The Nuggets are now at risk of letting a homegrown success story slip away.
Nuggets restricted free agent Spencer Jones has agreed to a two-year, $12 million offer sheet with the Oklahoma City Thunder, a league source told The Denver Post on Saturday.
The Nuggets will now have 48 hours to match the offer sheet from the time he signed it, a deadline reported as 11:59 p.m. ET per Shams Charania of ESPN. If Denver does not match, the homegrown talent will join a Western Conference rival and one of the biggest threats to Denver’s status as a fringe championship contender.
Denver had previously extended a qualifying offer to Jones back in June for the minimum.
The 3-and-D wing was on a two-way contract with the Nuggets six months ago. Jones, 25, signed with the Nuggets and their G League affiliate as an undrafted free agent out of Stanford in 2024. He assumed a larger role last season due to injuries above him on the depth chart, eventually earning a standard NBA contract and a full-time spot on Denver’s 15-man roster in February.
The Nuggets presented Jones with a multiyear deal at the time, worth about $2 million in average annual value, he told The Post in March. But he turned down more guaranteed money and long-term security, choosing to sign a rest-of-season contract and enter restricted free agency this summer instead. Reflecting on that decision in a recent social media post, he said: “They wanted to lock me into certainty before the market had a chance to price my value. Honestly, I’d do the same thing if I was in their position.”
That bet on himself has paid off with the $12 million offer sheet from Oklahoma City, which is fully guaranteed, the source told The Post. Nuggets co-general manager Jon Wallace said in June that Denver wanted retain the restricted free agent, but the team is facing a steep luxury tax bill that increases exponentially with every dollar added to its roster payroll.
“I think Spencer’s done himself a lot of favors this past year, specifically how he stepped in and defended, made shots. He was just a big part of what we did,” Wallace said at the time. “But we feel confident. He’s a homegrown guy. You want to reward those guys for sticking to the plan and really developing themselves.”
Jones shot 50.4% from the field, 39.6% from 3-point range and 60.8% from the foul line last season. He started 37 of the 64 games he played, usually slotting in at power forward with Aaron Gordon in and out of the lineup due to injuries. Late in the season, Nuggets coach David Adelman also started using Jones as a switchable small-ball five more frequently. He brought a physical defensive approach that bordered on overzealous at times, which appealed to the Nuggets — they felt their roster was otherwise lacking in similar tenacity.
Offensively, Jones has been used almost entirely as an off-ball forward, spacing in the dunker spot or spotting up in the corners. He proved that he can be a high-stakes shot maker in Game 5 of Denver’s playoff series against the Timberwolves, when he helped stave off elimination (for one game, anyway) with a 20-point, 4-for-5 performance beyond the arc.
“What he’s done and what he’s put on tape,” Adelman said in February, “is a professional basketball player that belongs in a rotation.”
