With each passing day, it is becoming increasingly likely that Peyton Watson will not be signing a contract extension with the Nuggets this summer, as the front office is yet to figure out how to navigate the second apron.
Amid the improved likelihood of a trade, the Nuggets have reportedly reduced their asking price for any team interested in landing Peyton Watson through a sign-and-trade.
“In a potential sign-and-trade, the Nuggets initially had set a price this offseason of similar to the Walker Kessler deal of two firsts and two swaps in any potential deal. Now that price, my understanding is a really good high-level player as well as a first-round pick,” said ESPN’s senior NBA insider, Shams Charania, on NBA Today.
“So now we’ll see between now and the deadline for any restricted free agent deals. As we saw with Jonathan Kuminga last summer, it could go basically up until training camp, so we have here about a month and a half before that period starts to come around.”
The Nuggets had reportedly also offered Peyton Watson a five-year, $70 million contract extension. But that is significantly below and approximately half of his initial expectations, which were reportedly for a contract valued at $28 million per year.
Hence, it is widely expected that Watson, who would likely see this as a sign of disrespect, would decline this if it were the final offer in the negotiations. He has the option of accepting the $6.5 million qualifying offer instead of accepting a contract valued at approximately $14 million per year to bet on himself.
Here’s why the Nuggets want to avoid that from happening: if Watson accepts the qualifying offer, he also unlocks the no-trade clause, which would not allow Denver to trade him without his consent.
Considering that accepting a qualifying offer is seen as the last resort when no other agreeable terms can be found for the extension, it could begin to spell the end of Watson’s time with the Nuggets.
Watson may begin refusing trades to destinations that may offer some tax relief options to the Nuggets, as they are the only team in the league that is currently in the second apron.
The 23-year-old had a breakout season where he averaged 14.6 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 2.1 assists while shooting 49.1% from the field and 41.1% from beyond the arc.
He’s a solid young player to invest in for the long term and is expected to generate interest from multiple teams looking for young, foundational pieces.
Hence, if you combine Watson’s likely decision to only go to teams that guarantee his desired contract value with the negligible returns that the Nuggets could get for him at a contract value of less than $7 million, this spells like a bigger problem for Denver.
Hence, the Nuggets would hope to complete a sign-and-trade at this point to get the best returns from a trade for Watson. Otherwise, the situation only keeps going downhill for them.
