Nikola Jokic walked into Ball Arena on Monday and told everyone exactly what he is doing with his contract. He just did not sugarcoat the reason.
“I’m going to sign next year,” Jokic said at Nuggets media day. “If they want me.”
The Math Behind the Wait
Jokic has now passed on extensions in two consecutive offseasons. In the summer of 2025 he declined a three-year deal worth $206 million. This summer he turned down four years and $278 million.
The logic is simple. If Jokic opts out and reaches free agency in the summer of 2027, Denver can hand him five years and roughly $360 million with a no-trade clause. That is the longest and richest contract available to him anywhere in basketball, and it only exists if he waits.
“It’s purely business,” Jokic said. He added that he had been open with executives and ownership about the plan and that he hopes they trust him. Ben Tenzer, the Nuggets’ executive vice president of basketball operations, answered with four words: “We have no concerns.”
Denver Is Right Not to Panic About the Signature
Jokic has said for years that he wants to spend his career in Denver, and nothing about Monday suggested a change of heart. He is not angling for a trade, he is not leaking frustration through intermediaries, and he explained his reasoning in public without being asked twice.
The uncomfortable part is everything that happens between now and 2027.
The Roster Is the Real Problem
Denver is coming off a first-round exit against Minnesota, and the response was not to reinforce. The Nuggets traded 23-year-old wing Peyton Watson to Cleveland for an unprotected 2031 first-round pick and a 2032 second, and they moved on from Tim Hardaway Jr. In came DeMar DeRozan and Marvin Bagley III.
Call that what it is: a front office managing a cap sheet rather than chasing a title. Watson was a breakout defender on a cheap contract. Converting him into a draft pick five years out is the behavior of a team planning for 2031, which is a strange thing to do while employing the best player in the world.
Aaron Gordon’s health makes it worse. He played only 36 games last season with hamstring trouble and missed three playoff games. David Adelman’s rotation thins out fast if Gordon is limited again, and DeRozan does not solve anything on the defensive end.
What Denver Should Actually Be Scared Of
Jokic will sign. That is not the risk. The risk is that he signs in 2027 after two more seasons of dragging a roster that keeps getting cheaper around him, and that his patience eventually runs out on the front office rather than on the city.
“If they want me” was the line everyone grabbed, and it is funny coming from a player his team would burn the building down to keep. But it cuts both ways. Jokic has effectively set a deadline of his own choosing, and Denver gets one more offseason to prove it is still trying to win right now. This summer, it did not.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.