As the Nuggets lost another game in which Nikola Jokic put on a masterclass, it was impossible not to bemoan the lack of talent around him. Jokic dropped 41 points, 15 rebounds, and 13 assists, but the Nuggets fell at home to the Pacers, 125-120.
The team fell behind early in the fourth quarter when Jokic went to the bench and they were never able to fully recover. They haven’t been able to solve the non-Jokic minutes in years and the problem hasn’t gotten any better this season despite sinking their main resources into the issue.
Denver used all of their 2024 draft capital to select big man DaRon Holmes II out of Dayton with the 22nd overall pick. Unfortunately, Holmes tore his achilles in the first game of Summer League and was ruled out for the entire season.
But the Nuggets also used their best free agency chip, the full taxpayer midlevel exception on a veteran big man, Dario Saric. They gave the 31-year-old Croatian a two-year, $10.6 million contract with year two being a player option.
Saric expected to pick up player option
The signing has been an unmitigated disaster as Saric quickly showed that he is no longer an NBA-caliber player and hasn’t been in the team’s rotation at all this season. Dario is collecting dust on the end of the bench while being the sixth highest-paid player on a team that is desperate for any semblance of depth.
To make matters worse, Bennett Durando of the Denver Post reported that multiple sources told the Post that Saric is planning to pick up his $5.4 million option for the 2025-26 season. Saric would again slot in as the team’s sixth highest-paid player, would be taking up precious salary resources, and an important roster spot.
Nuggets never should have given Saric player option
The signing was bad enough, but why the team gave Saric the player option is beyond comprehension. There was seemingly no market for Dario as he was coming off a rough season in Golden State where he had fallen out of the rotation by the end of the season in his first year back from a torn ACL.
Who was Denver bidding against? That still remains unclear as they not only offered Saric the full TPMLE but gave him the player option for next year on top of that. Of course, he signed that deal and of course, he will pick up the option as he would have zero market in free agency.
That’s at least the case in the NBA. there have been reports that international teams like Real Madrid are interested in bringing Saric back to Europe next season, but still, it’s hard to imagine he would opt out of the $5.4 million guaranteed.
This is a disastrous situation that is crippling the Nuggets’ ability to improve the roster. Calvin Booth has made similar mistakes, giving a player option to Reggie Jackson two years ago with the TPMLE that required a salary dump trade to rectify.
This time, Booth doesn’t really have that option as the team doesn’t have the assets to dump Saric. Trading him would be ideal, but it just doesn’t seem like a realistic possibility. Maybe Denver will be willing to eat the money and buy him out of his contract, but that likely wouldn’t come until late in the season. Sadly, the Nuggets may be stuck and they have nobody to blame but themselves.