The biggest dilemma facing the Nuggets this summer is their financial crisis, as the starting lineup alone is set to cost almost $190 million next season. The assumption is that they will want to stay (at least) under the second apron, which means if they want to keep restricted free agent Peyton Watson, they’ll have to make a salary-dump trade, sending out a starter like Cam Johnson or Christian Braun.
However, this general assumption is only based on a perceived unwillingness to pay up from Stan Kroenke and the Denver ownership group. There’s no reason why the team can’t simply match any offer for Watson and retain him using Bird Rights. Yes, the team would be extremely expensive and well over the second apron, incurring a massive luxury tax bill, but so what?
Bill Simmons used the final minutes of his Saturday night podcast to rant on this very subject and call out the Nuggets for being cheap and refusing to pay to make this team as good as possible with a generational talent like Nikola Jokic in his prime. There are no basketball reasons to dump salary, simply financial, and that’s what made Simmons, rightfully, so annoyed.
“Why does Denver have to trade anybody to sign Peyton Watson? [Expletive] off, you have Jokic on your team, [expletive]s! Pay everybody. Clip this out, Denver fans…Kroenke’s got a kajillion dollars. Just pay Peyton Watson, AND keep everyone else on your team, (because) your owner’s super rich.”
Bill Simmons on the Nuggets:
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) May 31, 2026
“Why do they have to trade anybody to sign Peyton Watson? You have Jokic in your team, pay everyone, F*** off. Kroenke has a gazillion dollars, just keep everybody AND pay Peyton Watson. Your owner is super rich what are we doing?”
(via… pic.twitter.com/fpN5SUKQvq
Ridiculous that Kroenke won't pay to give Jokic best team possible
Simmons flew off the rails for a moment, leaving his guest, Zach Lowe, a bit taken aback, but he’s absolutely right. Stan Kroenke has an estimated net worth north of $26 billion, making him one of the richest owners in the NBA and one of the richest people alive. He also owns the Avalanche, the Rams, the Rapids, and Arsenal FC, who just won the Premier League and reached the Champions League Final.
He is as close as anyone to having unlimited money, and he’s making more on a regular basis. The thought that he can’t incur tax penalties for an NBA team when trying to win another championship with the best player in franchise history should make fans furious, and it isn’t getting enough attention.
Sure, there’s nothing fans can do about it to an extent, and there is some degree of acceptance at this point, as cutting costs in Denver is nothing new for the Kroenkes. But Simmons has the right level of anger here and is spot-on calling out a mega-billionaire who is saving himself a few bucks while clearly allowing the team to get tangibly worse on paper, perhaps considerably so, as Jokic wastes away and the Thunder and Spurs continue to soar past them in the race for Western Conference supremacy.
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