{"id":908969,"date":"2026-09-28T20:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T20:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/908969\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T20:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T20:44:12","slug":"nuggets-nikola-jokic-im-going-to-sign-next-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/908969\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets&#8217; Nikola Jokic: &#8216;I&#8217;m Going To Sign Next Year&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Superstar center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jokicni01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-09-28_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nikola Jokic<\/a> has declined to sign contract extensions with the Nuggets each of the past two offseasons. However, the Serbian big man <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hoopsrumors.com\/2026\/07\/nikola-jokic-to-wait-until-next-summer-to-sign-new-deal.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">reiterated<\/a> on Monday that his decision to delay signing a new deal was about finances rather than any concern about the direction of the team, writes <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2026\/09\/28\/nikola-jokic-signing-contract-extension-nuggets-2027\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Bennett Durando of The Denver Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Nikola-Jokic-vert-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-473859\"  \/>\u201cI\u2019m gonna sign next year,\u201d Jokic said (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DNVR_Nuggets\/status\/2104629644733595943\" rel=\"nofollow\">Twitter video link<\/a> via DNVR Nuggets), \u201cif they want me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jokic is currently eligible for a four-year extension worth a projected $276MM. If the 31-year-old\u00a0waits until 2027 free agency, he\u2019d be eligible to sign a five-year contract worth a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hoopsrumors.com\/2026\/08\/early-nba-maximum-salary-projections-for-2027-28.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">projected<\/a> $357.28MM. That five-year deal could also feature a full no-trade clause, which wouldn\u2019t be possible on an extension.<\/p>\n<p>Executive vice president of basketball operations Ben Tenzer said the organization isn\u2019t worried about Jokic\u2019s contract status, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/chrisadempsey\/status\/2104617765617434643\" rel=\"nofollow\">tweets<\/a> Nuggets insider Chris Dempsey.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe feel very comfortable with the relationship, the trust there. We have no concerns,\u201d Tenzer said.<\/p>\n<p>The Nuggets are coming off a disappointing 2026 playoffs in which they were eliminated in the first round by Minnesota in six games. It was the first time Denver failed to win a postseason series since 2022, Durando notes.<\/p>\n<p>According to Durando, Jokic said he isn\u2019t worried about his contract situation being a distraction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI talked to Ben. I talked to (executive VP of player personnel) Jon (Wallace). I talked to (president) Josh (Kroenke). They know my opinion,\u201d Jokic said. \u201cI was being more than open about it, and hopefully they trust me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jokic had another remarkable regular season in 2025\/26, averaging 27.7 points, 12.9 rebounds, 10.7 assists and 1.4 steals in 65 games (34.8 minutes per contest). He was highly efficient, as usual, posting a shooting line of .569\/.380\/.831.<\/p>\n<p>On top of leading the NBA in both rebounds and assists per game, Jokic finished as the runner-up in MVP voting for the second straight year. The three-time MVP has finished first or second in MVP voting each of the past six seasons, joining Bill Russell and Larry Bird as the only other players to accomplish that feat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Superstar center Nikola Jokic has declined to sign contract extensions with the Nuggets each of the past two&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":908970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,3906,85],"class_list":["post-908969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/908970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}