The Denver Nuggets just got a much cleaner path to keeping Peyton Watson.
Watson’s restricted free agency had been shaping up as a situation worth watching closely, mainly because Denver didn’t reach a new deal with him before the market opened. That left the forward able to field offer sheets from other teams, and the Nuggets would have had to decide whether to match if the number got uncomfortable enough.
The Los Angeles Lakers looked like one of the few teams with the kind of cap room to make that a real problem. Once LeBron James chose to enter free agency and not return to Los Angeles, the Lakers suddenly had more than $50 million in spending power, enough to at least pose a serious threat if they wanted to chase a two-way wing like Watson.
That window, though, slammed shut on Wednesday.
In roughly a 30-minute stretch, the Lakers unloaded that flexibility through a flurry of moves, including multiple signings and a sign-and-trade with the Utah Jazz for Walker Kessler. The result was a roster overhaul that soaked up the money they would have needed to make a run at Watson.
Los Angeles committed four years and $160 million to Kessler, gave Quentin Grimes a four-year, $60 million deal, spent $19 million over two years on Collin Sexton, and added Sandro Mamukelashvili on a four-year, $52 million contract.
Stack those annual figures together, and the Lakers have essentially used up the room they once had to chase a player like Watson.
For Denver, that changes the picture in a big way. The team’s most dangerous potential suitor is no longer sitting there with the financial muscle to force the issue, even though the Lakers had a clear need for a player in Watson’s mold.
And it wasn’t just Los Angeles. Denver’s other two major cap-space threats, the Brooklyn Nets and Chicago Bulls, have also gone in different directions over the last several hours of free agency. Brooklyn used its money on Keon Ellis and Mo Wagner, while Chicago made a splash with Norman Powell on a $45 million deal.
So the Nuggets still have business to finish with Watson, and the terms of his next contract remain unresolved. But the landscape around him looks far friendlier for Denver now than it did a day ago.
With the Lakers off the board and the other cap-space teams spending elsewhere, the odds of the Nuggets simply working out a new deal with their restricted free agent have gone up considerably.
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