But a recent under-the-radar move brought them one step closer. Denver decided late last week to stretch the guaranteed portion of Jonas Valanciunas’ salary across three seasons, a league source told The Post, confirming a report by Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.

Valanciunas signed a two-year contract with the Lithuanian team Zalgiris Kaunas after Denver waived him in July, releasing the backup center from the last year of his NBA deal. It left the Nuggets with a $2 million dead cap hit on their 2026-27 payroll — his full salary next season would’ve been $10 million if they had kept him — as Valanciunas was able to return to his home country.

The NBA’s waive-and-stretch provision allows teams to spread a waived player’s remaining salary across multiple seasons, sacrificing future cap space in exchange for immediate relief. In this case, Denver is choosing to incur a dead cap hit of $666,666 for each of the next three years, instead of signing a one-time-only $2 million check.

That means $1.3 million in direct savings against the salary cap. But it also dramatically reduces Denver’s projected luxury tax bill. As a “repeater tax” team, the Nuggets essentially will owe interest on every dollar spent above the luxury tax threshold next season. Stretching Valanciunas whittles about $9 million off their projected tax total.

Still, , the NBA’s most expensive roster remains about $800,000 above the second apron after the Valanciunas move. The Nuggets have until the mid-season trade deadline next February to shed other salary if they want to avoid that threshold, which results in not only an additional tax penalty but also roster-building restrictions. After re-signing Spencer Jones for two years and $12 million this summer, they became the only team in the league with a payroll exceeding the second apron.

By trading Peyton Watson in August and now by lowering the immediate cap hit on Valanciunas, they’ve continued to signal that getting out of second-apron territory is a priority. Currently, their five least expensive cap hits on the active roster all belong to players signed this offseason: DeMar DeRozan, Marvin Bagley III, Tyus Jones, Alpha Diallo and rookie Trevon Brazile.

The next-cheapest players Denver could theoretically trade sometime between now and February are DaRon Holmes II ($3.4 million) and Julian Strawther ($4.8 million). But as of now, any such salary-shedding transaction would require an accompanying move to satisfy NBA roster rules. The Nuggets have 14 out of 15 spots tentatively filled as the calendar flips to September. They cannot carry any fewer than 14 players for more than two consecutive weeks during the season.

Two-way contract maneuvers

Outside of that active 15-man roster, Denver has made a few valuable discoveries using two-way contracts in recent years, from Jones to Collin Gillespie (now in Phoenix).

Every team gets three two-way spots per season. Those spots are filled by players who can be assigned back and forth between the NBA and G League; their salaries don’t count against the cap, but they can play regular-season NBA minutes as if they’re part of the active roster.

The Nuggets acquired Julian Reese’s two-way contract from Washington in the Watson sign-and-trade, but they waived him last Friday, according to the NBA’s transaction log. They proceeded to sign recent draft pick Bryce Hopkins to a two-way deal instead, leaving them with two spots filled and one vacant. Hopkins was taken with the 49th overall pick in June. Former CU guard KJ Simpson currently occupies the other spot.

Veteran guard Lonnie Walker IV, who will try to make the team on a training camp invite, is no longer eligible to sign a two-way contract due to his NBA service time. If Denver keeps him around, it will have to be via a standard contract.

“It’s honestly good for you, every once in a while, to get punched in the mouth,” the Nuggets guard told me over the weekend at the , home to his summer 2026 youth camp with Flexwork.

“I’ve said it a couple of times. So it’s good for me to personally get written off. It’s probably good for the team to get written off.

“But like I said, I wouldn’t write a (Nuggets) team off that won that many games and has been there, has won a championship, has done all those things. So we’re excited. And obviously, we don’t really care what other people have to say.”

Good thing. The Nuggets have been taking it in the shorts from pundits far and wide ever since they went over the NBA salary cap’s second apron in order to keep Spencer Jones out of the Thunder’s clutches. Tim Hardaway Jr., Jonas Valanciunas, Jalen Pickett and now Peyton Watson are officially out; Marvin Bagley III, Lonnie Walker IV and now DeMar DeRozan are officially in.

“Really excited to play with another All-Star and learn from him,” Braun said of DeRozan.

“I’m always very confident in what our front office does and the team they’ll put together every single year.”

On paper, the Nuggets will go into preseason camp older than a year ago at this time. Maybe wiser. But maybe not, well, better. And in a Western Conference where Oklahoma City’s roster is still loaded and San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama is only 22 and just getting started, the smart money says the Mile High title window’s about to snap shut on Nikola Jokic’s Hall-of-Fame fingers. That Denver’s become Milwaukee West. No wonder CB can get a little cheesed off when you bring it up.

“I mean, we’re going to add enough pieces, obviously. As long as we have Jok (Jokic), as long as we have Mal (Jamal Murray) and AG (Aaron Gordon) and that staff, we’re always in a really good spot,” Braun countered.

“I’m very confident in us every single year, no matter who we put on the court.  With those guys, we’ve got a chance to win a championship, and that’s what we’re here for — to win championships. So we’re excited. We’ve got everything we need, as long as we have those guys.”

The Core Four is the Core Three now, mind you, and Father Time isn’t doing Nuggets Nation any favors. Gordon turns 31 in September. He played in only 36 games a season ago, as one of the bounciest players in the NBA battled calf and hamstring issues. Murray had a career year (25.4 points per game) and landed a deserved All-Star berth, but shot 35.7% from the floor during that ill-fated first-round playoff loss to Minnesota. Jokic became just the second player in NBA history to average a triple-double over back-to-back campaigns, but shot 44.6% during the postseason. He’s turning 32 in February.

The Nuggets need to get younger, longer and meaner around that veteran trio, and ASAP. All of which puts a little more hot sauce on Braun, a two-way threat who’s 25, rehabbing an injured ankle, and entering the first season of a five-year, $125-million extension. Especially with Watson, CB’s pal, getting traded to the Cavs as part of a five-team swap that landed the Nuggets draft picks in ’31 and ’32. P-Swat (pick 30) and Braun (pick 21) were both Hoovered up in the ’22 draft, and eventually contributed to the franchise’s first NBA title the following spring.

“Very excited for Peyton and everything he accomplished,” Braun said of his former running mate, who landed a four-year, $88-million deal from Cleveland as part of a sign-and-trade.

“I mean, every single day that I’ve been in the NBA, I’ve been with Peyton. Every single day we’ve competed, we’ve competed together. We’ve done everything together. We’ve practiced every day together. We’ve done all the rookie stuff together. So Peyton’s my guy. Me and his guys, his family, his friends have gotten close (with me) over the last four years, obviously. And he’s a guy that obviously supported me at every step. So I’ll do the same for him, always.”

Yet as the Nuggets chose to pay CB and not P-Swat at the end of their respective rookie deals, the former has become  for Nuggets faithful lately; You sort of see what you want to see inside that inkblot. The hot take is that the former Kansas star cashed in — Braun’s got a $21.55 million cap number for ’26-27 — only to promptly fall off his ’24-25 clip in scoring (12.0 points per game last season, down from 15.4 the year before), shooting (30.1% on treys, down from 39.7% the year prior) and defense (120 points allowed per 100 opponent possessions, up from 118 in ’24-25).

But there were caveats, too. For one, CB played hurt last season, and everybody knew it. One of Braun’s strengths is an almost sneaky explosiveness combined with reckless abandon — whether sprinting on run-outs, squirting free on back-door cuts, throwing his body into the paint, or rising high to finish open looks from beyond the arc. Braun tore ligaments in his left ankle last November and wasn’t quite the same after that. He missed 38 games. He spent three weeks wearing a boot. Then he dinged his calf in Game 1 of the Minnesota series. He managed three points in Game 6, as one of the most anticipated seasons in recent Nuggets memory ended with a stunning thud in Minneapolis.

From a 2026 lens, extending Braun while kicking Watson’s can down the road looks like an epic blunder that could cost the Nuggets another title in the Joker’s prime.

But hindsight makes Jerry Wests of us all. If someone told you a year ago that you’d only be able to pay either Watson or Braun the $20-ish million it would take to keep them, eight out of 10 Nuggets fans — probably more — would’ve given the money to the latter. Without hesitation.

Basketball-Reference.com tracks a stat called “Box score Plus/Minus,” or BPM — which, in simplest terms, measures points per 100 possessions a player accounts for in a game above that of an average player. Braun put up a +0.1 BPM score or better in 41 of 78 appearances (53%) during the ’24-25 season, and posted a BPM net-positive score in 19 of 51 (37%) career postseason appearances. Watson, by contrast, registered an +0.1 BPM in 23 of 68 appearances (33.8%) in ’24-25 and posted nine net-positive BPM games out of 29 playoff tilts (31%).

It’s fine to fault the Nuggets front office for not seeing 2026 Watson coming. But while it’s OK to talk about ancient history, it’s a weak look to keep revising that history to fit the narratives of the present.

Your buddy with the season tickets might not have given Braun $20 million a year ago, but he would’ve laughed you out of the bar if you’d suggested doing the same for P-Swat last August. And if he says otherwise, he’s lying.

That said, it also behooves Braun to get back on track, fair or not. If Watson becomes an All-Star in the East, Nuggets Nation won’t let No. 0 in blue hear the end of it.

And they need him. Now more than ever. Since the spring of ’24, the Nuggets are 10-4 in the postseason when Braun scores in double digits and 6-12 when he doesn’t. That’s an awful lot of pressure on one left ankle.

“Yeah, I think we’re going to put it in the past, and it’s not something I want to talk about anymore,” Braun said of last year’s injuries. “I’ve worked extremely hard to get past it and will continue to work on it, and (it’s) something that will continue to develop, continue to get better. So I’m not too worried about what other people have to say about it.

“I know who I am and the player I am. I know I’ll bounce back and be right where I need to be next year.”

Crazy eyes. Brows in attack mode. Nostrils burning like sparklers at an Independence Day picnic. A grown man who’s not gonna take this bleep anymore.

You think the Nuggets would ever sit on their hands over the summer — any summer — if the Joker went at ownership the way a black bear goes at an Arby’s dumpster?

Pay for Peyton Watson, or I walk.

Find us a backup ball-handler besides Tyus Jones, or I’m going house-hunting in Brentwood with Luka Doncic.

“My idea and desire is to stay in Denver. I’ll probably sign (an extension) next year,” Jokic told reporters in Serbian last month after a FIBA World Cup qualifier. “My desire is to play the rest of my life in Denver.”

No, no, no, dude! Angrier! Pretend Lu Dort just stole Delicious Gar! Hulk smash!

The Kroenkes got lucky about 17 different ways with Jokic, didn’t they?  Especially the part about how the best-passing center in the history of the NBA also happens to be a very nice guy. Unless, of course, you stick your leg out to try and trip him.

The basketball gods will never shine on Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke and team president Josh Kroenke again the way they did with the Joker. Ever. And they know it.

You sometimes wonder if they take advantage of it, too.

The way the Nuggets botched their roster-building — the Zeke Nnaji contract and Reggie Jackson-to-Charlotte trade providing the nadir — around Jokic, most NBA icons, by now, would’ve fled our fair landlocked shores. Or kicked up enough red rocks that management started to get the hint.

But that’s not Nikola. An NBA flyover franchise in a proud, provincial, hard-working, no-frills, blue-collar town bags a proud, provincial, hard-working, no-frills, blue-collar gem in the second round of the 2014 draft. A star falls from the sky and lands in your lap while ESPN’s busy cutting away to a Taco Bell commercial. The greatest player in Nuggets history, more often than not, still acts as if he’s just happy to be rolling with the fellas. From his origin story onward, the Joker has become the super-hero movie long-suffering Front Range fans deserved.

, brother, sequels are awfully hard to pull off. We’ve entered the “Nobody Repeats!” phase of 21st-century NBA history, with eight different franchises — including Denver in 2023 — winning league titles over the last eight seasons.

It’s as if the Nuggets, like Icarus, flew too close to the sun, and the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement has spent the last two years melting the wax on their wings.

They’re the only franchise over They’re in a staring contest with Watson, a restricted free agent, that could last until September. Three-point specialist Tim Hardaway Jr. bolted for Miami and backup center Jonas Valanciunas went back to Europe.

Unless the Kroenkes are willing to eat some serious tax money, the franchise is probably going to have to try to trade — and without much leverage — one of wing guards Watson, Cameron Johnson ($23.1 million cap number for 2026-27) or Christian Braun ($21.5 million) to balance the books. Bruce Brown looks like a long shot to return.

If you’re the Joker, is this how you envision spending the winter of a Hall-of-Fame career? Hey, I want Jokic, 31, to retire a Nugget as much as the next fella. Given that he’s still, at heart, a small-town guy with a small-town franchise, the smart money still says he’s not going anywhere.

But we’re talking serious money, too. Jokic could’ve signed a four-year, $278-million supermax contract extension this summer. Instead, he says he’d prefer to kick that gold-plated can to next summer, when he’s eligible for a whopping $359.5 million over five seasons — the largest in NBA history.

What did he say in that second sentence, though? Probably.

Which means between now and next June, the Nuggets have to show him something. Something besides Stan’s checkbook, at any rate.

“I think this team is stacked, still,” NBC/Peacock insider Grant Liffmann, who spent three seasons in the Atlanta Hawks’ front office, told me recently. “He’s a top-5 player in the league. Any team that has a top-5 player in the league has a chance to win a championship every single year, right? And he was the top player in the world pretty much the last five years.”

He was, which is why it feels as if the Nuggets’ title window was 2019-2024. That the S.S. Larry O’Brien just sailed. We just don’t know it yet. Or don’t want to admit it.

Half-full view: They snatched one ring. And it was glorious. A hazy fever dream of confetti and cigar smoke, the time of our lives. The ’23 Finals were over in five games. The Heat rolled over so quickly, we barely had time to savor the moment.

Half-empty: They should’ve won at least two. And we’re one day all going to look back at the fall of 2023 through the spring of 2025 and grimace.

Game 7 against the Timberwolves in 2024 is going to loom larger and larger in Nuggets nightmares. If you don’t blow a 20-point second-half lead to a hated rival, at home, you take care of Dallas in the next round. Then you take out Boston, which didn’t want to play you, in the NBA Finals. Jokic is a back-to-back champ, and even Kendrick Perkins bows down.

Didn’t happen. And now you wonder where No. 2 is going to come from. And when.

Meanwhile, on paper, Denver’s depth is down a peg — maybe several — off the roster it built last summer. Lonnie Walker IV is here, though. So’s Marvin Bagley III. Even if the Nuggets don’t win a division, at least they’ll lead the Northwest in Roman numerals. Is that enough to convince Joker to stay put?

“It’s a great question,” Pete Babcock, the Nuggets’ GM from 1985-90, told me over the phone. “I think when you’re building a team, or you’re trying to maintain a team at a certain level, if you have a key player that you’re building around, to keep that player, you’ve got to really demonstrate that you are building around them, so that they feel like there’s a chance to win another championship.

“I mean, as an outsider looking in, if you got a player like Jokic, I would assume his decision is going to be based on what he sees around him. And if it feels like there’s a supporting cast of teammates that complement him, and help him be successful, then I think he probably stays put.”

Probably. In the meantime, though, you might want to mute anyone you follow on Xwitter that has Lakers ties for the next 10 months or so. Or friends with Lakers ties.

The NBA’s got more leakers than the Pentagon, and the whispers are already circulating that teams are working to clear cap room for next June so they can make a serious play for the best player on the planet. Including one franchise whose home is just a few steps from the

“I cannot stress enough how much the title window is absolutely open for this (Nuggets) team,” Liffmann said. “I would consider them a top-5 title contender next year.”

Unfortunately, the West’s top two contenders, the Thunder and Spurs, keep stealing everybody else’s lunch. This isn’t an Arby’s, sir. If Jokic wants to pop champagne again on this side of the pond, he needs to have a word with the manager. And no time like the present.

The only thing worse than losing Peyton Watson might be keeping him to go into the second apron.

Nobody loves spending owners’ money as much as I do, but why would the Kroenkes take a $177 million tax hit for this group?

It would be one thing if Denver reached the Western Conference Finals in May. They lost in the first round, pantsed in front of the world as soft, feeble and incapable of anger.

Bring back the same top six players and a compromised bench at “Price Is Right” inflation? Please tell me how it makes sense.

This offseason grows more infuriating and demoralizing by the day.

The NBA headlines remain filled with speculation about where James will sign — the Warriors, 76ers, Heat and Cavs appear in the mix — and the Nuggets are dropping social media posts about rotational players and draft picks.

The kind of guys who look good in the defense-free summer league. The kind of seasoned veterans who stand out in Europe. The kind of gypsies who widen eyes in workouts.

So instead of talking about championships and Nikola Jokic, we are left to talk about players who star in practice. Not a game. Practice. Sorry, AI, Chatbot, and whoever else was offended by this remark.

The Athletic recently released its letter grade evaluation of every team’s offseason. The Nuggets received a D-minus. That seems generous.

Tim Hardaway Jr., a cold-blooded 3-point shooter, left for Miami. Jonas Valanciunas was waived to create salary cap relief, signing with Zalgiris Kaunas, a Lithuanian club. Jalen Pickett was cut.

They have been replaced by backup wing Alpha Diallo, a projected versatile defender at all spots, reserve point guard Tyus Jones, bouncy draft pick Trevon Brazile and this year’s Gatorade break for Jokic, Marvin Bagley III.

Even if the Nuggets remain healthier after setting the single-season record for hamstring injuries, it is hard to see this team eclipsing the Spurs, Thunder, and Timberwolves.

Midway through July, the question hangs over Ball Arena like the Goodyear Blimp: What are the Nuggets doing?

Nuggets Nation, if my email and social media replies can be trusted, would rather keep Watson — to heck with frozen future draft picks and the repeater tax — than sign and trade him. Outside of those on the team payroll, nobody believes the Nuggets can win a championship.

It is more about wanting another strong regular season and accepting the poison pill of the playoffs over the alternative of an underwhelming regular season and an early playoff exit.

The evil of two lessers.

Sure. Whatever.

The reality is that the Nuggets have followed arguably their most humbling playoff elimination with a summer of confusion.

There have been reports that they have no spending limitations, and yet the American Express black card remains in their wallet.

There have been indications that they would prefer to avoid the repeater tax and the second apron. And yet, Cam Johnson remains on the roster, the most likely player to be moved to keep Watson.

These are competing agendas. Spend like on a Vegas bender. Or run the budget like clipping coupons. Both messages cannot be true.

Did the Nuggets leak their desire to spend to stay in the hunt for James? Perhaps. Did they do it to appease Jokic, who they believe will eventually sign a contract extension, even if his delay until next summer creates consternation? Maybe.

Did they do it to send a message to the rest of the league — most notably the Clippers, Hawks and Bucks — that they are prepared to match any offer sheet for Watson? Possibly.

Even if Brown and James were privately fever dreams, Watson is not. He is their guy. They know him. And letting a nimble, 23-year-old defender capable of creating his own shot walk out of the building runs contrary to everything Denver requires to remain a future contender.

The Nuggets need athletes, need the energy and enthusiasm the kid brings.

With the dots loosely connected, the latest sign-and-trade for Watson suggested the Nuggets could acquire the Clippers’ Derrick Jones Jr. and first-round draft picks in 2028 and 2031. That is actually a good haul for Watson, save for the fact that Jokic would be 34 when using the first pick and 37 when making the second.

So again, what are the Nuggets doing? Are they going for it? Or going young?

The mixed messages are harder to translate due to inactivity.

There are those who scream for patience, citing the Broncos. Remember when they did nothing during the first week of free agency before Sean Payton pointed his finger like Sophie Cunningham at critics, myself included, after acquiring electric receiver Jaylen Waddle?

Could this be the Nuggets’ play?

Sort of. Not really. Let’s be clear, keeping Watson is not the equivalent of trading for Waddle.

But maybe there is a big deal out there. As colleague Bennett Durando explained, Detroit, Orlando, Memphis and Golden State have also done little, and must meet roster requirements. Could one of these teams make an aggressive play for Johnson or even Jamal Murray, leaving plenty of room to keep Watson and kickstart the process of trending younger?

There has to be another move. Something. Anything.

Because what has happened so far is nothing short of discouraging and puzzling.

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

Third-year big man DaRon Holmes II has been absent from the sideline in Las Vegas this week, left off the roster. That hasn’t stopped him from hanging out around the team, though. The 2024 first-round pick spent last week practicing with the Summer League Nuggets at their mini camp, and he did make the trip to the desert, where his goal has been to join as many informal pickup runs as he can find.

“My friends always ask me, ‘Why aren’t you playing?’ It wasn’t my decision,” Holmes said. “But at the end of the day, I’m gonna do whatever the coaches ask me to and the front office asks me to. I would love to play, but at the same time, if they’re telling me no, then I’m gonna listen to what they have to say, and I’m gonna get better every day regardless.”

Holmes, who turns 24 next month, has an emotionally complicated history at UNLV’s Cox Pavilion, the site where Denver has played most of its Summer League games in recent years. Two weeks after he was drafted with the 22nd pick, he tore his right Achilles tendon in his Summer League debut, delaying his rookie season and setting back his career in ways that still resonate to this day.

He made a triumphant return to competitive basketball last year in the same gymnasium where he suffered the injury, scoring 15 points in his re-debut. This would have been his second healthy Summer League, a normal step for players at his developmental stage. But Denver’s front office decided he had graduated from the annual showcase for young players.

“He’s been here every day since the season ended,” Nuggets executive vice president of player personnel Jon Wallace said recently. “Working on his shot, working on his conditioning, working on his mobility. He’s a very important factor in terms of his lethal shooting ability. So any time you can do that, you can find a place on the floor. As we continue to develop his game, we’ll see how he fits in with other guys. But we’re very pleased with his development at this point.”

The Nuggets made a point to slow-play his 2025-26 season. They didn’t trust that Holmes could make an immediate impact for a championship contender while coming off such a severe injury, so they sent him down to the G League for large chunks of the year, imploring him to master Denver’s system and spacing. He averaged 20.7 points, 8.3 rebounds and four assists with the Grand Rapids Gold under coach Ryan Bowen, who had previously served as a Nuggets assistant alongside David Adelman.

“Any time you have an injury the way he had it, it goes beyond just the physical,” Wallace said. “So it was in a place where we didn’t want to push him mentally and make sure he trusted his body, felt comfortable, but also (we wanted to) give him the ability to do it as his pace. I think he should be commended for the way he stayed true to it. Because a lot of guys don’t really return to their same form.”

“It used to be an injury where you’re done if you tear your Achilles,” Holmes said. “I think it’s definitely the worst injury you can have playing basketball. But it’s been a full process, and it does take a while. … I’m learning new things about my game. I’m learning how to play without being the most freakish athletic guy. I felt like I was very athletic before. I feel like I still am, but at the same time, I’m learning new things about my game.”

Limiting Holmes’ NBA minutes was a luxury that Denver probably can’t afford again next season. One of the deepest rosters of the Nikola Jokic era has been replaced by the swirling uncertainty of a cap crunch. Assuming Holmes is on the roster in September — if there’s any subtext to his absence from Summer League, it might be the Nuggets’ reluctance to risk damaging anyone’s trade value right now — he’ll be one of the most important players at training camp.

This could be a make-or-break season for his viability in Denver’s rotation, whether as a backup center or power forward. One of his G League missions last year was to learn the dunker spot, he told The Post.

“Maturing, understanding the game a little bit more,” he said. “Knowing where to be, knowing what spots to do. Knowing the plays. But that comes with just being here and getting in the reps.”

And so “being here” remained a priority for Holmes after the season. If he wasn’t going to be on the court at Summer League, he needed to find other ways to prove himself to a front office regime that’s not the same as the one that drafted him. Calvin Booth was his biggest believer in 2024. Now, it’s Wallace, Ben Tenzer and Adelman steering the ship. Holmes also pinpointed his defensive mobility as a top focus this summer.

“I need to be here early. I shouldn’t be going on vacations right now,” he said. “I haven’t proved myself yet. So my goal is to get better every day until I gain trust from my teammates and coaches that I can go out there and compete.

“… When guys come in, especially for Summer League, everybody is trying to earn something. Everybody is trying to get that spot. So everybody is playing hard. For me, that’s what I need to be around, because that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to earn my time on the court. So regardless of wherever anybody’s at in their careers, everybody’s out here busting their tails to get to where they want to be. I think that’s somewhere I need to be around.”

One reason for his confidence: The Nuggets picked up his team option for the 2026-27 season last October, six months after Booth lost his job. The fact that he’s still under contract in Denver was a Wallace and Tenzer decision. Holmes is set to make $3.4 million. He has another team option next summer, before the last year of his rookie-scale deal. If that’s picked up, he’ll carry a $5.5 million cap hit in 2027-28.

In the meantime, he’s still looking for a second glimpse of NBA action. The extent of his real playing time last season was a 10-game stint when Jokic and Jonas Valanciunas were both injured, forcing the Nuggets to call him up and start him.

The most enticing element of that small sample size was Holmes’ confidence as a floor-stretching big. He made 20 of his first 45 career 3-point attempts.

“I like ‘Deuce.’ I wish he was playing (this week), so we could do his pick-and-pop and let him shoot 3s all Summer League,” Nuggets assistant JJ Barea said, laughing. “I told him that in Vegas now, there’s going to be a lot of pickup games, a lot of NBA games randomly. Try to play in all of them so you can get reps in.”

Those reps are the only true remedy for the awkwardness of Holmes’ last two years, he believes.

“After an injury I had like the Achilles, what I had to go through, it’s really no joke,” he said. “Not a lot of people understand that. So I mean, the fact that I’m at where I’m at today, I’m very proud of myself.”

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.

Not a knock on the big lug. Honest. The hoops wonks on The Grading The Week staff had nothing but pleasant exchanges with Val while he was a member of the Nuggets — a curious calendar year that came to a curious end this past Wednesday when the franchise waived him.

By doing it when they did, yes, Stan Kroenke and Josh Kroenke got $10 million in guaranteed salary off their books, leaving a $2-million cap hit that they’re likely to spread out over the next three seasons.

And sure, the Nuggets’ problems are largely accounting ones now. The franchise is reportedly aiming to stay below the NBA salary cap’s second apron, a hard-ish cap that freezes future draft picks, wipes out mid-level exceptions — and could leave KSE stuck with paying more than $200 million in taxes on top of projected player salaries in the $210-240 million range.

Valanciunas’ Nuggets era — C-minus

To that end, cutting Big Val was the easy part. While the 6-foot-11 Lithuanian was easily the Nuggets’ most skilled backup to franchise icon Nikola Jokic since Mason Plumlee left for Detroit in December 2000, he was probably the slowest Joker backup of the bunch, too. The former Denver center often looked painfully out of step last winter when facing the West’s best teams.

In three late-season tussles versus Oklahoma City from February-March, when the Thunder were actually trying, Big Val, per NBA.com, posted Net Ratings — points scored per 100 possessions versus points allowed — of -31.0, -120.2 (!) and -62.1. In three matchups against the San Antonio before April 10, when the Spurs were trying, Big Val’s Net Ratings were +13.0, -71.8, and -20.9. In four regular-season tussles with Minnesota, Big Val’s Net Ratings were, in order: -4.7, +13.1, -34.4, and -71.4.

That explains, at least partially, why the big man’s court time fell precipitously late last season. Valanciunas averaged just 13.3 minutes per game in February. That number was down to 8.6 minutes per game in March.

Val was one of the reasons the Nuggets didn’t go off the rails without the Joker for a month this past January. But he’ll also turn 35 next spring.

A year ago, the idea of Val and Jokic on the floor together as dual, pass-savvy, physically strong big men made Nuggets Nation’s eyes light up at the possibilities of creating matchup nightmares. In reality, the Denver coaching staff dealt with the nightmares as smaller, faster opponents knew they could probably blow by either one, if not both, whenever opportunities arose.

In no blueprint does Valanciunas, even at age 34, fit with remits of “getting younger” and “getting more athletic.” Even if those two demands are also front office code for “getting cheaper.” The Nuggets’ next cuts, you have a feeling, will be much harder. And more painful.

Tootle’s Colorado legacy  — A

Denver lost a good man and GTW lost a friend recently when former Regis Jesuit and Colorado Mesa football great Jeff Tootle passed away late last month at the age of 63. An NAIA All-American linebacker who went on to play for the New York Giants, Tootle had tackled a run of health-related issues in recent years. But battles to overcome his leg, heart, and prostate never dulled his spirits, his sense of humor, or his love for his family. Jeff’s medical bills were extensive in recent years, and a GTW tip of the cap to those who have already pitched in to help his survivors with impending funeral costs. If you’d like to assist, there’s

With two starters due for a combined $25.8 million salary increase, and with a potential rising star on the bench determined to land a lucrative contract extension, something had to give. The Nuggets were about to get too expensive for owner Stan Kroenke to stomach. Especially after their debacle of a playoff run, which ended before it could begin.

This was the prevailing sentiment for two months leading up to free agency. Almost all Nuggets-related chatter, both inside and outside Ball Arena, seemed to focus on which player(s) they would sacrifice in a trade. Team president Josh Kroenke fueled the rumor mill when he declared in May that “everything is on the table” except trading three-time MVP center Nikola Jokic. Another high-ranking official in the Kroenke sports empire, Kevin Demoff, had hinted months earlier that Denver’s inclination might be to dodge the luxury tax entirely next season as to avoid paying the NBA’s punitive “repeater tax” rates.

That was long before the Nuggets revealed to their power brokers that they were nowhere close to championship-worthy.

So, uh, what’s going on in Denver?

Two weeks since the league’s free agency period began, many teams have completed their offseason business. The Nuggets have been puzzlingly idle. A few highlights so far: Tim Hardaway Jr. leaving for Miami as expected, Jonas Valanciunas getting waived for salary cap relief as expected, Marvin Bagley III and Tyus Jones and Alpha Diallo signing one-year deals.

Something doesn’t add up. As in, it adds up to a sum that continues to leave most NBA observers skeptical. Denver is leaving everyone guessing right now, even other teams.

Should fans be frustrated by the lack of action? Encouraged by it? Or is everything simply on hold?

There are two sides to this to unpack: the financial and basketball perspectives. They’re obviously intertwined, but when trying to make sense of the Nuggets’ position, it’s best to start with the financial, because that was an obstacle that seemed to be motivating their roster decisions even before the on-court problems that emerged against Minnesota.

Before last season, the Nuggets were choosing between two extension-eligible 2022 draftees who had one year remaining on their rookie contracts: Christian Braun and Peyton Watson. They chose Braun, the more proven player at that point, an efficient 15-point-per-game starter the previous season and a strong (if flawed) defender. They signed him to a five-year deal that would go into effect in 2026. They felt comfortable taking Watson to restricted free agency and maybe even losing him. Three years into his career, he seemed to be developing into a solid 3-and-D bench player, but maybe not much more than that.

The Nuggets were looking ahead to their 2026-27 payroll and didn’t want to commit large chunks of money to both players. Watson told The Denver Post in October: “From what I understand, it was just a financial business decision. Obviously, with the new CBA and the second apron, things of that nature, they wanted to stay out of that.”

Braun went on to have an injury-riddled season, the worst of his career. Watson had the best season of his, particularly by showcasing his off-the-dribble ability when Jokic was hurt in January.

The outlook shifted. The Nuggets suddenly knew they would be entering the 2026 offseason with six starter-level players whose combined salary would result in a roster payroll above all three tax thresholds: the luxury tax ($200.4 million), first apron ($209 million) and second apron ($221.7 million). They wanted to keep Watson, recognizing the importance of his two-way talent and athleticism. They signaled as much to other teams.

If their previous actions had already indicated they were prepared to sacrifice him to stay under the second apron, then changing course and keeping him would surely mean sacrificing someone else.

That was the foundational logic that led people around the NBA to believe they were almost guaranteed to trade a starter. An oversimplification of the salary cap math looked like this: Lose one of your six starter-level players to get under the second apron, or lose two to duck the tax completely. Perhaps other creative ways to shed salary would emerge, but this was the basic state of the union. Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer would be tasked with threading the needle between cutting payroll and improving the roster.

From this perspective, the fact that Denver has not yet lost any of those top six players can ironically be interpreted as an aggressive stance, not a conservative one. The moves that were expected to have happened by now would’ve been motivated primarily by money, not purely by basketball. Could it be that the Kroenkes are going all-in to chase a second championship? Suddenly, in recent weeks, there’s been reporting from national media outlets that “Denver’s ownership has not given its front office a mandate to cut costs.” The Post has been told similarly.

But that didn’t seem to be the case three weeks ago when the Nuggets were actively exploring the trade market, as The Post and other outlets reported, with Braun and Cam Johnson widely considered to be their leading candidates to be shipped off.

What can it mean? Maybe there’s been a change of heart, and an executive decision has been made to spend lavishly. Maybe it’s connected to the team’s pursuit of LeBron James in free agency (how do you even begin to pitch him on coming to Denver for the veteran minimum if you’re not willing to pay up in every other corner of the roster?), or maybe it’s a reaction to Jokic’s decision to delay signing a new extension again. As direct as he was in publicly stating his plan to sign next summer, maybe the pressure of him entering the last guaranteed season of his current contract has scared the Nuggets straight.

Maybe this is an earnest, full-throttle statement of championship intent.

Or maybe the abrupt timing of this leakage is a little too convenient.

The Nuggets have multiple reasons to want the rest of the NBA to believe they’re working with a blank check right now. One of those reasons: Watson.

Negotiations have clearly not gone smoothly. The line of demarcation seems to be $25 million. That’s Braun’s average annual value on his new contract — the deal Denver prioritized over Watson — and now it’s the number Watson’s camp can fixate on. His side can point to last season and claim that he’s worth the same amount or more than Braun going forward. The Nuggets can point to the previous three years and say Braun’s overall body of work is better so far, that $25 million is a lot to pay when the sample size of Watson’s star potential is only one month.

As this stalemate has drawn out, other teams have been reportedly lingering with desire to poach Watson. The Clippers, Bucks and Hawks have all been linked to him recently.

Watson is a restricted free agent, meaning those teams must extend him an offer sheet, the terms of which Denver can match to retain him. Offer-sheeting a player can be risky because it ties down your cap until the situation is resolved, with no guarantee that you will successfully land the player you’re targeting. The Nuggets are saying behind the scenes that they’re prepared to match any offer sheet. Basically, they’re trying to scare off any suitors by indicating the offer sheet would be a waste of time, and the only real way to get Watson from them would be to execute a sign-and-trade, sending Denver other assets in exchange for the right to sign the RFA. Utah just did this with Walker Kessler, who ended up with the Lakers via sign-and-trade. The Jazz netted an impressive package of draft picks.

How can you bolster your leverage in a situation like this? By signaling publicly that you’re willing to pay an exorbitant payroll and tax bill to keep Watson and everyone else.

This also sends a message that you aren’t desperate to trade a starter (or two) to keep Watson — that you’re more than happy to hold on to Johnson, Braun, Aaron Gordon or Jamal Murray if the offer isn’t strong enough.

If there is a spending mandate, then other teams might look to take advantage with low-ball trade offers.

So maybe the purported lack of any such mandate could turn out to be a bluff for leverage. Or maybe it’s a real edict, a genuine commitment to competitiveness at all costs. There’s almost no way to know for sure until the Nuggets take an action to back up their words. For now, inaction has the appearance of aggression, as Denver attempts to wait out the market.

Certainly, it seems like the key domino will be how the Watson dilemma works itself out — either in the form of a contract extension, or an unmatched offer sheet, or a sign-and-trade, or a begrudgingly accepted qualifying offer ($6.5 million).

ESPN front office expert Bobby Marks (a former NBA executive) projected last week that if the Nuggets retain Watson at a $25 million cap hit and don’t trade any starters, their luxury tax bill next season would exceed $170 million — that includes second apron and repeater tax penalties. That’s in addition to what the raw roster payroll would be.

Between player salaries and taxes, it would be a $400 million team. Every dollar added in salary would increase the tax bill further.

Which finally leads to the basketball perspective on Denver’s offseason holding pattern. It would be one thing to pay that much if the Nuggets had just lost the NBA Finals in a tight six-game series with their current roster — if they knew for a fact that a championship was barely out of reach last season.

But the Nuggets didn’t make the Finals. They didn’t win a single playoff series. They lost in the first round to an injured opponent. They weren’t close.

Fans of an NBA team obviously have no obligation to care about the dent in a billionaire owner’s wallet. But it’s also reasonable enough for Nuggets fans to want change this offseason, independent of the financial complications. There’s a fair case to be made that Denver should be pursuing trades solely based on basketball, even if the Kroenkes have decided they’re willing to spend like few owners have ever spent. Perimeter defense, shot creation depth, downhill quickness and frontcourt insurance for Gordon are all visibly lacking.

It’s just that the reason fans want change might not be exactly aligned with the reason this ownership group might want it.

It’s difficult to imagine the Nuggets feeling satisfied with the results of the last three seasons enough to truly run it back with the same top six players and less depth.

Then consider that those six players are aging. Then consider that the cost of those six players is multiplying.

It’s more than enough evidence to leave you wondering if Denver’s silence is misleading.

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.

One year after a EuroLeague team tried to lure him away from the NBA, Valanciunas might have a path to return overseas and play closer to home. Other NBA teams in need of frontcourt depth are also reportedly expected to show interest in the Lithuanian big man.

Valanciunas backed up Nikola Jokic during his lone season in Denver, one of the only situations in his 14-year NBA career in which he regularly played off the bench.

If this is the end of that career, Valanciunas will have appeared in 1,002 games, starting 854 of them. Most known for his six years and change in Toronto, he’s averaged 12.8 points and nine rebounds in the NBA. He averaged 8.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game as a Nugget.

The 34-year-old had a non-guaranteed $10 million salary with the Nuggets next season. Last October, the team amended his contract to guarantee him $2 million of that total in exchange for pushing back the guarantee deadline to July 8.

The Nuggets’ rationale was to give themselves a longer runway into the 2026-27 league year to explore trade options involving Valanciunas. The problem with their efforts to trade him over the last few days was that any team taking on his contract would have had to shoulder the full $10 million.

Valanciunas was acquired by Denver in a trade that sent Dario Saric to Sacramento last offseason. After the trade was completed and while Valanciunas was competing overseas with the Lithuanian national team, the popular Greek club Panathinaikos attempted to pull him away from Denver with a three-year contract offer.

He was unable to sign it while under contract in the NBA, though, and the Nuggets were unwilling to release him from that deal. Teammates and coaches vouched for his professionalism throughout the 2025-26 season as he played the fewest total minutes of his career (871).

Knowing they would need a second-string center behind Jokic yet again, the Nuggets agreed to a one-year deal with Marvin Bagley III last week. Valanciunas was more successful than most backup bigs who’ve passed through Ball Arena, but he faded out of the rotation late in the season as coach David Adelman went to a small-ball look more frequently.

Bagley, DaRon Holmes II and Zeke Nnaji are currently the biggest bench players on the roster. Aaron Gordon and Spencer Jones have also played the five in some of those smaller lineups. Jones is currently negotiating for a new contract with the Nuggets as a restricted free agent. Bagley will be paid the veteran minimum salary, taking up a smaller percentage of Denver’s cap than Valanciunas did.

Waiving Valanciunas leaves Denver about $6 million below the second apron for now, but with five open roster spots. The Nuggets can choose to stretch the $2 million in guaranteed salary across three seasons if they want. That would reduce their dead cap to $666,666 for next season and each of the following two. It was unclear on Wednesday afternoon whether they would choose to do that.

The Avs are Doja Cat. The Nuggets? Hello Kitty.

The difference between the approach of the local hockey team and resident hoops club remains striking. What makes it more confusing is that they are both owned by Kroenke Sports & Entertainment.

The Avs throw caution to the wind. The Nuggets rely on caution to prevent wins.

Knee-deep into the offseason, general manager Joe Sakic has executed three trades, shipping Ross Colton and Jack Drury to Nashville and Valeri Nichushkin to Columbus for a combined five draft picks and three players. He created $8 million in additional salary cap space to re-sign Brett Kulak and Brent Burns.

And he still has $6 million left to pursue a forward. It is easier to make moves in the NHL, but the Avs have been bold over the last two trade deadlines and summers.

They moved on from Mikko Rantanen and Nichushkin, exhausted by Moose’s contract demands and wisely recognizing Nichushkin’s decline. These were not only top players on their team, but, at times, in the league. And they ripped off the band aid in pursuit of a Stanley Cup.

As CSG podcaster Jeff Morton pointed out last week, the Nuggets have been cautious, while other KSE properties are aggressive. Is it because president Josh Kroenke is more involved in the basketball operations, becoming too close to the players?

There is no question he has strong relationships. I witnessed the emotion first hand in the locker room after the Nuggets were eliminated the past two seasons. Caring is not a bad thing. But it is always better to like players, not love them.

And it is fair to wonder if Kroenke’s connection to the Nuggets has influenced the team’s conservative movement this offseason.

The other potential answer? It is about money. NBA owners would rather swim through a moat of alligators and walk in hot lava to their suite at The Four Seasons than go into the second apron.

It is punitive, and the Nuggets showed how scared they were during the first round of the draft. Desperate for a better ball handler or a tougher big man — Jonas Valanciunas was a scorer, not an enforcer — the Nuggets traded their pick to San Antonio for a pair of second-round selections.

They moved back to make the team they are chasing better, giving the Spurs another brute, Tarris Reed Jr., to guard Nikola Jokic.

Co-general manager Jon Wallace said it was important that the Nuggets not catch “draft fever.” The buzzword was discipline. Cheap also works for a team that hired two general managers and a coach with no previous experience in their roles.

Remember, the Nuggets’ new second rounders — Trevon Brazile and Bryce Hopkins — will receive non-guaranteed contracts. Hardly anyone does unless their name is Bronny James. Brazile might become a rotational player this season, but it is more likely he is hooping with Hopkins in the G-League.

It would be easy to crush Wallace and co-GM Ben Tenzer for this draft night yawn.

But was it really their choice? Or are they operating under guidance from Kroenke?

Collecting picks is not uncommon, and there is an argument to follow this path as a market correction for the horrible trades of Isaiah Hartenstein and Reggie Jackson and for Bol Bol and DaRon Holmes II.

Those missteps left the Nuggets without assets to move up, or contributing players to fill out the roster (Where have you gone Bryn Forbes? Nuggets Nation turns its lonely eyes to you, woo, woo, woo).

Why can’t the Nuggets be transparent? Just admit they are in the middle of a reset?

Instead, Kroenke insists they are in a championship window because, you know, Jokic is on the roster. Well, you know who seems to be having a hard time believing that?

Jokic.

As the well-conditioned captain of the Serbian national team, Jokic said last week that the Nuggets were not good enough to win last season. The year before he said they were not deep enough.

All he left out was too predictable and unathletic, and he would have hit the problems right on the nose.

And the answer to all of this is frugality? Really?

“I think any time you get bounced in the first round like that, everyone’s gotta look themselves in the mirror,” Wallace said. “I think a large part of that is health. I think a large part of that is, as our team has entered into a more seasoned state individually, the type of basketball we play. The way we prepare, the way we attack teams is gonna have to change a little bit.”

This word salad makes me hungry for the Nuggets to just be honest about their intentions. Ship off two of the four starters between Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, Cam Johnson and Christian Braun and re-sign Peyton Watson.

Develop Spencer Jones and Julian Strawther, hope Brazile and Holmes become contributors and position the franchise to make a championship run in 2028, or more likely, 2029.

This is not my preference. I would love ownership to say, “F-them dollars!,” pay a significant tax penalty and become a second apron team for the first time under the current collective bargaining agreement. Then trade Johnson, keep Tim Hardaway Jr., and add backup point guard Keaton Wallace.

That would spark talk of another championship.

But that is not realistic. That is something the Avs would do.

They, after all, are Ozzie Osbourne to the Nuggets’ Ozzie and Harriet.

Meanwhile, Denver’s roster remains unchanged. Teams are officially allowed to negotiate with free agents starting at 4 p.m. MT next Tuesday (because they definitely haven’t already been negotiating with anyone; that would never happen). It’s the epicenter of transaction season, with a number of trades also likely to take place in the surrounding hours and days.

The Nuggets are expected to remain engaged in trade talks as much as any team during this time, with looming luxury tax constraints and Peyton Watson set to become a restricted free agent. Before the critical week arrived, co-general managers Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer spoke to reporters after the draft. While they made a point of not going into detail on specific plans, here are a few takeaways from their comments and other relevant notes to Denver from around the league.

Wallace wants ball-handling, ‘creativity’

After being named captain of his national team, Nikola Jokic recently took part in a rare interview scrum with reporters in Serbia, where he has no contractual media obligations (unlike those required of him during the NBA season). With his usual bluntness, Jokic said the Nuggets weren’t a good enough team to win last season based on the results.

Denver’s brass was asked about those comments on Wednesday, and Wallace responded by sharing some thoughts on the team’s internal and external goals.

“I think for your leader to say that, you can’t deal with a problem until you acknowledge it as a problem. And he did that,” Wallace said. “I think any time you get bounced in the first round like that, everyone’s gotta look themselves in the mirror. I think a large part of that is health. I think a large part of that is, as our team has entered into a more seasoned state individually, the type of basketball we play. The way we prepare, the way we attack teams is gonna have to change a little bit. And I think our guys were able to kind of have that opportunity to communicate amongst themselves about what’s gonna be needed from them this summer.

“Obviously, what we did (in the draft) was trying to plug a couple of holes in that … guys who can help with the toughness, defensive ability, rebounding. And now from there, we’ll look to see what we can do in terms of adding the creativity. … The ball-handling.”

From coach David Adelman to Wallace, the Nuggets have been unafraid to admit they want more players who can create a shot or an advantage off the dribble. That seems to be a theme around the league after recent playoff runs by Oklahoma City (SGA, Jalen Williams, Ajay Mitchell, Cason Wallace), Indiana (Tyrese Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard, TJ McConnell, Bennedict Mathurin) and San Antonio (De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper) — teams that had a surplus of ball-handlers capable of taking over for a possession.

Wallace said the Nuggets tried to move up in the draft for a point guard. Now that they were unable to accomplish that, they’ll be eyeing creators on the trade market in free agency. Wallace’s allusion to “the type of basketball we play” was probably in regard to that; Denver’s lack of quickness and rim pressure stood in stark contrast to Minnesota’s aggressive downhill attack during the playoffs.

Peyton Watson’s free agency landscape

Part of Denver’s vision for a team with more shot creation involves Watson, of course. Multiple team sources have reiterated to The Post in recent days that the 23-year-old wing is a top offseason priority. The front office’s comments on Wednesday also indicated as much.

“We feel good about where that’s at,” Tenzer said, “and we hope Peyton is here a long time.”

“A lot of the guys that we already have in-house, we expect to have those guys here for a long time, as Ben mentioned,” Wallace added later, not mentioning Watson by name but clearly referencing him. “And so a lot of that is just, make sure we communicate. We already have good relationships with those guys. Really following up, making sure they’re in a good spot and good space for us to hopefully get something done in the future.”

A couple of recent transactions bode well for Denver. Coming into the offseason, the Lakers, Bulls and Nets were seen as the biggest threats to throw a big offer sheet at Watson because of their financial flexibility. But Minnesota’s salary dump of Julius Randle last Monday took a chunk out of Brooklyn’s cap space and Chicago’s. The Bulls acquired Nic Claxton’s $23.3 million salary in the trade. The Nets absorbed about a $10 million payroll increase by turning Claxton into Randle.

Later in the week, Los Angeles agreed to a max extension with incumbent free agent Austin Reaves that will pay him an estimated $41.3 million next season, . The Lakers have more moving parts to sort out next week, most importantly, LeBron James. They’re also reportedly under pressure from Luka Doncic to pursue a rim-running center.

Nuggets ‘confident’ they can re-sign Spencer Jones

He’s been much less discussed than Watson, but Jones will also be an important restricted free agent for the Nuggets next week. He emerged last season as a viable 3-and-D wing who plays with a physicality that Denver otherwise lacked.

After earning a standard contract, he told The Post that he wanted to enter restricted free agency this summer rather than take more guaranteed years with the Nuggets. Now is his chance to test the waters and find out if any suitors will approach him with an offer sheet. Denver doesn’t have much financial wiggle room for the back half of the roster, but Wallace had this to say on Wednesday:

“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. But we feel confident. He’s a homegrown guy. You want to reward those guys for sticking to the plan and really developing themselves. So we feel confident in where we are with him.”

Like Watson, Jones is due a qualifying offer by the end of Monday.

Jonas Valanciunas reportedly Europe-bound

According to an overseas report by BasketNews, Denver’s backup center is prepared to sign a contract with the Lithuanian Euro League team Zalgiris Kaunas — an unsurprising development after Panathinaikos tried to lure him away from the NBA after the Nuggets traded for him last summer.

In 2025, they had no reason to release him from his contract. This time, due to the payroll crunch, it’s a near certainty that Denver will let him go — whether via trade, waive-and-stretch or clean release. Tenzer said the team is still evaluating how to handle the situation. Valanciunas has a $10 million non-guaranteed salary for next season, with $2 million of it guaranteed.

“We saw the reports, too,” Tenzer said. “But you know, we saw that last summer, so it’s all good.”

Tim Hardaway Jr. free agency

Late last season, Adelman said unprompted that he would love to have Hardaway back for a second year. The veteran guard joined the Nuggets in 2025 on a one-year veteran minimum contract and went on to post one of the best shooting seasons of his career. After finishing third place for NBA Sixth Man of the Year, he might have priced himself out of the minimum, which is what Denver will be relying on to fill out roster spots.

One potential Hardaway suitor to watch is Miami. The Heat will be looking for spacers to put around Antetokounmpo, who might already be dealing with crowded driving lanes because Bam Adebayo is his new frontcourt partner.

Hardaway has feasted on open shots created by Jokic and Doncic in recent years. Giannis would be a nice addition to his collection of superstar teammates in a city he calls home. Tim Hardaway Sr. spent parts of six seasons in Miami, making three All-NBA teams with the Heat. If they approach Tim Jr. with a marginal pay increase, it might be a natural fit.