The Denver Nuggets are staring at an expensive reality, and Nikola Jokic’s next extension is sitting right in the middle of it.
What made that reality hit home was not some blockbuster move or a star trade. It was Spencer Jones.
A relatively small number - $6 million a year - would push the Nuggets into an additional $32.2 million in taxes. That’s the kind of math that tells you just how tight things have gotten, especially for a team already living near the second apron and the repeater tax line.
That’s why the conversation around Denver is no longer just about adding talent. It’s about whether the Nuggets are headed for a roster reset, or whether ownership is prepared to keep paying massive luxury tax bills year after year. And all of that is happening with Jokic due for a historic extension.
The timing is brutal. Jokic is expected to sign it - even if the Nuggets eventually choose a “gap year” or a broader reset. He wants to win, but he also clearly likes Denver, and he has said multiple times that he wants to stay with the Nuggets.
Still, the financial squeeze is impossible to ignore. Even without re-signing Peyton Watson or bringing back Cameron Johnson, Denver already has $183 million committed for 2027-28 between Jokic, Jamal Murray, Christian Braun, Aaron Gordon, and Zeke Nnaji.
The salary cap this year is $164 million, and the luxury tax line is $200 million. That leaves very little room for flexibility, especially if the Nuggets want to stay competitive while those contracts remain on the books.
Denver’s championship window lasted six years, the same stretch Aaron Gordon has been there, and the team did win one title. Injuries complicated the rest of the run, but the core still got paid, and the extensions followed.
The reset, though, has already begun. Last year, the Nuggets traded Michael Porter Jr. for Cameron Johnson.
This year, they went looking for the cheapest rookie talent they could find in Trevon Brazile and Alpha Diallo, trying to save money wherever they could. That approach comes with risk, because those moves could just as easily produce two misses as two useful pieces.
If Denver decides to go all the way with a full reset, it won’t just be about trimming salary. It would likely mean moving players like Murray and Gordon, too.
And that’s where Jokic becomes the most important voice in the room. The Nuggets would want his blessing before taking that kind of swing, especially with his player option in the picture if things ever went badly enough to push him toward the door.
That’s the bind for Denver. A reset may be coming, but Jokic’s extension is looming right on top of it.
In Other News...
Nuggets Face A Costly Decision On A Key Young Piece
The Nuggets are staring at the kind of restricted free-agency math that can shape a roster long before opening night arrives. Peyton Watson sits at the center of it, with Denver weighing how far it can go to keep one of its most important young pieces while also navigating the broader market for other RFAs in the 2026 class, including Spencer Jones, Jalen Duren and Bennedict Mathurin. Around the league, the interest is real, and so are the complications, especially when sign-and-trade talks become the only realistic path for teams that are already over the cap.
For Denver, the question is not just whether Watson is worth retaining, but what the rest of the roster would look like if the team commits to him and keeps building around its current core. Rival clubs have circled, and the Nuggets have to balance that outside pressure against the cost of staying aggressive in a market where every move can ripple through future flexibility. However this plays out, it has the feel of a decision that could define how much room Denver has to maneuver once the rest of the leagues free-agent dominoes finally start to fall. [Read more 🡒]