Aaron Gordon spent part of his summer doing something that says plenty about where his head is at: running a basketball camp for young kids at the Gold Crown Foundation in Lakewood, Colorado. And while the setting was built for the next generation, the conversation quickly turned to the Nuggets’ present - Peyton Watson’s departure, Nikola Jokic, Gordon’s own offseason, and where Denver’s rookies might fit.
Watson’s exit clearly hit Gordon on a personal level.
“Yeah, that’s my dawg. But it’s deeper than basketball between Peyton and me. Our family members go to the same church, so, like, Peyton is my brother,” Gordon said.
Still, Gordon made it clear he’s not bitter about the move.
“I’m happy for him and the situation that he’s in. Obviously, I would’ve loved to have him, but it worked out the way it was supposed to.”
Watson’s path out of Denver came after he was offered a five-year, $70 million deal to stay with the Nuggets, a proposal he reportedly viewed as ‘disrespectful’ before eventually landing a four-year, $88 million deal with the Cavaliers. He’s coming off a breakout season in which he looked like a starting-caliber player, posting 14.6 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 2.1 assists while shooting 49.1% from the field and 41.1% from three. Gordon’s view is that Watson is better off in a spot where he’s paid more and has a clearer runway to steady starter minutes than fighting for time in Denver with Christian Braun.
Gordon also touched on what Denver has meant to him since he arrived.
“Denver has shown me love since the moment I’ve gotten here. And I try to repay the favor by showing passion, playing my heart out, playing the game the way I know how to play, and being the person that my parents raised me to be… Hopefully I can be a role model for these kids,” Gordon said about his inaugural camp in Colorado.
He said the offseason has given him a chance to reset.
“It’s been nice; I did a lot of soul-searching and training. I got my mind right and my body right. I’m ready to go,” he further added about his own offseason.
And yes, he’s been in touch with Jokic.
“A bit, yeah, I talked to him a bit. Nothing much, just checking in. Told him congrats, keep going, good job, and we talked about a few other things,” Gordon said about his conversations with Nikola Jokic so far this summer.
The bigger-picture issue around Denver remains the roster squeeze. The Nuggets are heading into 2026-27 with a 14-man roster after losing a promising young piece in Watson, and they’re still the only team in the league operating in the second apron. That makes it difficult to see how new additions can realistically find space in such a crowded setup.
Gordon said he does have questions about where the rookies will land, but he also singled out a name worth watching for that 15th roster spot: Bryce Hopkins, who is on a two-way contract.
“Yeah, the rookies are good. The rookies are good.
Bryce is really good. TB is really good.
They can play. I’m not entirely sure where they’re gonna fit in.
But they can go,” Gordon concluded before saying he is excited and ready to go for the coming season.
There’s also the question of Gordon himself. He’s coming off an injury-riddled year that included left calf tightness and a right hamstring strain, issues that kept him out of significant playoff games. He played only 39 games and averaged 15.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 2.6 assists while shooting 49.4% from the field and 37.4% from beyond the arc.
Now he enters the first season of a three-year, $104 million contract extension, and the pressure around him is obvious. As one of the older pieces from Denver’s championship core, Gordon knows another down year could turn him into a major trade chip next summer. With the Nuggets boxed in by the second apron and the roster already feeling tight, his bounce-back season could matter a whole lot more than just his own numbers.
In Other News...
Aaron Gordon Carries Denvers Biggest Preseason Concern
The Nuggets are heading into preseason with one of their most important questions centered on Aaron Gordon, whose availability was a problem in the first-round playoff loss to Minnesota. Denvers early exit exposed how much the team leans on Gordons two-way presence, especially when the rotation tightens and the margins shrink in the postseason. With the offseason behind him and the new year about to begin, the focus around camp has shifted from what went wrong in the spring to how reliable the frontcourt can be when the games start to matter again.
Gordons health is only part of the backdrop for a Nuggets team trying to sort out its next steps around Nikola Jokic and the rest of the roster. DeMar DeRozan is part of the broader conversation, and Jokic has been open about how uneasy he is with celebrity even as his profile keeps rising. For Denver, preseason is usually about rhythm and fit, but this one carries a little more weight because so much depends on whether Gordon can stay on the floor and help stabilize the team from the start. [Read more 🡒]
Nuggets Still Face One Big Question After Peyton Watson Exit
Peyton Watsons departure in the 2026 offseason marked another reminder of how carefully the Nuggets have had to balance sentiment with roster construction. Aaron Gordon made clear he was behind Watson, stressing the bond they built and wishing him well in his new spot, even as Denver moved to keep Cameron Johnson in the name of financial flexibility and reshaped the bench by bringing in DeMar DeRozan.
Watsons exit leaves the Nuggets with a familiar kind of question, the sort that comes with any move made for cap reasons: whether the cost-cutting choice will hold up once the season starts and the rotation tightens. Denver did not stand still after the trade, but replacing a player with Watsons role and upside is never just about adding another name, and the answer may not be obvious until the group starts playing meaningful games. [Read more 🡒]
Nuggets Keep Facing The Same Jokic Question Nobody Can Solve
The chatter around Nikola Joki keeps surfacing because of what he means to Denver and what it would take to even imagine a deal, but the reality remains pretty simple: he has not asked out, and the Nuggets are not trying to move him. Joki has repeatedly made clear he wants to stay in Denver, which is why the trade talk has felt more like a theoretical exercise than something rooted in actual momentum.
Still, the rumor mill has a way of attaching itself to stars this big, especially when it involves a young player like San Antonios Dylan Harper and the kind of package that would have to be enormous to get anyones attention. The Spurs are in no hurry to part with Harper after his recent play, and there have been no official trade discussions reported, leaving this as one of those persistent questions around Joki that keeps hanging in the background without a real answer. [Read more 🡒]