The Nikola Jokic rumor machine is already warming up, and it took almost no time at all.
Denver Nuggets fans knew the chatter would start building after Jokic chose to delay signing his contract extension again, but the latest twist comes from an unexpected place. In a sit-down interview with the Euro Insiders, Panathinaikos owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos said he made a serious push for Jokic and called the Denver star his dream target.
“The one player which is a dream of mine and I haven't signed, I will sign next year,” Giannakopoulos said. When the hosts tried to figure out who he meant, he cut right to it: “It's Jokic!
The best basketball player in the world!” Giannakopoulos then added, “I did make a very serious proposal this year, both to his team and to him.
I got a rejection. I know that he has one more year contract... this was his last year, I tried to buy out his last year.”
He also described how quickly the answer came back. “ It took a few seconds to say, who?
Greece? Bye, maybe later,” Giannakopoulos said.
The claim is wild enough on its own, but Giannakopoulos insisted he was not joking. Still, unless someone is prepared to pay more than the projected $359.5 million over five years, the dream is going to stay a dream for now.
Jokic has said he wants to remain in Denver, and the expectation here is that he will stick to that. The delay in signing looks tied more to money than anything else, since each season he waits only raises the amount he can command.
Even so, the bigger issue for the Nuggets is impossible to ignore. Their roster-building problems are already hanging over the franchise, and without a major reset, those problems are only going to deepen. That kind of pressure is exactly what eventually pushed Giannis Antetokounmpo away from the Milwaukee Bucks, who opted to reset and rebuild and sent him to a destination where he is likely to extend his contract with the Miami Heat.
That does not seem like the path for Jokic. But if Denver keeps struggling to put a championship-caliber team around him, the noise is only going to get louder. The rumors about him teaming up with other stars by declining his player option are coming, and they’ll only gain steam if the Nuggets stumble early or get hit by injuries again this season.
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Sean Payton Suddenly Has A Broncos Camp Problem Fans Feared
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Payton said the early camp grind brings its own challenges, and he has already pointed to the work that happens before players ever step on the field as part of avoiding those strains and groin or hamstring problems. The concern now is how quickly the Broncos can stabilize things, especially with the position groups they are trying to evaluate and the health questions that keep surfacing while camp is still in its early stages. [Read more 🡒]