The Denver Nuggets know their 2026-27 regular-season schedule after Thursday's release, and luckily, the league was kinder to them on the travel front. Beyond that, the big matchups are already circled, like the season opener in Oklahoma City and Dec. 25 in San Francisco. A couple of extra matchups that could generate more attention are still unknown, depending on whether Peyton Watson stays or goes.
Could December 17 be the first time that Denver goes up against Watson, when it hosts Atlanta? Or December 21, when the Nuggets are on the road to play the Clippers? Or could it be January 9, when they take on the Cavaliers in Cleveland? Or a few nights later, when they're in Milwaukee to play the Giannis-less Bucks for the first time?
Or — here's a better question — will none of the above games (or any others) hold any extra weight because Watson will remain in Denver?
The answers to those questions remain unknown and may stay that way for the next couple of months. It's felt like the saga has already gone on forever, but we're just a month and a half into the start of free agency, so buckle up.
Will Peyton Watson get a revenge game(s) against the Nuggets?
Denver offered Watson a four-year, $70 million deal, well below the $25 million average annual value he wants. The aforementioned teams have all been linked to the 23-year-old, though the Nuggets reportedly want a first-round pick and a high-level player in return for him.
If talks between Denver and Watson don't pick up again and a team is willing to give the Nuggets the kind of deal they're looking for (on top of paying the forward), he could be on the way out.
Or if that doesn't happen, he could take his qualifying offer of $6.5 million. That would make him an unrestricted free agent next summer, meaning one of the first things we could be looking at when the 2027-28 schedule is released is when Watson plays the Nuggets for the first time in his career.
Peyton Watson's future is still up in the air
It would ease the financial pressure already breathing down Denver's neck if it didn't pay Watson, but on the flip side, it would also hurt the Nuggets' chances of making another title run with Nikola Jokić if they didn't have him.
A big part of why Denver is stuck in this stalemate with Watson isn't just how restricted free agency works these days, but also the improvements he showed last season that helped keep the Nuggets alive when injuries tried to pull them down.
Unfortunately, Watson was limited to 54 games (40 starts) because of a nagging hamstring injury that kept him out of the playoffs altogether. That smaller sample size is something for the Nuggets (and other teams) to consider when weighing his future.
The hope, of course, is that he and Denver can work something out without tension carrying over into the upcoming season. That way, Nuggets fans won't have to worry about seeing Watson in another team's jersey.
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