{"id":478891,"date":"2026-02-20T00:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T00:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/478891\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T00:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T00:53:11","slug":"nuggets-convert-spencer-jones-to-standard-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/478891\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets Convert Spencer Jones To Standard Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

February 19: Jones\u2019 conversion to the Nuggets\u2019 standard roster is official, per NBA.com\u2019s transaction log<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"February 18: The Nuggets will convert Spencer Jones<\/a>\u2018 two-way contract to a standard deal covering the rest of the season, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Jones\u2019 promotion to the 15-man roster had been expected long before he reached his limit of 50 active games earlier this month. With nearly all of Denver\u2019s top players missing time due to injuries this season, Jones has emerged as an important part of the rotation, starting 34 games and averaging 23.6 minutes per night.<\/p>\n

The second-year small forward has posted relatively modest numbers, including 6.0 points and 3.1 rebounds per game. However, he has been efficient on his limited shot attempts \u2013 50.5% from the floor and 41.4% on three-pointers \u2013 and has provided solid, versatile defense on the wing for a team with championship aspirations.<\/p>\n

Jones suffered a concussion on February 4 and missed the last three games before the All-Star break, which is one reason why he wasn\u2019t promoted to Denver\u2019s standard roster a little earlier. The Nuggets also likely would\u2019ve preferred to work out a multiyear deal with the 24-year-old.<\/p>\n

However, as Bobby Marks of ESPN points out (via Twitter<\/a>), Denver had limited flexibility below the luxury tax line to offer Jones the sort of first-year salary that would make him comfortable adding a team-friendly second year to his new deal. The Nuggets were operating just $1.8MM below the tax.<\/p>\n

As a point of comparison, the Sixers had to give<\/a> two-way standout Dominick Barlow<\/a> $3.4MM two weeks ago in order to include a second-year team option on his new contract.<\/p>\n

Instead, it appears Denver will unilaterally convert Jones\u2019 deal to a rest-of-season, minimum-salary contract, which will make him eligible for restricted free agency at season\u2019s end. As Charania notes (via Twitter<\/a>), if Jones makes seven more starts, he\u2019ll meet the \u201cstarter criteria<\/a>\u201d for RFAs-to-be, making him eligible for a $5.9MM qualifying offer. It\u2019ll be worth keeping an eye on whether the team lets him reach that 41-start threshold, since it would make his free agency a little more complicated for the cap-strapped Nuggets.<\/p>\n

Denver has two openings on its 15-man roster, so it will still have one spot available after Jones is promoted, as well as a newly opened two-way slot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"February 19: Jones\u2019 conversion to the Nuggets\u2019 standard roster is official, per NBA.com\u2019s transaction log. February 18: The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,156232,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-478891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-spencer-jones","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}