The Nuggets’ offseason has taken a sharp turn, and Peyton Watson is right in the middle of it.
Denver’s decision to match the Thunder’s offer sheet for Spencer Jones pushed the franchise into rough financial waters, making it the only team in the second apron heading into the 2026-26 campaign. That move brought the league’s harsh restrictions and tax penalties with it, and now the pressure is showing up in a more uncomfortable place: the future of Watson.
The expectation entering the offseason was straightforward. After a breakout 2025-26 season, Denver was supposed to do everything it could to keep the 23-year-old wing.
Watson averaged 14.6 points and 4.9 rebounds while shooting 41.1 percent from deep, and he spent much of the year in the starting lineup for a 54-win team. That kind of production usually makes a player a priority.
But the money has changed the conversation. With the Nuggets under such heavy financial strain, keeping Watson has become much harder, and reports now indicate Denver is considering sign-and-trade possibilities that would send him elsewhere.
The asking price has also come down. What was once believed to be a package built around a couple of first-round picks and pick swaps has apparently shifted to a more modest target: one "high-level player" and a pick.
In other words, the Nuggets are looking for a way out, and they are looking harder by the day. The irony is that the pressure point traces back to the Thunder’s two-year, $12 million offer to Jones, which helped set this chain reaction in motion.
Denver, though, is not the only rival feeling the effects of Oklahoma City’s offseason moves.
Atlanta has already been on the receiving end of two separate trades with the Thunder this summer. One brought Aaron Wiggins to the Hawks directly, and another three-team deal landed Lu Dort in Atlanta. Those additions give the Hawks more perimeter scoring, more All-Defensive muscle and more championship experience.
That matters because Atlanta’s upgrades could make next season’s matchup even tougher for the Spurs, who hold the Hawks’ first-round pick in next June’s draft from the 2021 Dejounte Murray trade.
So while the Thunder are making moves with their own goals in mind, the ripple effects are spreading well beyond Oklahoma City.
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