The luxury tax continues to weaken the Nuggets’ rotation.
Restricted free agent forward Spencer Jones—a key bench player for the Nuggets in 2025-26—has reportedly signed a 2-year, $12 million offer sheet with the Oklahoma City Thunder (per @MikeAScotto).
Denver has until 9:59 p.m. MT Sunday night to match the offer but is unlikely to do so given the tax hit they will be facing if they don’t cut salary.
The Thunder have been dumping salary themselves this offseason. Their biggest move came last week as they traded perennial perimeter pest Lu Dort to the Hawks for future draft compensation. They also thinned their stacked bench by sending out Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins, both of whom played significant minutes for the runners-up in the Western Conference.
Jones could slot in well in their absences. The third-year forward and LinkedIn enthusiast from Stanford played 22 minutes per game last year for the injury-addled Nuggets including 37 starts, many of which came while the team patched together non-Jokic and Gordon lineups. In 64 games, Spencer proved to be a versatile and physical defender while providing enough spot-up shooting to space the floor. He finished the season averaging over 50% from the field and just about 40% from three—good enough for a 61.3 eFG%.
Given OKC’s playstyle, forward depth, and whistle, Jones could be an affordable addition to a team in search of anyone who’s beaten the Spurs.
With LeBron taking his talents to South Philly, the Nuggets will return to their negotiations with Klutch Sports and Peyton Watson, who’s reportedly looking for $20m plus per year. Even if the triune management can conjure a team-friendly deal for their emerging wing and “priority,” Denver would still need to ship one of last year’s starters to avoid a large repeater tax. The team has said that getting under the tax is not an off-season mandate, but the penalties for signing PWat without additional moves would be expensive and punitive.
So far this off-season, the Nuggets have added free agents Marvin Bagley III, Tyus Jones, and Alpha Diallo (plus second-round draft picks Trevon Brazile and Bryce Hopkins) while losing Tim Hardaway Jr., Jonas Valančiūnas, Jalen Pickett, David Roddy, and (probably) Bruce Brown.
