{"id":793565,"date":"2026-07-10T20:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T20:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/793565\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T20:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T20:49:10","slug":"new-nba-rumors-on-clippers-peyton-watson-sign-and-trade-talks-bennedict-mathurin-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/793565\/","title":{"rendered":"New NBA Rumors on Clippers’ Peyton Watson Sign-and-Trade Talks, Bennedict Mathurin Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Denver Nuggets’ asking price for Peyton Watson could be keeping the Los Angeles Clippers from completing a sign-and-trade deal for him, The Stein Line’s Jake Fischer<\/a> reported Friday.<\/p>\n

According to Fischer, the Clippers “covet Watson and have shown interest in a deal… in the $25-plus million range per season that Watson is said to be seeking.”<\/p>\n

Fischer noted, however, the Nuggets’ asking price has “been too steep for the Clippers to deeply consider.”<\/p>\n

As the Clippers’ interest reportedly wanes, the Atlanta Hawks have “shown some fresh interest” in a potential sign-and-trade, Fischer reported.<\/p>\n

According to Fischer, the Nuggets are seeking a sign-and-trade return similar to what the Utah Jazz recently received when sending<\/a> Walker Kessler to the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n

The Lakers gave up two unprotected first-round picks and two first-round picks for the right to sign Kessler to a four-year, $130 million deal.<\/p>\n

There is now an “increasing possibility” the Clippers turn their attention to re-signing restricted free agent Bennedict Mathurin rather than pursuing Watson, according to Fischer.<\/p>\n

Watson averaged a career-high 14.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists last season in 54 games before his breakout season was derailed by a lingering hamstring injury.<\/p>\n

He is currently a restricted free agent who Fischer and Marc Stein <\/a>have previously reported is seeking north of $25 million a year.<\/p>\n

That amount could put the Nuggets over the second apron. The team is currently projected ot have about $12.7 million in space below the limit, per Spotrac<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Athletic’s Sam Amick<\/a> previously reported Nuggets ownership has not ordered a mandate for the team to stay below the second apron this offseason. <\/p>\n

Amick<\/a> also reported last week the Nuggets are “very open to the prospect of a sign-and-trade” for Watson, but plan to match any offer sheet and retain a “primary hope” of keeping him on the roster.<\/p>\n

How willing the Nuggets would be to exceed the second apron in order to retain Watson could hinge on their reported pursuit of star free agent LeBron James. <\/p>\n

The Nuggets could offer a $3.9 million veteran minimum exception to James, who is reportedly willing to take a minimum contract in order to play for a contender, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks<\/a> and Shams Charania.<\/p>\n

Should James sign in Denver for the chance to play with Nikola Joki\u0107, the Nuggets could be more willing to exceed the punitive second apron in order to build a win-now roster around the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Denver Nuggets’ asking price for Peyton Watson could be keeping the Los Angeles Clippers from completing a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":793566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-793565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}