u201d), then more naming of names. Watson was the first out of his mouth.<\/p>\n

In his fourth professional season, Watson\u2019s offensive role off the bench is likely to expand beyond the baseline, where he\u2019s been used in the past as both a corner spot-up shooter and an Aaron Gordon dunker spot replica.<\/p>\n

Not that he\u2019ll never be assigned to that region of the floor again. After all, his 76 corner 3-point attempts were the second-most on the roster last season<\/a>, and he converted on 44.7% of them. But when Watson is playing with the second unit, he\u2019ll be asked to start plays as well, not just finish them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a job Adelman expects to be done by committee throughout the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still developing,\u201d he said. \u201cPeyton\u2019s been really impressive. But the difference will be when they decide to put their main defender on Peyton, and we want to get him off the ball, can other guys handle that responsibility? It\u2019s a challenge for the players because you have to know the calls as a point guard or a lead guard just as well as a guy like Jamal (Murray) does, or when Aaron (Gordon) brings the ball up, or whoever it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s not just about the ability to bring the ball up. It\u2019s about the knowledge of what you\u2019re trying to accomplish when you do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DenverDenver Nuggets guard Peyton Watson dunks against the Chicago Bulls during the first half of a preseason NBA basketball game Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo\/Jack Dempsey)<\/p>\n

Watson\u2019s preseason usage rate was 17.3% through four games, up from 13.8% last regular season. Entering the final exhibition at Oklahoma City on Friday, he had six assists and five turnovers \u2014 identical numbers to Bruce Brown.<\/p>\n

He was also averaging 14.7 points and 6.9 rebounds per 36 minutes on 55% shooting from the field. The 23-year-old has always felt comfortable and confident as a straight-line slasher when he\u2019s been put in situations to play off the wings. Grain-of-salt October basketball has indicated there should be more of that coming as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur coaching staff has really put a lot of trust and belief in me this entire preseason, training camp,\u201d Watson said, \u201cto go out there and kind of play more like myself and have the ball in my hands. Make decisions. So I\u2019ve been able to work on a lot of things just in live-action games against really, really talented players. I think that\u2019s always good for confidence. It\u2019s always good for my sharpness. And I feel great.\u201d<\/p>\n

This development comes amid the backdrop of contract negotiations. The Nuggets and Watson have until 4 p.m. Monday to agree to a rookie-scale extension, or he\u2019ll be bound for restricted free agency next summer. Both sides have shown interest in getting a deal done, league sources said, and Watson has said publicly<\/a> that \u201cI\u2019ve got more money than I ever thought that I would ever make.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Denver\u2019s payroll finances could stand in the way of an agreement, especially with starting guard Christian Braun also at the negotiating table<\/a>. The Nuggets are currently an estimated $23 million below the NBA\u2019s second apron for 2026-27. That\u2019s before signing either of their rookie extension candidates.<\/p>\n

If they do extend both players, they\u2019ll project as a second-apron team with only 12 of 15 roster spots filled \u2014 even if Watson does agree to a team-friendly average salary. Between the tax implications and roster-building restrictions that come with going above the second apron, they\u2019ve been reluctant to cross that threshold in recent offseasons.<\/p>\n

The good news for both players is that they\u2019ve avoided injuries during the process while playing in every preseason game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it crosses everybody\u2019s mind, regardless of contractual things,\u201d Watson said. \u201cWhen we come out here for practice, anything can happen, you know? That\u2019s just the nature of the game. I honestly feel the more you play, the more you build the endurance to be able to continue to play through this long season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By not fearing injury this offseason, Peyton Watson believes he helped himself avoid one. Extreme caution would have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[877,7,6850,561,765,2102,250,301,187,766,3636,1035,165,6,302,1146,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-351737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-aaron-gordon","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-bruce-brown","11":"tag-christian-braun","12":"tag-colorado","13":"tag-contract","14":"tag-david-adelman","15":"tag-denver","16":"tag-denver-nuggets","17":"tag-front-range","18":"tag-injuries","19":"tag-injury","20":"tag-latest-headlines","21":"tag-nba","22":"tag-nuggets","23":"tag-peyton-watson","24":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115400756953155952","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}