SPORTS NUGGETS LOCK IN JOKIC IN 5-YEAR, $146.5M DEAL
Nikola Jokic’s contract has been one of the biggest bargains of the NBA. Soon, it will become one of the most lucrative.
The Nuggets have officially declined Jokic’s $1.6 million team option for next season in order to sign him to the richest contract in franchise history — a plan heavily implied by president of basketball operations Tim Connelly all offseason and confirmed to The Denver Post by a league source Tuesday. The move signals that management is willing to suffer a short-term financial hit to lock up its franchise star long term. But it also limits how much the Nuggets can immediately open their checkbooks during free agency, which begins Sunday.
Jokic’s expected five-year, $146.5 million deal, as first reported by Yahoo Sports’ Shams Charania, cannot officially be signed until July 6. That adds to a payroll that, barring offseason trades, puts Denver well over the projected $123 million luxury tax threshold.
Forget unveiling a splashy signing like last summer, when fourtime all-star Paul Millsap joined Denver. The current roster construction makes it challenging for the Nuggets to re-sign versatile swingman Will Barton, who is coming off a career season while playing multiple roles.
This month, both Wilson Chandler ($12.8 million) and Darrell Arthur ($7.5 million) exercised their player options for the 201819 season. Starting shooting guard Gary Harris’ hefty extension kicks in this season and will pay him $16.5 million in 2018-19. Millsap ($29.2 million), Kenneth Faried ($13.8 million) and Mason Plumlee ($12.9 million) also command high salaries for the upcoming season.
That’s why some outsiders wondered if Denver would unload salary on draft night as part of a trade package. Instead, the Nuggets kept the 14th overall pick and took a chance on Michael Porter Jr., who was once the top-rated high school prospect in the country before missing most of his only college season at Missouri because of back surgery, which led to him tumbling in the draft. The Nuggets, though, could still make a trade sometime during the offseason, and Faried, Arthur and Chandler are now on expiring contracts.
But the aggressive move to extend Jokic now is worth it, the Nuggets believe. Otherwise, he would have hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2019. The new deal also rewards a player who has enjoyed a sharp rise from an international second-round draft pick in 2014 to one of the NBA’s most multidimensional big men.
The Serbian 7-footer is the centerpiece of a Nuggets team that ranked sixth in the NBA in offensive efficiency (109.6 points per 100 possessions) and missed the playoffs by one game last season. Jokic led Denver in scoring (18.5 points per game), rebounding (10.7) and assists (6.1) and ranked fourth in the NBA in triple-doubles with 10, an eye-popping statistic for a player his size. Additionally, his laid-back, sneakyfunny personality illustrates why he finished 11th in the league’s teammate of the year voting released Monday night.
“Whatever we do, we’re going to ensure (Jokic is) here as long as possible,” Connelly said following the NBA draft. “He’ll be in Denver for a long, long time. He’ll be buying (a home) here.”
Jokic’s massive raise is a strain on Denver’s immediate financial future. But the Nuggets could no longer afford to keep Jokic as one of the NBA’s biggest bargains. It was time to pay him like a franchise star for the long term.