{"id":617806,"date":"2026-02-22T13:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T13:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/617806\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T13:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T13:25:13","slug":"will-nuggets-trade-a-starter-to-make-room-for-peyton-watson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/617806\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Nuggets trade a starter to make room for Peyton Watson?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denver Post Nuggets beat<\/a> writer Bennett Durando opens up the Nuggets Mailbag periodically during the season. You can submit a Nuggets- or NBA-related question here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Peyton Watson has shown that he can defend, block shots, shoot 3s and create his own shots. Most experts seem to think his value will be too high, and the Nuggets will lose him to free agency. I might argue that his ceiling is higher than Christian Braun and perhaps Cam Johnson. Could the Nuggets trade one of them to create cap space to sign Watson?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Dave, Denver<\/p>\n

Bennett: No one questioned the Nuggets prioritizing Braun\u2019s contract extension over Watson in the off-season, nor should they have. Given their respective performances to that time, the choice was obvious. Now, though, so much has changed. It\u2019s clear that someone significant needs to go in the offseason. Cam Johnson seems like the obvious choice, though he would bring the least back. Still, the cap relief is more important, if it allows the team to retain Watson. Is it possible that Braun could be dealt? I know he\u2019s a management favorite, but his regression to start the year was alarming, and he seems to still always be in his head in terms of shooting confidence. \u2026 I don\u2019t want to see Braun go, but I don\u2019t think the team can afford to lose Watson\u2019s offense given Gordon\u2019s injury problems. They need that third option. How do you see all this playing out?<\/p>\n

\u2014 David, Charlotte<\/p>\n

Thanks for the thoughtful questions, Daves. This is the first mailbag I\u2019ve done since Watson\u2019s breakout stretch in January, so I had a feeling this would be the most popular topic. It will occupy most of our space today.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll start by saying this: Nobody\u00a0needs\u00a0to go. The Nuggets possess both Watson\u2019s full Bird rights<\/a> and the right to match any offer sheet he receives as a restricted free agent. In theory, they could sign him to an extension without needing to sacrifice another starter if the Kroenkes are willing to incur the roster-building and tax penalties of the second apron. It feels important to point out that if they claim their hands are tied, it\u2019s by a knot they\u2019re choosing not to untangle.<\/p>\n

As we know, the Nuggets\u2019 actions so far under the current CBA indicate they\u2019re not willing to be a second-apron team. And in fairness to them, it\u2019s also worth noting that the second apron has been treated as a quasi-hard cap by most of the league. Only one team exceeds it right now (Cleveland). Back in October, Watson directly referenced it<\/a> as a driving factor in why the Nuggets didn\u2019t extend him before the season. \u201cFrom what I understand,\u201d he told The Denver Post, \u201cit was just a financial business decision.\u201d At that point, I wrote that retaining Watson beyond this year seemed highly unlikely. Denver knew that not extending him meant being prepared to lose him.<\/p>\n

Everything has changed since then. Watson has made himself impossible to ignore with his fourth-year leap offensively. The likelihood was always that he would price himself out of the Nuggets\u2019 range, but ironically, I think he\u2019s played so well that he\u2019s forced them to reconsider their offseason priorities, making it more likely that they ultimately keep him. They\u2019re certainly planning to try, league sources have indicated. Other front offices are eyeing Watson as well. I can think of one team that plays in his hometown, has cap space to spare this offseason and desperately needs an athletic wing defender in the starting lineup.<\/p>\n

But there are a lot of variables. Forget the second apron for now; the Nuggets have\u00a0also evaded the luxury tax entirely this month, which could incentivize them to do so again next season to avoid a repeater tax bill. Without getting into a detailed breakdown of the cap sheet \u2014 there will be plenty of time for that when the offseason begins \u2014 I don\u2019t see how they can do it without eviscerating their roster, frankly. But the point is this: To one degree or another financially, a sacrifice of a key player is almost guaranteed this summer.<\/p>\n

The question is whether Watson has done enough to convince the front office it shouldn\u2019t be him. I want to urge that nothing is final in this regard. Playoff basketball tends to strongly inform decision-making in the NBA, so a lot can still change, just like how a lot changed in the last two months. As of this dispatch, I believe the Nuggets want to prioritize retaining Watson, even if that means trading a starter to make room for him (both financially and in the lineup). People I\u2019ve spoken to around the league view Cam Johnson as the most likely candidate to go, which would make sense as Watson could replace him as Denver\u2019s starting small forward.<\/p>\n

I would push back at your assertion that Johnson can\u2019t net a good return, David. He\u2019ll be a fairly modest expiring salary of $23 million next year \u2014 an estimated 13.9% of the cap \u2014 and he\u2019s a 6-foot-8 wing shooting 43% from three with decent off-the-dribble ability. I actually think he would be a big loss. He\u2019s been very solid for most of this season when healthy.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re another team trading for Braun this summer, you\u2019re taking on an ascending five-year payroll commitment, starting at $21.6 million. Most front offices don\u2019t want to do that in the current landscape. And anyway, the Nuggets should want to be patient with Braun. He\u2019s five years younger than Johnson, defense is the roster\u2019s biggest need, and his season was derailed by the first serious injury of his life before he had any chance to work through a shaky start to the year. In the last few games since his return, he\u2019s already starting to look more like the 2024-25 version of himself. Gordon also needs to at least be mentioned here, as cold-hearted as it would be. The fan favorite will be 31 years old and making $32 million next season, in the same salary range as the other trade candidates our mailbag inquirers have listed.<\/p>\n

Whatever happens, Watson has turned this into a more intriguing Nuggets offseason than it was going to be. I\u2019m curious to see how he looks when he returns from his hamstring injury and whether that might impact the direction Denver eventually chooses.<\/p>\n

Hey Bennett, hope all is well. Do you think the Nuggets for sure sign someone to\u00a0fill out that last roster spot, and if so what are you hearing on that front?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2014 Joseph, Parts Unknown<\/p>\n

Hey, Joseph. Again, \u201cfor sure\u201d is a dangerous phrase until someone has signed on the dotted line. But I\u2019m still under the impression that Denver is confident it can add a 15th player in the next few weeks. Converting Spencer Jones at the minimum ensured that there\u2019s enough space under the tax to take on another rest-of-season minimum contract. (His exact prorated salary is just under $624,000, according to Spotrac<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

If I had to guess which direction the Nuggets end up going, I\u2019d lean toward a defensive-minded forward at this point. Their inability to get stops without Gordon has been alarming all season, and they need as many bodies as possible on the wing to prepare for a playoff run in which he might not be available 100% of the time. The fact that they just used their third two-way spot to sign a extra point guard is an indication that ball-handling was a box they wanted to check, but also a slightly lower priority.<\/p>\n

Haywood Highsmith would have been a nice fit, but he was scooped up by the Phoenix Suns this week. Options are pretty limited. Interested to watch the market continue to play out.<\/p>\n

Is there really any way to fix the NBA\u2019s tanking problem? It seems worse than ever this year, especially with what Utah was doing, pulling star players in the fourth quarter. I feel like whatever the league tries, teams will always find new loopholes to new rules.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Lucas, Denver<\/p>\n

I tend to agree with that last point. But I\u2019ll be completely honest with you, Lucas. I just can\u2019t find it within myself to care that much. That\u2019s right. I have a case of Tanking Discourse Fatigue. Tanking is what it is. It\u2019s not ideal, but I don\u2019t consider it an affront to the sport as much as a lot of people seem to. I can\u2019t blame anyone for making objectively smart strategic decisions for the future of their franchise. As for this year, would you rather Utah play Lauri Markkanen for the first three quarters then conveniently rest him the fourth? Or not play him at all?<\/p>\n

I invite you to read the ideas presented by a number of intelligent and creative national NBA writers who\u2019ve taken it upon themselves to tackle this<\/a>. As for me, I don\u2019t cover a tanking team at this time. Maybe that will change someday. I hope to have the energy for it when that day comes, so I\u2019m doing some load management right now.<\/p>\n

Do the Nuggets avoid letting Spencer start seven more games so he doesn\u2019t qualify for the starter RFA rate?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Bruce, Twitter<\/p>\n

Do you think the Nuggets can keep Spencer Jones this summer and will they keep their first-round pick or offload it?<\/p>\n

\u2014 John, Twitter<\/p>\n

Jones is also a popular topic, understandably. The Nuggets have a legitimate enough basketball excuse not to start him for now: Julian Strawther was starting before the All-Star break and playing some of the best basketball of his career. It carried over Thursday with an efficient 18-point performance against the Clippers. He\u2019s earned his spot as the fifth starter recently, and Johnson is a functional four next to Nikola Jokic. It\u2019s not like the current starting unit is a four-guard lineup.<\/p>\n

But if the Nuggets need to replace another wing in that lineup anytime soon and they suddenly go with, say, Zeke Nnaji instead of Jones, then it qualifies as funny business. I was talking with an uninvolved agent this week about the \u201cstarter criteria\u201d and how Denver is obviously incentivized to use Jones off the bench. It was pointed out to me that if the Nuggets blatantly went out of their way to prevent Jones from starting in scenarios where he normally would, the NBA Players Association could theoretically get involved. So there may be limits to how Denver can handle it.<\/p>\n

Even if he does start seven more games and his qualifying offer increases to more than $5 million, that\u2019s not a bad price to pay for a reliable 3-and-D player. But Jones might be a downwind casualty of other decisions this summer. As I outlined earlier, they\u2019re going to have a difficult time filling out their roster with cheap contracts if they want to stay under either apron \u2014 even more difficult if they want to duck the tax. (For that reason, to John\u2019s other question, I would guess they\u2019ll want to use their pick. A late first-rounder means a cost-controlled roster spot.)<\/p>\n

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denver Post Nuggets beat writer Bennett Durando opens up the Nuggets Mailbag periodically during the season. You can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[7,1828,561,765,2102,301,187,3943,130,766,1035,763,165,252,6,253,302,8803,18229,1146,26517,66,409,4714],"class_list":{"0":"post-617806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cam-johnson","10":"tag-christian-braun","11":"tag-colorado","12":"tag-contract","13":"tag-denver","14":"tag-denver-nuggets","15":"tag-denvernuggets","16":"tag-espn","17":"tag-front-range","18":"tag-injury","19":"tag-julian-strawther","20":"tag-latest-headlines","21":"tag-more-nuggets-news","22":"tag-nba","23":"tag-nikola-jokic","24":"tag-nuggets","25":"tag-nuggets-insider","26":"tag-nuggets-mailbag","27":"tag-peyton-watson","28":"tag-spencer-jones","29":"tag-sports","30":"tag-trade","31":"tag-zeke-nnaji"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116114510583690044","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617806","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=617806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}