Nikola Jokic is eligible for for a three-year, $212.5 million extension with the Denver Nuggets this summer. If history is any indication, he will probably sign it, without pomp and circumstance or any drama whatsoever.
That might be the wrong move.
Financially speaking, Jokic can lock in more money if he waits. He can get a four-year, $293.4 million deal next summer, guaranteeing himself an additional $80-plus million. In this case, though, it's not about the money. Not entirely, anyway.
It's about helping the Nuggets as a team, through the application of urgency.
Rejecting an extension puts pressure on the Nuggets to keep improving
Jokic followed the Game 7 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder by spotlighting Denver's most crippling flaw: its overarching lack of depth. Passing on an extension can actually work in service of changing that.
Sure, even if he doesn't sign the deal, Jokic is under team control for at least another two seasons, including the 2025-26 campaign, before having a 2027-28 player option. So free agency isn't exactly right around the corner, and nobody inside or outside the Mile High actually expects him to leave.
Still, the mere prospect of him conveying doubt in the future will light a fire under owner Josh Kroenke, and whomever winds up succeeding Calvin Booth to run the front office on a permanent basis.
Don't laugh just because the prospect of Jokic ever leaving Denver is remote. He's a generational talent. The Nuggets aren't going to have anyone nearly as good as him for decades—if not longer. The Nuggets have an obligation to use every resource at their disposal to capitalize on his prime now, and that inherent urgency increases tenfold if he doesn't put pen to paper on the available extension.
Josh Kroenke clearly needs a kick in the pants
Denver shouldn’t technically need a passive-aggressive display of leverage from Jokic to be aggressive this offseason. And yet, Kroenke recently made comments that amount to “We are going to run it back," and that any progress next season must come internally.
This would certainly be a choice. And it's the wrong one. The Nuggets failed to stretch even six trustworthy players deep by the end of their Thunder series. Internal development isn't fixing that over one offseason.
To be fair, Kroenke's sentiments are likely in reference to Denver's lack of spending power. Assuming Dario Saric and Russell Westbrook pick up their options, the Nuggets' best tool will be the mini mid-level exception, which allows them to sign a player—or trade for one—making up to $5.7 million. As Nuggets fans know all too well, that type of money doesn't usually bag you a diamond in the rough. It gets you Reggie Jackson, or Saric himself.
The team is further restricted by its draft-pick situation. It can trade a maximum of one first-rounder (2031 or 2032). That doesn't give them a whole lot of ammo to use on the trade market.
Guess what? That's not Jokic's problem. Nor is it the fans' problem. The same goes for the Nuggets' luxury-tax bill. Jokic and the fans must accept the reality of avoiding the second apron. Beyond that, they can and should and must hold the front office accountable for maximizing the chances of this window.
That doesn't mean trading Peyton Watson, a first-round pick and other salary for an eighth man. But it does entail gauging the value of just about every non-Jokic asset on the roster. The Nuggets may be limited, but they're not stuck unless they want to be. And acting as if the two-timeline approach is still in play when none of their youngsters have hinted at stardom is blasphemy.
Really, much like Calvin Booth before him, it sounds like Josh Kroenke needs a reality check. Jokic passing up a guaranteed $212.5 million isn't ideal, but it's a powerful enough punch to knock some sense into an organization that's failing both the superstar himself, and its fans.