SEPTEMBER 28: Nearly two weeks after agreeing to terms, the Nuggets and Gordon officially finalized their extension agreement on Monday, according to NBA.com’s transactions log.
SEPTEMBER 14: The Nuggets and forward Aaron Gordon have reached an agreement on a four-year extension, agent Calvin Andrews of Klutch Sports tells Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). According to Charania, the deal is worth $92MM and includes a fourth-year player option for 2025/26.
Mike Singer of The Denver Post reported in late August that the Nuggets and Gordon had mutual interest in an extension and would likely reach a deal soon. At that point, Singer anticipated a two- or three-year extension in the range of $20-21MM per year, but it sounds like Denver was willing to go higher to get the former fourth overall pick locked up long-term.
Gordon will earn a base salary of $16,409,091 in 2021/22 – the last year of his current contract – with an extra $1MM available in unlikely incentives. A veteran extension allows for a starting salary 20% higher than the player’s previous salary, and it looks like the Nuggets are going that route with Gordon — his maximum extension would have a base value of about $88.2MM over four years. Adding $1MM in annual unlikely incentives (for All-Star, All-NBA, and All-Defense nods) bumps the total up to the $92MM figure reported by Charania.
After spending the first six years of his career with the Magic, Gordon was part of a midseason trade in his seventh season, having been sent from the Magic to the Nuggets at the 2021 trade deadline. The athletic forward, who will turn 26 on Thursday, helped shore up Denver’s defense down the stretch, though his counting stats (10.2 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 2.2 APG on .500/.266/.705 shooting) in 25 games with the club were modest.
Now that Gordon will have a full offseason and training camp as a Nugget under his belt, the team will likely have higher expectations for him going forward. His new extension will make him an important part of a core that also includes Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Michael Porter Jr. Jokic is under contract through 2023, Murray is locked up through 2025, and Porter is entering a contract year, though he’s a good bet to sign an extension of his own before opening night.
Gordon’s new deal is the 15th contract extension – and the 10th veteran extension – of the NBA offseason. His contract will rank seventh out of this summer’s 10 veteran extensions in overall value, slotting in between Terry Rozier (four years, $96MM) and Marcus Smart (four years, $77MM).
Is he really worth $23M/year?
He’s their only plus defender, and at least when they weren’t playing guys off the street in the backcourt, his chemistry with Jokic was fantastic. Yeah, I’d say.
Campazzo has to be a plus defender.
Yup, like most teams in the NW Division, you often have to overpay to keep players around. See also, CJ McCollum.
Not in any way. Maybe chicks like him.
No
IMO
90% of players are overpaid, For those $12 million plus annual salary
Absolutely worth 21m/year or more.
If you don’t follow NBA basketball, don’t post.
“Absolutely.”
Don’t be a jackwagon, Zachary.
Overpaid. Likely means mpj is gone when the time comes. Can’t afford Jokic, murray, mpj and gordon all making 20 plus million a year.
Highly doubt MPJ is gone.
It will get expensive and they’ll probably trade Gordon in the future.
He can up his value by picking up some of the scoring punch with murray out and playing alongside a great passer like Jokic.
Apparently they can afford it now that MPJ got a max extension.
Nuggets in West Finals …….!!!!!!!
If they’re healthy they should be in the WCF, same with Utah.
That’s not happening. The backcourt isn’t near good enough.
Love the way the Nuggets have built their team.
Whether it’s winning or not remains to be seen, but it will be beautiful basketball I’m sure
Don’t understand this at all.
From what I saw in the playoffs, he didn’t seem like a fit with their offense, his inability to shoot just clogs up the lanes. Imagine he’ll be traded before this contract is up.
Seems like a definite overpay. Guy is good but not 23m per. Decent defender but not even close to great. Also a subpar shooter. His current rate of 16m seems more in line with his value. Think something like 4/68 would have made more sense.
This guy averages 10 and 5 and signs for $92 mil??? There are scrubs who signed for vet minimums who produced more than him.
He helps hide Michael Porter jr’s weaknesses, and complements him extremely well. He also fits strongly with Jokic. For those 2 reasons, he is a really important piece for them, especially after losing Millsap
I’ll concede that this is a good team for Gordon, but that money is super generous. I expect Gordon to take over some games and improve defense and rebounding, along with selective improved shooting (i.e. corner 3’s). If Gordon is going to be an all-star the added shots and offense influence he’ll have minus Murray will tell me a lot. He’s worth 15-18 annuall, so we’ll see…
Viewing this together with the MPJ, its DEN going “all in” a Gordon-MPJ combo, even though both are really 4’s versus true combo Fs. The combo worked early on last year prior to Murray’s injury (and the Grant-MPJ combo worked pretty well too), so it has a shot. But it got exposed more after that (despite Jokic playing out of his mind), so its still not a given it can work. With a guy like Jokic, and the direction the league is heading, I’d have preferred to pursue a real two way 3, or at least hold off on committing to this combo long term.
Denver now will be out of the free agent market with 2 long term signings and 4 players with huge contract. they very much just handicap their spending and bench for the next 4 years.
They also have lost and lose more picks but the bench has possibilities. Monte Morris (once Jamal comes back), Zeke, the Greens.