The Denver Nuggets have a major decision looming, and it could send shockwaves through the NBA if Nikola Jokic decides to slow-play extension talks again.
According to Marc Stein and Jake Fischer of the Stein Line, there is no guarantee the 31-year-old superstar and NBA Finals MVP will sign a huge extension with Denver this summer. Their reporting says Jokic did the same thing last year, choosing to put off contract extension discussions for another year, and that possibility is once again on the table.
“(Nikola) Jokic informed the Nuggets around this time last year that he preferred to delay contract extension talks for another year,” Stein and Fischer wrote. “The Stein Line has learned that it is under consideration again this summer: Electing to take the same step and holding off on extension talks.”
That uncertainty has opened the door to trade chatter, and CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn took the conversation a step further in his look at Jokic’s future. In Quinn’s view, the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets would both be realistic destinations if Jokic ever asked out this summer or during the season.
“If Jokic were to ask for a trade, either now or at the deadline, he'd likely have a specific destination in mind. In all likelihood, that's where he'd go, though again, he is so singularly valuable and reliable that some team might actually be able to talk itself into outbidding his preferred home as a rental,” Quinn wrote.
He also made clear that plenty of teams would at least have to think about it.
“The possible rental teams are, well, anyone with significant assets and a desire to win next season. If the (Oklahoma City) Thunder can get below the second apron and therefore create the ability to aggregate salaries, yes, they should have a meeting about it.”
Still, Quinn pointed to San Antonio and Houston as two teams that stand out for different reasons.
“The Spurs are far more financially flexible, and the same applies to them. The Rockets stand out as the obvious ‘asset-rich win-now team that isn't good enough to win a title but could be if they took the Jokic swing,’ but others would inevitably emerge.”
For the Spurs, the idea of chasing Jokic would only get louder if they are right there at the top of the league picture. The source material notes San Antonio was on the verge of defeating the New York Knicks in the 2026 NBA Finals and winning its first championship since 2014, which would make an all-in swing before next year’s trade deadline a real possibility.
It would not come cheap. Any deal for Jokic would require San Antonio to strip down a large part of its roster, but the payoff would be obvious if it helped the Spurs finish the 2026-27 season as the last team standing.
Houston is in a different spot, even after adding former Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant in a seven-team 2025 offseason deal. The Rockets have plenty of talent, but they would still need one more massive move to keep up with the Spurs and Thunder in the Western Conference.
That’s where Jokic enters the picture. Landing him would instantly change the ceiling in Houston and could give the Rockets the kind of postseason punch they need to make a serious run.
For now, everything hinges on whether Jokic signs that extension with Denver. If he doesn’t, the trade noise is only going to get louder.
In Other News...
Nuggets Just Got A Surprising Peyton Watson Break
Peyton Watson still sits in that familiar restricted free agent holding pattern, and for the Nuggets, the part that matters is simple enough: he remains unsigned and still can be pitched by other teams through offer sheets. Denver has reason to keep watching the market, but the landscape around him has shifted in a way that should help. Several teams with the kind of flexibility that can create trouble for a young wing have already spent their room elsewhere, which narrows the list of clubs that can realistically try to pry him away.
Los Angeles had loomed as one of the more obvious threats because of its cap flexibility, but that path has largely been eaten up by a busy summer of roster movement. The Lakers are not alone, either, as other teams with spending power have also committed their money to different targets. For the Nuggets, that does not close the book on Watsons free agency, but it does make the road to getting him back a little cleaner than it looked not long ago. [Read more 🡒]
This Nuggets Celtics Trade Idea Would Split Denver Fans Fast
Any offseason conversation that even brushes up against Jamal Murray is going to get Denver fans talking, and CBS Sports Sam Quinn stirred the pot with a Celtics-Nuggets trade idea that immediately falls into the category of interesting on paper, messy in reality. The appeal is obvious enough: if Boston is genuinely listening around the league this summer, it gives rival front offices a reason to at least imagine a blockbuster.
The problem is everything that comes after the imagination part. Quinn framed the concept as something theoretically possible but not practical right now, with too many obstacles standing in the way of a real deal. Browns massive contract only adds to the difficulty, which is why this kind of proposal lives more as a conversation starter than a transaction waiting to happen. [Read more 🡒]