Denver Nuggets make necessary move to secure Nikola Jokic

By declining Nikola Jokic’s dirt-cheap team option in 2018-19, the Denver Nuggets will ensure that the star center remains in Denver for a long time.

On Monday, Yahoo! Sports’ Shams Charania reported that the Denver Nuggets intend to decline Nikola Jokic’s ludicrously cheap $1.6 million team option for the 2018-19 NBA season. On the surface, the move seems…insane.

Why on earth would a team turn down the opportunity to secure a star player on a massive discount, a mere fraction of his immense value?

The answer is simple: Jokic was a second round pick.

The NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement stipulates that players enter restricted free agency in three scenarios:

• After four years of NBA service if they were first round selections
• After a two-way contract expires
• After three or fewer seasons in the NBA if they were not first round selections

Jokic just completed his third NBA season. Denver’s dirt-cheap option is for Jokic’s fourth season. Denver had a choice between another cheap year of Jokic or restricted free agency. Wisely, the team opted for restricted free agency.

In restricted free agency, the incumbent team has first right of refusal. If it wants to retain a player, it will.

Had Denver exercised Jokic’s option, he would have entered unrestricted free agency in a year’s time. While Denver would have had the benefit of Bird Rights (allowing the Nuggets to offer higher raises than any other team), Jokic could have chosen to leave the Mile High City unilaterally.

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Given that he would have known the team had elected to pay him far less than he was worth a year prior, there’s a good chance that he would have taken that small financial hit to escape the team. There’s also the distinct possibility that he would have informed the team that he would not re-sign and demanded a trade from the Nuggets the minute they exercised the option.

Exercising the option would most likely have destroyed the Nuggets’ relationship with the team’s franchise centerpiece. The option was a non-option.

Now, Jokic is set to enter free agency when the clock strikes midnight on July 1. All along, my expectation has been that Jokic’s free agency will be a quick and painless process.

The team could tell Jokic to go find an offer sheet, prove his worth. I continue to think the team will take the more sensible route:

The Nuggets know what they have in Jokic. They know what they have to do.

Maybe it’ll be immediate. Three years ago, the New Orleans Pelicans and Portland Trail Blazers wasted no time agreeing to maximum extensions with young stars Anthony Davis and Damian Lillard. Details of their extensions leaked a few hours into the legal tampering period.

Maybe it’ll take a bit a longer. Andrew Wiggins and the Minnesota Timberwolves didn’t agree on a maximum contract extension until October of last year.

Those situations were slightly different in that they were extensions, but the idea is the same: teams with young, maximum-caliber (mostly) players that did not intend on losing said players under any circumstances.

At some point this offseason, the Denver Nuggets will sign Nikola Jokic to a brand new, five-year contract worth roughly $147 million.

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Jokic is not currently under contract for next season following the Nuggets declining his option, but by doing so, the team has ensured that Jokic will be playing in Denver for a long time.