Nuggets To Sign Curtis Jones
Iowa State guard Curtis Jones will sign with the Nuggets, a source tells Jonathan Givony of ESPN (Twitter link). It’s likely to be an Exhibit 10 contract, but Givony doesn’t specify the terms.
Jones, 23, spent two years with the Cyclones after playing his first two seasons at Buffalo. He was a first-team All-Big 12 selection this year and won the conference’s Sixth Man Award. Jones averaged 17.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 34 games as a senior. He’s an effective three-point shooter, connecting at 37.4% this season, and has shown he can provide instant offense off the bench.
Jones conducted more than a dozen interviews and workouts during the pre-draft process, according to Eugene Rapay of The Des Moines Register. He also participated in the G League Elite Camp in May.
Jones was ranked as the No. 90 prospect in the draft by Sam Vecenie of The Athletic and was listed as the 19th-best remaining player on ESPN’s big board.
Jones joins Missouri guard Tamar Bates, who agreed to a two-way contract with Denver shortly after the draft’s second round ended Thursday night. The Nuggets didn’t have any picks in either round this year.
Nuggets Notes: Kroenke, Jokic, Tenzer, Wallace, Holmes
Nuggets vice chairman Josh Kroenke said that Nikola Jokic will receive a contract extension offer this offseason, The Denver Post’s Bennett Durando tweets, though the superstar center could receive an even bigger deal by waiting another year.
“We’re definitely gonna offer it,” Kroenke said during a Tuesday press conference. “I’m not sure if he’s gonna accept it or not because we’re also gonna explain every financial parameter around him, signing now versus signing later.”
Jokic’s contract runs through 2026/27, with a player option for ’27/28. Jokic will become extension-eligible on July 8 and could sign for approximately $212MM at that time on a three-year extension that replaces his option — or he could wait until July 2026 and sign for four years and $293MM.
Here’s more from Kroenke’s presser, via Durando:
- Kroenke made an ominous, perhaps inadvertent statement, regarding the Collective Bargaining Agreement and its implications. While discussing the second tax apron, Kroenke brought up a doomsday scenario in which Jokic could be traded. “There are rules around it that we needed to be very careful of with our injury history,” he said (Twitter link). “Wrong person gets injured, and very quickly you’re into a scenario that I never want to have to contemplate, and that’s trading No. 15 (Jokic).”
- Regarding front office responsibilities, Kroenke indicated that Ben Tenzer, the new executive vice president of basketball operations, and former Timberwolves executive Jon Wallace, who was named executive vice president of player personnel, will share duties involving trades, free agents signings and contract negotiations. Kroenke will take a more hands-on role in the short run as the duo settles into their positions, then ease back and just check in with them every few days or on a weekly basis. (Twitter links)
- According to Vinny Benedetto of the Denver Gazette (Twitter link), Tenzer said that forward/center DaRon Holmes II would participate in Summer League play. Holmes tore his Achilles in his Summer League debut last July after the Nuggets traded up to snag him with the No. 22 pick.
And-Ones: Taylor, Parker, Avdija, Power Rankings
Maria Taylor has officially been named NBC Sports’ lead studio host for the NBA and WNBA, according to an NBC Sports press release.
NBC reacquired the rights to NBA games in an 11-year agreement with the league last summer and will begin its coverage in 2025/26. Taylor will host NBC Sports’ NBA studio programs on Sunday and Tuesday nights alongside analysts Carmelo Anthony and Vince Carter.
Taylor has been the lead host of Football Night in America since 2022. Taylor also served as a host for the Tokyo, Beijing, and Paris Olympics and numerous other major events.
Here’s more from around the international basketball world:
- Jabari Parker, the No. 2 pick of the 2014 draft, will play for a different European team next season. Parker and FC Barcelona have mutually agreed on an early termination of their contract, Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops.net relays. Parker is expected to stay in the EuroLeague and join Partizan Mozzart Bet for the 2025/26 season. He averaged 13.8 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 0.8 steals per game over 39 appearances last season in the EuroLeague.
- Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija is among 20 players on the preliminary roster announced by the Israeli Basketball Association for the EuroBasket tournament this summer, according to Askounis. Israel is scheduled to compete in Group D of the preliminary round, facing Iceland, Poland, France, Belgium, and Slovenia in Katowice from Aug. 28-Sept. 4. Avdija made his debut for the Israeli national team in 2019.
- Not surprisingly, the champion Thunder are at the top of The Athletic’s and ESPN’s power rankings for next season. The Pacers, Knicks, Timberwolves and Cavaliers round out The Athletic’s top five. ESPN has a much different top five, going with the Timberwolves at No. 2, followed by the Nuggets, Cavs and Rockets.
Ben Tenzer To Become Nuggets’ EVP Of Basketball Operations
The Nuggets will name Ben Tenzer executive vice president of basketball operations and add Timberwolves executive Jon Wallace to their front office as executive vice president of player personnel, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). They will both report to vice chairman Josh Kroenke, Charania adds.
Tenzer has been serving as interim general manager since the team made the surprising decision to fire former GM Calvin Booth and head coach Michael Malone in the final week of the regular season. Tenzer joined the organization in 2012 and was promoted to vice president of basketball operations in 2023.
Wallace formerly worked for the Nuggets, joining the team in 2019 as a basketball operations associate and working his way up to scouting coordinator. He left for Minnesota in 2022 to become director of player personnel and general manager of the team’s G League affiliate, the Iowa Wolves. Wallace played college basketball at Georgetown and spent three years as an assistant on Patrick Ewing‘s staff with the Hoyas.
The Nuggets’ restructuring of their front office is now complete with the draft looming on Wednesday and Thursday, and free agency set to start next Monday.
Suns Notes: Beal, Green, Wild-Card Suitors, Lanier, Durant, Cousins
With the Suns agreeing to trade Kevin Durant to the Rockets, Phoenix radio talk show host John Gambadoro continues to believe the team will either trade or buy out Bradley Beal, he said on The Kevin O’Connor Show (Twitter video link).
Of course, Beal has a no-trade clause and would have to agree to waive it for a deal to be made. If the Suns are unable to trade or buy out Beal, then they’d have to hope he could rebuild his value on the court. Gambadoro previously noted that head coaching candidates were asked how they would utilize Beal if he’s still on the roster.
Cap expert Yossi Gozlan (Twitter link) looks back at the buyouts of Kemba Walker and Blake Griffin in recent seasons as examples of what Beal might be willing to give back, presuming the three-time All-Star could receive a full non-taxpayer mid-level exception deal elsewhere. If Beal were willing to give up 25 percent of his current contract with two years left, the cap hits for the Suns would total $40.25MM and $42.85MM.
Here’s more on the Suns:
- While the Suns now seemingly have two combo guards with similar skills, they are not planning to move Jalen Green, Gambadoro tweets. Instead, the Suns will look to pair him with Devin Booker in the backcourt and see how they’ll mesh. Green has shown durability, appearing in every game over the past two seasons. He averaged 21.0 points and 3.4 assists this season.
- While Durant negotiations were primarily focused on the Heat, Rockets and Timberwolves, several wild-card suitors emerged, including the Raptors, Cavaliers, Nuggets and Clippers, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. The Cavs, in particular, were a long shot since they would have needed to send out enough salary to get under the second apron for 2025/26. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been allowed to aggregate salaries. Since the Suns are also a second-apron team, a deal between Phoenix and Cleveland would have required the involvement of at least one more club.
- Tennessee guard Chaz Lanier worked out for the Suns on Friday, Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic tweets. Lanier set the Volunteers’ single season record for made three-pointers with 123 this past season. He’s ranked No. 38 overall on ESPN’s Best Available list. The Suns own the 29th and 52nd picks in addition to the 10th and 59th selections they’re acquiring from Houston.
- Earlier in the weekend, Durant brushed off a comment by former NBA center DeMarcus Cousins, who claimed on Fan Duel’s Run It Back show that there were “fistfights” in the Suns locker room. As Rankin relays, Durant responded on social media that Cousins’ source for that claim was “lying” and that there were “NEVER” any locker room fights.
Nuggets’ Dario Saric Picks Up Player Option
Nuggets reserve big man Dario Saric has picked up his $5.4MM player option for the 2025/26 season, sources inform Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link).
Saric was inked to a two-year, $10.6MM deal last summer via Denver’s taxpayer mid-level exception. He was a relative disappointment, and quickly fell out of the team’s rotation.
The 31-year-old played just 16 regular season contests, averaging 3.5 PPG, 3.1 RPG, and 1.4 APG in 13.1 MPG. He was out of David Adelman‘s playoff lineups entirely. Instead, power forward Aaron Gordon was often used as a small-ball center to back up three-time MVP starting five Nikola Jokic in the postseason.
Saric’s deadline to make a decision on the contract was June 29. Denver’s new-look front office, led by interim general manager Ben Tenzer, presumably isn’t surprised that he opted to lock in the security of the deal, since he would’ve been unlikely to earn more than the veteran’s minimum in free agency this summer.
For his career, the 6’10” big man boasts averages of 10.4 PPG and 5.3 RPG, and is a 36% three-point shooter on 3.6 triple tries a night. He could have some intriguing upside to another team, if Denver can find a destination to reroute his salary this offseason, but he’ll have negative value on the trade market.
Northwest Notes: Blazers, Nuggets, Randle, Reid, Wolves
The Trail Blazers have a lot of decisions to make this summer, writes Sean Highkin for Rose Garden Report (Substack link). The ostensibly still-rebuilding team has 10 players who will either be extension-eligible or on an expiring contract for the coming season.
The amount of talent on the roster makes predicting extensions more complicated, with Anfernee Simons being a prime example. A young veteran who’s only 26 years old, Simons has reached a more consistent level as a scorer than Scoot Henderson or extension-eligible Shaedon Sharpe, making moving him less of a priority than fans around the league might think.
Deandre Ayton is another interesting case, as his presence prevents Donovan Clingan from starting, but his on-court production may be worth more to the Blazers than what he would return in a trade.
Sharpe and Toumani Camara are perhaps Portland’s most interesting extension candidates. Sharpe has the skill set to be an offensive star, but inconsistency, injuries, and a lack of attention to detail have kept his game inconsistent thus far, which could make it hard for him and the Blazers to find a middle ground number.
Camara, fresh off being named to the All-Defensive second team, could lock in a four-year extension worth up to $90MM, but as a former second-round pick with a valuable skill set, it might be worth betting on himself in the hopes of receiving a bigger payday next summer.
We have more news from the Northwest division:
- The NBA draft is five days away and free agency is hot on its heels. Given their need to make smart, cost-controlled roster moves on the margin, it’s problematic that the Nuggets still don’t have a permanent general manager, argues Sean Keeler of the Denver Post. The team currently has Ben Tenzer as its interim GM, but with the draft and free agency around the corner, there’s a need for organizational clarity — and for other teams to know who they’re dealing with if they come calling for trades. Former Nuggets president Pete Babcock spoke to Keeler on the subject. “The standard operating procedure is (to) have someone in place,” Babcock said. “If their job was to put the puzzle together and build the team, you want them to be in place before the draft, so they’d have a say as to how things are going to come down.”
- It seems unlikely that the Nuggets will move any of their starters this summer, writes Spotrac’s Keith Smith in his offseason preview. The team will largely have to rely on internal development for improvement, though if they do make a move or choose not to bring back one of Russell Westbrook, DeAndre Jordan, or Vlatko Cancar, they could have their $5.7MM taxpayer mid-level exception to add another depth piece. Guerschon Yabusele, Tyus Jones, and Larry Nance Jr. are among the names floated by Smith.
- Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch says he’s expecting both Julius Randle and Naz Reid back with the team next year, says The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski (via Twitter). Both forwards hold player options for 2025/26, which puts the decision at least partially out of the Wolves’ hands, but Minnesota is in win-now mode and would have few mechanisms to replace the contributions of the duo if they were to depart, so retaining them will likely be a high priority.
- The Timberwolves will be looking to revamp their business operations department, as CEO Ethan Casson and COO Ryan Tanke are stepping down amidst the team’s change in ownership, reports Krawczynski (via Twitter).
2025 NBA Offseason Preview: Denver Nuggets
A lot has gone wrong for the Nuggets over the past 12 months.
Less than three weeks after Denver gave up three second-round picks to move up six spots in the 2024 draft to nab DaRon Holmes at No. 22, the rookie forward sustained a season-ending Achilles tear during his Summer League debut.
The Nuggets' only other trade during the 2024 offseason saw them give up three second-round picks to get Reggie Jackson's contract off their books. With that newly opened salary slot, they used their taxpayer mid-level exception to sign Dario Saric, who ultimately logged just 210 total minutes across 16 outings, failing to emerge as the sort of reliable frontcourt reserve the front office envisioned.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a key part of the roster that won a title in 2023, walked in free agency and Denver, already operating in tax-apron territory, wasn't in position to acquire a veteran replacement for him.
The relationship between head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth became so strained that the Nuggets decided to fire both of them with less than a week left in the 2024/25 regular season.
Somehow, despite those personnel missteps, the unlucky breaks, and the organizational turmoil, Denver earned a guaranteed playoff spot in a competitive Western Conference, won a hard-fought first-round series against a talented Clippers team, then took the eventual conference champion Thunder to a Game 7 in round two before bowing out of the postseason.
It's a testament to the talent at the top of the Nuggets' roster that, in spite all that went wrong, Denver was just a Game 7 victory away from making the NBA's final four and potentially carving out a path to another title. That top-end talent starts with Nikola Jokic, who has been named the NBA's Most Valuable Player in three of the past five seasons and had a strong case for the award in the two years he didn't win it.
As long as the Nuggets have a healthy, prime Jokic on their roster and surround him with enough complementary talent, they're capable of contending for a championship. In Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon, the club has two clear pieces of that puzzle, and Christian Braun made a strong case with his breakout 2024/25 season that he should be considered a part of Denver's core, too.
The question for the Nuggets is whether they'll be able to get enough out of the rest of their roster to supplement those impact players in the starting five. Having lost important depth pieces like Caldwell-Pope, Bruce Brown, and Jeff Green during the previous two summers, the new-look front office will have to figure out a way to use the club's limited assets to replenish that depth and get the roster back to a championship-caliber level.
The Nuggets' Offseason Plan
While I assume Denver views Jokic, Murray, Gordon, and Braun as core players going forward, I'm not sure the same can be said for Michael Porter Jr., who has been the subject of trade rumors for the last year or two and struggled mightily in the postseason as he attempted to play through a shoulder injury.
Draft Rumors: Top Eight, Maluach, Raptors, Sixers, Hornets, More
There appears to be a consensus developing among many of the teams and executives around the league about the top eight prospects in the 2025 NBA draft, Jake Fischer writes for The Stein Line (Substack link). According to Fischer, while the order after the top two remains up in the air, Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, V.J. Edgecombe, Ace Bailey, Tre Johnson, Jeremiah Fears, Kon Knueppel, and Khaman Maluach are widely viewed as the the top eight players available this year.
“If it’s not those eight (drafted in the top eight), it will be seven of those eight,” one Eastern Conference executive told Fischer.
That developing consensus may be one reason why the Raptors’ selection at No. 9 is widely viewed as the top-10 pick most likely to be traded, according to Fischer.
While league sources tell Grant Afseth of RG.org that multiple members of Toronto’s front office are thought to be high on Maluach, the Duke big man seems unlikely to still be available at No. 9. He has visited the Wizards (No. 6) and Pelicans (No. 7), in addition to the Hawks (No. 13), and is also expected to meet with the Jazz (No. 5) before the draft. As such, the Raptors have been spending time evaluating centers who are little further down on draft boards, such as Danny Wolf and Asa Newell, Fischer reports.
A number of teams in the back half of the lottery, starting with the Pelicans at No. 7, have been connected to center prospects too, Fischer notes. That group includes the Bulls at No. 12 and the Hawks at No. 13 — Nikola Vucevic and Clint Capela have spent most of the last few years as those teams’ starting centers, but Vucevic is a trade candidate and Capela is entering free agency, so the Bulls and Hawks may each be looking to add a young player to their frontcourt.
Here’s more on the draft:
- The Sixers (No. 3) and Hornets (No. 4) have conveyed to teams that they’re prepared to listen to trade offers for their picks until they’re on the clock next Wednesday, sources tell Fischer. The Jazz (No. 5) haven’t actively encouraged trade interest in their pick, while the Wizards (No. 6) are considered a possible trade-up candidate, Fischer adds.
- The Raptors worked out guards Jase Richardson and Nolan Traore on Monday, according to Afseth. Both players are projected first-round picks, though Richardson is at No. 20 on ESPN’s big board while Traore is at No. 25. It’s unclear if Toronto is considering one or both at No. 9 or preparing for possible trade-down scenarios.
- Washington State’s Cedric Coward and French center Joan Beringer are receiving legitimate lottery consideration, Afseth writes in a separate RG.org story. The Hawks (No. 13) and Spurs (No. 14) are among the teams closely monitoring Beringer, sources tell Afseth. “He hasn’t been playing the game that long, but you’d never guess it with how quickly he picks things up,” one scout said of Beringer.
- Wisconsin’s Steven Crowl, who has worked out for the Warriors and Nuggets, among other teams, is having a strong pre-draft process and is considered a good candidate for a two-way contract, per Afseth.
- Illinois’ Will Riley was considered a likely target for the Magic at No. 16, according to Fischer, who says it’s possible some teams in the late teens will have a shot at Riley now that Orlando has traded that pick to the Grizzlies.
Nuggets Parting Ways With Assistant GM Tommy Balcetis
The Nuggets won’t be retaining assistant general manager Tommy Balcetis, according to a report from DNVR Sports (Twitter link).
Multiple sources confirmed the news to Bennett Durando of The Denver Post, who notes that Balcetis had been on an expiring contract, which won’t be renewed.
Balcetis has been with the Nuggets since 2013. He was initially hired as the team’s basketball analytics manager and worked his way up the organization from there, earning the title of director of strategy and analytics, then VP of basketball strategy and analytics. In 2020, following Arturas Karnisovas‘ departure from the organization, Calvin Booth was promoted from assistant GM to general manager, with Balcetis promoted into Booth’s old assistant GM role.
Notably, however, it was VP of basketball operations and G League GM Ben Tenzer who was named the Nuggets’ interim general manager in April when the club dismissed Booth, with Balcetis remaining in his assistant GM position at that time.
Although Balcetis has since been mentioned as a potential candidate to become the Nuggets’ permanent head of basketball operations, the fact that the club initially chose Tenzer over him perhaps signaled that this split was coming.
With little indication that the Nuggets have been seriously considering options outside of the organization, Tenzer now looks like the clear favorite to run the team’s basketball operations department going forward, though it’s possible Denver has just done an excellent job keeping a more expansive front office search under wraps. As for Balcetis, I wouldn’t expect it to take long for him to find work with another NBA team.