When the news broke that the Denver Nuggets would match the Oklahoma City Thunder's offer sheet for Spencer Jones, it came as a bit of a surprise to many pundits and fans alike. But it sounds like the Nuggets front office never had a second thought about it, despite the fact that the Nuggets waited until the final couple of hours on the clock to announce it, and the fact that it put them over the NBA's dreaded second-apron luxury tax threshold.
Spotrac's Keith Smith delivered a few notes from around the league, and a couple about the Nuggets, and according to an unnamed Nuggets executive, it was a "no-brainer" to bring the restricted free agent Jones back on his two-year, $12 million extension.
"We couldn't let Spencer go. He's an important player for us, and that's a value contract. No-brainer to match that and keep Spencer home in Denver," Smith says a Nuggets front office executive told him.
An "important player" on a "value contract" certainly sounds like a "no-brainer." And now, Jones should have a chance to expand on that in 2026-27.
Jones is and will be a fantastic role player for the Nuggets
Jones started the season out on a two-way contract and quickly found himself as an important member of the team after injuries depleted the roster often and early on in the season. Jones would start 37 games for the Nuggets and three in the playoffs, and he stayed in his lane most of the time. Exactly the kind of role player the Nuggets would want on that value contract.
Jones didn't light up the scoreboard most nights, only averaging 5.5 points on the season, but that wasn't his role. His offensive role is to hustle, set screens, and knock down the open three-point shot. And he did just that, connecting on 39.6% of his threes on a decent volume of 2.3 attempts per game. And overall, Jones shot 50.4% from the floor.
Defensively, Jones is a physical wing who can play the center in the small-ball rotation that Nuggets head coach David Adelman liked to deploy him as, and he's scrappy. Jones is the hustle guy, and it's definitely one of the big attributes that OKC wanted to rip away from the Nuggets.
Once the dust settles on the Nuggets' offseason, we should see Jones return as one of the key members of the rotation again. A rotation that most people didn't think he would make last year. But Jones took his opportunity and ran with it. He should be "an important player" for the Nuggets once again in the coming season.
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