{"id":788306,"date":"2026-07-28T00:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T00:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/788306\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T00:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T00:50:09","slug":"peyton-watson-considers-accepting-nuggets-6-5mm-qualifying-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/788306\/","title":{"rendered":"Peyton Watson Considers Accepting Nuggets’ $6.5MM Qualifying Offer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nuggets forward Peyton Watson<\/a>, whose market has been limited by his restricted free agency, is considering accepting the team\u2019s $6.5MM qualifying offer and becoming an unrestricted free agent next summer, sources tell Marc Stein of The Stein Line<\/a> (subscriber link).<\/p>\n

\"\"Denver\u2019s initial offers to Watson were believed to be around $70MM over four years, according to Stein, who notes that figure is significantly less than the five-year, $125MM extension the Nuggets gave to Christian Braun<\/a> last fall. Stein reported previously that Watson entered free agency hoping to exceed Braun\u2019s deal.<\/p>\n

Denver\u2019s financial position is complicated by its decision Sunday night to match<\/a> the two-year, nearly $12MM offer sheet<\/a> that Oklahoma City submitted to Spencer Jones<\/a>. That move pushed the Nuggets into the second apron and increased their projected luxury tax bill from $36MM to $68MM.<\/p>\n

That total would rise significantly with a new deal for Watson and could result in cost-cutting moves, either now or during the 2026\/27 season. ESPN\u2019s Bobby Marks (Twitter link<\/a>) pointed out on Sunday that just by accepting his qualifying offer, Watson would push the team\u2019s projected tax penalty into the neighborhood of $112MM.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets have been considering sign-and-trade opportunities as a way to get value in return for Watson if they don\u2019t believe they can re-sign him at an acceptable figure. The Bucks, Clippers and Hawks are all reportedly expressing interest.<\/p>\n

However, Denver can\u2019t take back any players under contract in a Watson sign-and-trade as long as the team remains above the second apron. If they want to take back any salary for Watson, they would have to find a way to duck below that threshold before a sign-and-trade could be finalized.<\/p>\n

Apart from franchise cornerstone Nikola Jokic<\/a>, Denver\u2019s top salaries for the upcoming season are held by Jamal Murray<\/a> ($50.1MM), Aaron Gordon<\/a> ($32MM) and Cameron Johnson<\/a> ($23MM). Despite rumors heading into the offseason, the team hasn\u2019t shown any interest so far in parting with any of its high-priced veterans.<\/p>\n

Bennett Durando of The Denver Post<\/a> notes that the Nuggets haven\u2019t finished a season in the second apron since it was created in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement. If it happens during 2026\/27, Denver\u2019s first-round pick in 2034 will become \u201cfrozen\u201d and won\u2019t be permitted to be traded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nuggets forward Peyton Watson, whose market has been limited by his restricted free agency, is considering accepting the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[1750,12327,1751,1754,355,11055,156232,99],"class_list":["post-788306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-aaron-gordon","tag-cameron-johnson","tag-christian-braun","tag-jamal-murray","tag-nba","tag-peyton-watson","tag-spencer-jones","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788306","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=788306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}