{"id":463797,"date":"2026-02-19T20:20:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T20:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/463797\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T20:20:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T20:20:32","slug":"nuggets-convert-spencer-jones-from-2-way-to-standard-nba-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/463797\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets convert Spencer Jones from 2-way to standard NBA contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

One concussion later, Spencer Jones<\/a> and the Nuggets finally have a deal.<\/p>\n

Denver is signing Jones to a standard NBA contract that will enable him to play for the rest of the regular season and playoffs, a league source told The Denver Post on Wednesday. The Nuggets had until Thursday to add a 14th player to their active roster, as teams aren\u2019t allowed to leave multiple spots open for more than two consecutive weeks.<\/p>\n

Jones has emerged as a reliable presence in Denver\u2019s rotation on a two-way contract this season, serving mostly as an injury replacement for Aaron Gordon in the starting lineup. He\u2019ll make the prorated minimum salary for the rest of this season, a league source told The Post, then he\u2019ll become a restricted free agent in the summer.<\/p>\n

Players on two-way deals are capped at 50 games per season at the NBA level. The Nuggets have been planning to convert Jones to a standard contract for several weeks, but the process was delayed when he suffered a concussion<\/a> on the same night he reached his games limit, Feb. 4 in New York.<\/p>\n

Denver traded Hunter Tyson the next day to maneuver its payroll under the luxury tax and open up a second roster spot. With Jones injured, the team was suddenly incentivized to wait for him to recover before converting him, as midseason contracts have prorated salaries based on how much time remains the league year. He was nearing a return as the Nuggets played their last game before the All-Star break, but they opted to hold him out and wait a week to resume contract talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe negotiation that\u2019s going on there obviously is being slow-played because of the concussion,\u201d coach David Adelman said before the break. \u201cSo the negotiation, I\u2019ve been updated by (co-general managers) Ben (Tenzer) and Jon (Wallace), but it\u2019s slow-moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ideal outcome for the Nuggets after the trade deadline, according to multiple league sources, was to go into the playoffs with all 15 roster spots filled if they could add two players while staying under the tax. That remains the case, and by \u201cslow-playing\u201d the Jones situation through the break, they\u2019ve left themselves with slightly more wiggle room.<\/p>\n

They had about $1.8 million combined to spend between Jones and a potential newcomer. By converting Jones at the minimum, they still have enough room to sign a 15th player on another rest-of-season minimum deal.<\/p>\n

Adelman confirmed on Wednesday that Denver\u2019s front office is continuing to monitor for buyout candidates and potential two-way replacements for Jones. Now that he\u2019s been converted, the Nuggets have an opening in one of their three two-way spots. The other two are occupied by undrafted rookie guards Curtis Jones and Tamar Bates.<\/p>\n

Jones was undrafted as well, picked up by the Nuggets almost a month after the 2024 draft to fill their last two-way spot at the time. The Stanford alum was their only two-way player from the 2024-25 season, brought back for a second year after Tenzer and Wallace took over the front office. As Gordon has struggled with a recurring hamstring strain, Jones has made the most of his opportunity, starting 34 games, shooting 41.4% from 3-point range and matching up on opposing star forwards and centers.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, what Spencer has done for us this year has been beyond a small impact,\u201d Adelman said. \u201cThe guy\u2019s started a million games for us. He\u2019s guarded some of the best players in the league. He\u2019s a big part of what we\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gordon was a partial participant in Denver\u2019s practice on Wednesday, but he remains sidelined by a hamstring strain, making Jones addition back into the rotation a timely one. Peyton Watson was also out with the same injury as the Nuggets returned from the All-Star break Thursday with a game at the Los Angeles Clippers.<\/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":"One concussion later, Spencer Jones and the Nuggets finally have a deal. Denver is signing Jones to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2080,192,1875,3975,556,573,7145,5,4453,402,1180,3977,555,4,557,19055,43,18049,3613],"class_list":["post-463797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-aaron-gordon","tag-colorado","tag-contract","tag-david-adelman","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-front-range","tag-hockey","tag-hunter-tyson","tag-injury","tag-latest-headlines","tag-more-nuggets-news","tag-nba","tag-nhl","tag-nuggets","tag-spencer-jones","tag-sports","tag-tamar-bates","tag-trade"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116099155557334528","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}