Craig signs two-year, $4 million contract

Torrey Craig has signed a two-year, $4 million contract with the Nuggets, a league source confirmed to The Denver Post on Monday.

Finalizing a deal was expected, as the 6-foot-6 Craig has been working out at the Pepsi Center throughout the offseason and has been in Las Vegas with teammates for summer league this week. But it remains one of the Nuggets’ biggest feel-good stories from 2017-18.

Craig signed a two-way contract with Denver last summer after beginning his professional career in the National Basketball League in Australia and New Zealand. He parlayed that opportunity into a rotation role on the wing, averaging 4.2 points and 3.3 rebounds per game and making an impact as one of Denver’s most versatile defenders.

“It’s neat when a story like this kind of materializes,” Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said of Craig last season. “It’s certainly welldeserving. … The league’s looking for guys like him — guys who can make a shot and play defense.

“It’s fun because it’s happening to a good person. It’s gratifying because he’s a guy that I think is unanimously liked by the coaching staff and the font office.”

Denver sent a qualifying offer to Craig late last month, officially making him a restricted free agent. After Wilson Chandler was traded to Philadelphia last week, Craig will probably fill reserve time at small forward behind projected starter Will Barton.

The Nuggets currently have 14 of their 15 roster spots filled for the 2018-19 season. Monte Morris, who is in the second year of his two-way contract, is a contender to earn a full NBA deal and become Denver’s backup point guard. But Denver could still pull off another trade — probably involving the expiring contracts of little-used forwards Kenneth Faried or Darrell Arthur — in an effort to move closer to the $123 million luxury tax line.

Denver finished 46-36 last season and missed the playoffs by one game.