Nikola Jokic has informed the Nuggets he will not sign a contract extension this offseason, team sources told The Denver Post, as the three-time MVP intends to wait until next summer to engage in contract talks.
Jokic has a minimum of two years remaining on his current supermax contract, as well as a player option for the 2027-28 season. Tuesday was the first day he was eligible for an extension that would add up to three years and an estimated $206 million to that deal.
However, he can earn an additional $80 million, approximately, by pushing off an extension until the 2026 offseason.
The Nuggets presented both options to Jokic in conversations with him and his representation. Jokic’s camp elected to delay — a decision that Nuggets leadership was anticipating because of the money on the table, team sources said.
“We’re definitely going to offer it,” KSE vice chairman Josh Kroenke said in June. “I’m not sure if he’s going to accept it or not, because we’re also going to explain every financial parameter around him signing now versus signing later. To be completely transparent, that’s the way we always are. And then he makes the best decision for himself and his family, and we’ll support him in it.”
Jokic, 30, is coming off a career year. He cemented himself as the third player and first center in NBA history to average a triple-double for a whole season, finishing at 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and 10.2 assists per game. He finished second in MVP voting to Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, becoming the first player since Larry Bird to place top-two in five consecutive seasons.
The Nuggets have been eliminated in the second round of the playoffs in back-to-back years since winning their first NBA title 2023. After their Game 7 loss to the Thunder in May, Jokic was blunt in concluding to reporters that Denver wasn’t not good enough to win the championship.
He also pointed out that other remaining playoff teams such as Oklahoma City and Indiana had superior depth, prompting Kroenke to acknowledge the following week that he’d heard those comments “loud and clear.”
Since then, the Nuggets have shaken up their roster by adding four new players via trades and free agency, highlighted by the swap of Michael Porter Jr. for Cam Johnson that was announced Tuesday. Denver is also entering next season with a new head coach in David Adelman and a new front-office leadership duo of Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace.
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