More Details On Peyton Watson’s Departure From Nuggets

Braun was the far more proven player through three seasons and superstar center Nikola Jokic signed off on the decision to extend him, Durando writes. ESPN’s Tim MacMahon reported that Watson was seeking about $14MM per year at the time, but the Nuggets “wouldn’t go a dollar over $10MM (annually).”

Durando confirms Denver was reluctant to pay Watson more than $10-12MM per year last October. The decision to bypass an extension in lieu of restricted free agency was viewed as a “snub” by Watson’s camp, per Durando.

Injuries last season to Braun, Jokic, Aaron Gordon, Cameron Johnson led to an increased role for Watson, who responded with a breakout year until he suffered a Grade 2 right hamstring strain on February 4. Watson’s play at the time appeared to have shifted the Nuggets’ roster planning, Durando writes, as they seemed willing to eventually move a starter to retain Watson in restricted free agency.

However, Watson aggravated that strain in his fifth game back on April 1 and missed the final six games of the regular season and all six games of Denver’s first-round playoff loss to Minnesota. The Nuggets “felt strongly that Watson could’ve suited up by the end of the series but was slow-playing his return to protect his contract value,” five league sources tell Durando.

Watson’s side disputes that claim. A source close to Watson tells The Post that the former No. 30 overall pick “was in no position” to play in the series, and that his agent Rich Paul had intervened to prevent Watson from further injury ahead of free agency. That same source also said Gordon — who has dealt with a litany of soft-tissue injuries the past couple years — was among the teammates advising Watson to be cautious. But employees throughout Denver’s organization were “frustrated” by the way the situation was handled by Watson’s camp, sources tell Durando.

Despite the injury dispute, the Nuggets explored ways to shed salary this summer in order to retain Watson, according to Durando, but they felt other teams were making low-ball offers in an effort to exploit their financial situation. For example, multiple teams asked for draft compensation to take on Johnson’s expiring contract, sources tell Durando.

Denver did receive “at least one legitimately good offer” for Johnson, but the team declined it on top of all the other proposals. The memory of Johnson recording 27 points and eight rebounds as the Nuggets were eliminated in Game 6 seems to have factored into that equation, according to Durando, who reports that the team currently intends to keep the veteran forward into 2026/27.

At the start of free agency, Denver offered Watson a four-year deal with a fourth-year team option worth around $18MM annually, multiple sources tell Durando. The Nuggets claimed their confidence in Watson had “taken a hit” due to the hamstring situation and that they had concerns about his “durability and maturity,” Durando adds.

Watson’s camp immediately rejected that offer, Durando writes, and viewed those concerns as disrespectful. Watson was looking for $25MM+ per year during initial talks, but the Nuggets never made a counter offer after their initial proposal was rejected — though they remained willing to sign Watson to the original offer.

With the negotiations going nowhere, both sides began to explore sign-and-trade scenarios, with the Clippers, Bucks, Hawks and Trail Blazers all making calls to the Nuggets, per Durando.

For various reasons, those talks never advanced. Jaime Jaquez Jr. was floated as a possibility in conversations with Milwaukee, and Durando hears the Nuggets would have been interested in the Sixth Man of the Year runner-up; however, he describes those talks as “conceptual” and the Bucks never actually made a sign-and-trade offer.

Kris Dunn of the Clippers is another player who came up in sign-and-trade dialogue, league sources tell Durando, but there were multiple complicating factors on that front, including hard-cap concerns. In addition, Los Angeles and Milwaukee were/are being investigated for possible salary cap circumvention, making it unclear what the teams could actually offer for Watson.

The Cavaliers were the final team to pursue Watson and ultimately acquired him on a four-year, $88MM deal with a fourth-year player option after parting with an unprotected first-round pick in 2031 in a five-team deal that didn’t require the Nuggets to take a player back.

Sources tell Durando that Cleveland was the only team that offered an unprotected first-rounder for Watson. Unsurprisingly, given he’s six-plus years older and on expiring deal, no team was willing to do the same for Johnson earlier in the summer, Durando reports.

Although Watson publicly thanked the Nuggets organization after the move, it’s clear from his podcast comments to former teammate Michael Porter Jr. that he was stung by the team’s implication that he could have returned sooner from the hamstring injury, according to Durando. Even if Denver had been willing to make the same offer that Cleveland did, there was a sense that Watson likely would have turned it down, Durando adds.

The Nuggets, meanwhile, were “elated” to land that first-round pick from Cleveland after a difficult restricted free agency process and Durando suggests they plan to eventually use it to upgrade the roster. They recognize what they gave up by parting with Watson, but preferred to keep Johnson, Spencer Jones and add the pick.

Durando’s story, which features several more interesting details on Watson’s departure from Denver, is worth reading in full.