The Denver Nuggets' offseason will be full of decisions, many of them tough, as they're pressing up against the NBA's second apron tax before they even have a full roster for the 2026-27 season. That means cost-cutting moves around the edges that add up, and two no-brainers stick out. The Nuggets should exercise their team option on Jalen Pickett and cut Jonas Valanciunas to free up cap space. They're the easiest options to start with on the Nuggets offseason-bingo board.
The newest column from Bennett Durando in "The Denver Post" highlights the Nuggets' financial situation in detail, and he dropped a couple of snippets that stood out for easy decisions for the Nuggets to make if they're serious about cutting every corner to save money to avoid that dreaded second-apron tax and the limitations that come with it.
Jalen Pickett's option should be picked up
One of the snippets was about Jalen Pickett's team option.
"Another easy penny-pinching move is to pick up Jalen Pickett’s fourth-year team option. His $2.41 million salary is about $40,000 cheaper than the projected veteran minimum cap hit. Cha-ching," says Durando.
That's an incredibly easy decision for the Nuggets, who will be facing the NBA's tax penalties as they try to put the roster together for the 2026-27 season. The Nuggets are projected at $216.8 million in payroll if you include the first-round pick's salary.
That's before re-signing Peyton Watson, and needing at least three more roster spots filled up. The second apron is projected to be $222 million. Pickett's probably coming back to assume the same role for cap-saving space reasons.
Jonas Valanciunas should probably be cut
Jonas Valanciunas has a unique contract for next season. His total salary for the year is $10 million. However, he's only guaranteed $2 million of that. If he's cut by July 8th, the Nuggets will save $8 million in cap space next season.
Big Val's probably played his last game as a Nugget. It's another easy penny-pinching decision for the Nuggets. But $8 million is a lot of pennies. Valanciunas was a defensive liability, and he played his way out of the lineup for a brief period in March before being needed again because of injuries.
Big Val also struggled to crack the Nuggets' rotation in the playoffs, and he didn't even see the court in Games 3 and 4 against the Timberwolves. He played just 25 minutes across six games. This seems like a slam dunk move for the Nuggets to make.
The hard part is coming too
The hard decisions are going to be coming sooner than later, and those include who to, gulp, trade, and or not trade, and who to re-sign and bring in from free agency.
So far, Jamal Murray's name has been bandied about in some trade concepts, because any option is on the table for the Nuggets this offseason, except trading Nikola Jokic, of course.
But these other two decisions are no-brainers for the Nuggets to save cap space and use it to fill out the roster. They make too much sense from a roster and financial standpoint to pass up.
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