Before the season started, the Denver Nuggets signed Christian Braun to an extension, but not Peyton Watson. The team didn't want to enter the second luxury tax, so Watson is set to become a restricted free agent this summer. Denver can match any offer sheet the 23-year-old receives from other teams, but that doesn't mean he won't be on the way out.
It's yet another unfortunate aspect of the collective bargaining agreement: teams that enter the second apron face several harsh penalties, such as not being able to aggregate salaries in trades and being unable to trade first-round picks seven years out.
The Nuggets are currently $2.9 million below the first tax apron, and $14.7 million below the second apron. Next season, however, they're projected to be only $1.2 million below the second apron, so extending Watson would put them above that.
As a fan, you should want to see Watson stick around past this season, considering how he's stepped up and played during an injury-ridden few months. He's scored 20+ points in his last three games, finishing with 23 on 8-of-14 shooting on Sunday.
The CBA could push the Nuggets to let Peyton Watson go
Watson is averaging a career-high 11.8 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.9 blocks in 27.9 minutes per contest, shooting 50.3% from the field and 35.6% from three. He's started 23 of the 33 games he has played.
Restricted free agency this past offseason was painfully slow, but this summer, there will be more teams with available cap space. Denver could sit back and wait to see what offers Watson receives, or the front office could opt not to let it get to that point and instead trade him before the February deadline. At the very least, teams should inquire about Watson before the deadline, knowing his situation.
The Nuggets are stuck between a rock and a hard place with Watson, not wanting to let him go. As Ben Tenzer said at media day, he hoped Watson and Braun would be in Denver for a long time.
You can't outrun the CBA, though. It makes life harder on NBA front offices, with one of the most significant drawbacks being that teams can't always keep their draft picks due to financial restrictions. You'd think that the league would make that easier, but here we are.
By no means is this saying that the Nuggets are actively trying to trade Watson over the next month, but that outcome wouldn't be all that surprising, given the reality of the situation. Either way, this very well could be his final few months in Denver, but you knew that already.