There are always some questions about signing players who have shown some, but not everything. There are questions in literally signing any player to major deals, even some of the all-time greats.
It always makes sense to pay very good players in the NBA, but teams have to recognize that there’s risk attached to long-term, expensive deals. That has been the situation the Denver Nuggets have found themselves in far too many times, paying Michael Porter Jr. and Christian Braun.
Braun is a decent player in his own right, and Porter has already shown that he can be an elite player in this league at times, but neither are probably worth the money that they’re currently getting paid. According to one report, that’s part of why the Nuggets are currently skeptical about giving Peyton Watson the kind of money he’s looking for.
“While there are teams that are interested in a sign-and-trade for Nuggets forward Peyton Watson, Denver is trying to keep him and because they have his restricted free-agent rights, they are in the driver’s seat on that. The Nuggets really did not play hardball with Michael Porter Jr. when they handed him $145 million in 2021, and they were too generous with Christian Braun, giving him five years and $125 million last fall. They quickly regretted both contracts and do not want to make the same mistake again on Watson,” Sean Deveny of Heavy wrote.
I hate to say that it’s almost fair for other deals to play a factor in situations like this, but I don’t think it’s crazy to do so.
The Nuggets have to be very smart with what they do, and unfortunately, some of their prior decisions haven’t exactly been perfect. That’s clearly impacting Watson in one way or another, and it will be seen over the next few weeks, depending on what the organization decides to do with him.
