In an incredible development, Peyton Watson has won the NBA’s Western Conference Player of the Week Award, as he helped lead the Nuggets to an unlikely 3-1 record, while putting up 24.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per game on a ridiculous 70% three-point shooting.
While it’s great for the Nuggets to see one of their young, home-grown players finally developing into a budding two-way star, it’s also an unpleasant reminder that they chose not to extend him in the offseason, and he’s heading towards restricted free agency this offseason. With every ensuing great performance, the price tag is going up, and it’s getting harder and harder to see a scenario where P-Wat ends up back in Denver.
The Nuggets were faced with a tough decision in the offseason, having Watson and Christian Braun eligible for rookie extensions at a time when the team could feasibly only afford to pay one. They chose Braun, who had gotten better every year since being drafted, and had become a core part of the starting lineup and one of the league’s most improved players last season.
Given his great fit alongside Nikola Jokic as well and his durability and consistency, it made perfect sense to lock up CB and make sure to keep the team’s elite starting lineup intact for as long as possible.
Nuggets will regret choosing Braun over Watson
The decision made sense, but it’s hard to say it has aged well. Braun got off to a very poor start to the season, then suffered an ankle injury a month in, which he has struggled to return from. Since coming back, he looks like a shell of himself, and it has come out that there was ligament damage in his foot.
Meanwhile, Watson has fully broken out and has been, inarguably, one of the team’s most consistent, reliable, and valuable players this season. They’d be in a world of hurt without him, and in this breakout season, P-Wat, at age 23, looks like exactly the type of big, versatile, athletic, two-way wing player that every team in the league covets.
This is exactly what the Nuggets have been waiting for, and it’s hard to put into words how much it has helped the team this season, but it also means Watson is pricing his way off the team. He is going to get paid in free agency, and deservedly so. Denver has made its bed with the guys they paid, and they frankly don’t have room for another big extension.
At this point, realistically, the Nuggets are either going to have to trade a big contract this summer, like CB or Cam Johnson, or they are going to have to say a painful goodbye to Watson. Either way, it’s far from an ideal situation.