Most of the extension talk this summer will likely revolve around Christian Braun, and for good reason, but there’s a big decision coming with Peyton Watson as well. Like Braun, Watson is eligible for a rookie extension, but unlike Braun, he won’t be looking for an annual dollar amount north of $30 million.
Watson’s extension number will likely look fairly uninhibiting, and it will probably seem like a no-brainer to most Nuggets fans. But the team has made a similar mistake all too many times recently, handing out an extension and then burying the player.
Now, Watson is a better player than some of these past mistakes, and he is already a part of the rotation. We’d also like to hope that since the “Cold War” between Michael Malone and Calvin Booth has ended, these types of disasters are a thing of the past. But the team can’t be too careful, and they can’t make assumptions.
Every dollar the team spends must be done with great care, and they need to be extra diligent while building up this roster for the future. They got into cap-jail with one nightmarish decision after another, and as a result, they’re starting from a bad spot. They can’t start this new era with crippling mistakes.
Watson must be locked into major minutes
That’s all to say, if the Nuggets go ahead and give Watson an extension, he must factor prominently into the rotation. No more yanking around his minutes and seeing him disappear during playoff games.
Denver got excited about past draft picks like Zeke Nnaji, Jalen Pickett, and Hunter Tyson, signing those players to unnecessary contracts that are now damaging the team’s ability to make moves. At the time, those all seemed like reasonable deals (except maybe in Nnaji’s case), and in a vacuum, none of the contracts seemed devastating.
But the problem is that all of these bad deals have added up, and now the Nuggets have half a roster full of unplayable players on guaranteed deals with virtually no trade value. Obviously, Watson has established more in the NBA than any of those other players, but nobody envisioned Zeke completely falling out of the rotation when he was signed.
Nuggets’ organization must be aligned on Watson’s future
This is all to say that extending Watson is the right move, but Denver has to be careful. The whole organization has to be behind the move, and they must believe that Watson can be an important contributor going forward, starting this coming season.
He needs to have his role solidified, playing at least 20 minutes a night. He’s not perfect, but David Adelman and company are going to have to live through his mistakes and allow him a long enough leash to improve and become the player the Nuggets have always believed he can be.
If they aren’t ready to make that commitment, then he will just end up as the next failed Denver draft story, a player wasting away on the bench, taking up a key roster spot, and critical salary cap money.
We are a long way off from that happening. But this is where it starts. These organizational decisions that don’t seem major in the moment but end up costing the team massively down the road. Just make sure everyone is aligned and the vision is clear. There can be no more waste on this roster, and this Watson decision is a big part of that.