Welcome to the 2026 NBA Free Agency period! The fun starts this afternoon and the Denver Nuggets…will not be big players. Sadly for Nuggets fans, what should be considered one of the most exciting periods of the offseason could end up being a bit melodramatic. However, that’s not to say there won’t be some noise. While Denver does not have ample cap space to go out and make flashy signings, they do have several roster spots to fill, some free agents of their own they’d like to retain and have been linked to at least one big name in the trade market.
The Basics
What: 2026 NBA Free Agency
When: 4PM MDT to whenever anyone worth signing is gone
Where: In the bowels of Ball arena and out on the interwebs
Who: The three headed monster that is Ben Tenzer, Johnathan Wallace and Josh Kroenke will make the decisions for the Nuggets
Who are Denver’s own free agents?
Unrestricted Free Agents
The Nuggets have several players from last year’s roster who are free to sign with any team they like, including Denver. They are:
Tim Hardaway Jr., Bruce Brown, Tyus Jones, Jalen Pickett.
Whether or not these players return is up in the air but chances are most, if not all, will not be back. Hardaway should be the Nuggets biggest priority as he was a key contributor and sixth man of the year finalist last season. That may end up pricing him out of Denver’s range though. He no doubt will be looking to cash in and as a guy who only played one season with the Nuggets after signing last year as a free agent, Denver has little flexibility to offer him much, even if they were willing to wade into the dreaded second apron waters. With the Nuggets over the salary cap, they can only offer Tim 120% of his previous salary thanks to his non-bird rights, which was the veteran minimum. This means any offer above the taxpayer mid-level exception (approx $5 million) is more than Denver can offer. If the Nuggets were to use the taxpayer MLE to sign Hardaway they would hard cap themselves at the second apron as well. Retaining Tim will be very difficult unless there is little interest for him on the open market. That’s certainly possible, he was signed last season on a veteran minimum after all, but it only takes one team willing to offer him what would still be a very reasonable contract to push him out of Denver’s range.
The other three FAs are less complicated, but that doesn’t mean they’ll suit up for Denver next season. Pickett is not returning. If the Nuggets wanted to retain him all they had to do was pick up his team option at essentially the vet minimum, they instead declined that option yesterday. Brown might be the most likely player to be retained. He clearly likes Denver, the coaching staff clearly likes him and he probably won’t garner a ton of interest on the market. If both parties are agreeable, he could certainly return on another minimum contract. Jones is a bit of a wild card. He was a mid-season addition last year and another player who isn’t likely to see much interest in free agency outside of a minimum contract. The Nuggets are now extremely thin at point guard and declining Pickett’s option could be an indication that they are confident about getting Jones back to bolster their guard depth.
Restricted free agents
Restricted free agency has an added wrinkle to it. While these players are free to negotiate and agree to terms with any team, the Nuggets are granted the right of first refusal and therefore can choose to match any offer a player receives in order to retain them. Denver has two restricted free agents: Peyton Watson and Spencer Jones.
All eyes are on Watson who is looking to leverage a nice mid-season run into a large pay raise. Peyton was thrust into the starting lineup over the winter due to injuries and he shined during that time. The end of his season was cut short due to injuries though and it leaves him as sort of an enigma in terms of where other teams will view his value. It’s probably safe to say he’ll land somewhere between $20-30 million dollars annually, with the Nuggets even indicating they are willing to go as high as $30 million a year to retain him, but that could just be posturing. Denver finds themselves in a tight spot because they clearly seem to not want to enter the second apron and without some cap clearing moves they will 100% end up there by giving Peyton a contract at his market value. Other teams in the NBA know this as well and they might just test Denver’s resolve by giving Peyton a lucrative offer. If Watson is coming back, a trade to offload the salary of one of Denver’s starters is almost a guarantee.
Jones is not going to get himself as large of an offer, but he’s not going to come back at the minimum salary either. He was a key part of Denver’s rotation pretty much throughout the entire season and showed off his ability to be a quality defender who can knock down open shots (no matter how weird they look). A plethora of teams will have exceptions they can use to offer him a deal so him landing somewhere between the $5 million taxpayer MLE and the $15 million non-taxpayer MLE is a fair bet. Once again this creates some difficulty for Denver. They have early-bird rights on Jones, meaning they can offer up to $15 million for him, but also will need to clear space to do that. While they certainly would like to retain him (otherwise they would not have extended a qualifying offer to keep him as an RFA), he’s probably not viewed as so vital to the roster that they need to clear a bunch of space to keep him.
What can Denver do on the free agent market?
The Nuggets are very limited on who they can sign that wasn’t on their roster last season. Because of their cap situation, they are essentially limited to veteran minimum contracts. Potentially they will have the taxpayer MLE available to them, but with Watson’s deal outstanding, and the fact that using the MLE hard caps them at the 2nd apron, it’s complicated to say the least. That doesn’t mean the Nuggets can’t improve though. They showed last season with the acquisitions of Brown and Hardaway that they can bring in key contributors via the veteran minimum. In order to gain some breathing room under the 2nd apron, the expectation is the Nuggets will release Jonas Valanciunas and save themselves $8 million (potentially nine if they stretch the $2 million guaranteed to Jonas over the next three seasons). With the Pickett also hitting the open market, Denver finds themselves very thin at the point guard and center positions. I’d expect them to shore up that depth with vet mins. Some options for them could be:
Center – Kevon Looney, Andre Drummond, Jock Landale, Bismack Biyombo
Point guard – D’Angelo Russell, Aaron Holiday, Jordan Clarkson, Seth Curry, Gary Payton II
Will Denver make a trade
The Nuggets are showing deep interest in Jaylen Brown, per @ChrisBHaynes
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) June 30, 2026
(Via @NBATV ) pic.twitter.com/yoPDXCImju
The splashiest news from the Nuggets over the next couple weeks will likely come from the trade market. According to Chris Haynes there is heavy interest in Jaylen Brown whose time with the Boston Celtics appears to be done. Brown was an All NBA player last year but comes with a heavy price tag ($57 million annually). A trade for him is guaranteed to involve a player (or players) from Denver’s core with Jamal Murray seemingly the most likely player to be headed back to Boston in a Brown deal. Denver would probably prefer a Cam Johnson/Christian Braun & Aaron Gordon package to trading Murray, but if their plan is to also clear space to re-sign Watson, trading Murray for Brown while offloading Cam or Christian’s salary to another team is a more feasible way to accomplish that. This would of course be a drastic shakeup of Denver’s core, but with star Nikola Jokic considering not signing an extension this summer, a drastic shakeup may be what they need.
Stay tuned at Denver Stiffs as we’ll cover any moves the Nuggets make today or over the coming weeks.
