Michael Porter Jr.

Nets Notes: Porter, Thomas, Lottery Odds, Koch

September 4th, 2025 at 10:00am CST by Arthur Hill

The Nets are counting on Michael Porter Jr. to provide scoring punch and stretch opposing defenses after acquiring him in an offseason trade with Denver, and he’s confident that he can deliver. In a recent interview with online influencer PlaqueBoyMax (YouTube video link), Porter proclaimed that Warriors guard Stephen Curry is the only NBA player who surpasses him as a long-distance shooter.

“Stephen Curry, that’s the only one I’m giving like a clear elite, can shoot better than me,” Porter said. “There’s dudes that are on the same level. I think Klay Thompson, (Kevin Durant). If I got in the gym (with someone) like Duncan Robinson, he probably can shoot with me. Trae Young, (Damian Lillard). But I think Steph is the only one clearly better.”

Porter has numbers to back up his claims, as he’s coming off one of the best shooting seasons of his career, connecting at 50.4% from the field and 39.5% from three-point range. His ability to knock down outside shots convinced the Nets to take on the nearly $80MM he’ll earn over the next two seasons.

There’s more from Brooklyn:

Cam Thomas‘ future with the team remains cloudy following his decision to accept a one-year qualifying offer, according to NetsDaily. The high-scoring guard may find himself pushed down the rotation as the Nets focus on developing their five first-round picks, and the situation could get more contentious as the season wears on. One source called the outcome “another failure in asset management” for the team, while another told the author, “Cam Thomas gets the QO to no surprise. Can’t imagine how many shots he’s going to take this year.”
With their roster loaded with young players, the Nets are expected to be among the top contenders for best odds heading into next year’s draft lottery. Peter Botte of The New York Post examines their competition and expects the Jazz, Wizards and Hornets to all be involved in that race to the bottom.
Julia Koch and the billionaire Koch family, who own 15% of the Nets’ parent company, BSE Global, have purchased a minority stake in the NFL’s New York Giants, tweets Brian Lewis of The New York Post. BSE Global also owns the WNBA’s New York Liberty and Barclays Center.

Nets Notes: Two-Way Spots, Sharpe, Porter

September 3rd, 2025 at 9:21pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Even after signing E.J. Liddell to a two-way deal on Wednesday, the Nets still have one open two-way slot to fill. C.J. Holmes of The New York Daily News takes a look at three contenders for the role.

Holmes notes that 6’11” former CBA forward Fanbo Zeng, who reportedly agreed to a deal with Brooklyn in August, looks like a solid modern big man. He averaged 14.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game with the Beijing Ducks in the Chinese Basketball Association. Zeng also connected on 53% of his field goal attempts and 41% of his triple tries.

Undrafted former Alabama forward Grant Nelson underwhelmed while with the Nets’ Summer League squad, but his energetic play and diverse skill set on offense could give him an NBA-level ceiling.

Recently waived former Mavericks forward Olivier-Maxence Prosper, a first-round draft pick in 2023, is the kind of developmental project Brooklyn could explore too, Holmes adds.

There’s more out of Brooklyn:

More details have come to light on re-signed Nets center Day’Ron Sharpe‘s new contract, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). According to Scotto, Sharpe’s agreement is actually worth $12.5MM across two seasons instead of the originally reported $12MM. It still includes as a second-year team option, as expected.
Since being traded away from Denver earlier this summer, new Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. has been on a veritable tour of podcasts and live streams, sharing some controversial takes. Holmes opines that the 6’10” vet should consider curbing these public appearances. Porter is making $79.4MM across the last two years of his deal, and Holmes suggests that his continued appearances could affect his standing as a positive veteran influence for Brooklyn’s young roster — which includes five rookies.
In case you missed it, the Nets remain the only NBA team with cap space available, which they could use in a variety of ways.

Michael Porter Jr. Warns Of Risks Associated With Increased Gambling

August 13th, 2025 at 8:41pm CST by Arthur Hill

Appearing this week on the “One Night With Steiny” podcast (YouTube link), Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. warned that the growth of sports gambling is changing the experience of watching games for NBA fans, relays David Purdum of ESPN.

“The enjoyment of the game isn’t for the game anymore,” Porter told the hosts. “It’s so that people can make money. In reality, way more people are losing money than making money.”

Porter’s younger brother, Jontay Porter, made headlines last year for his participation in a gambling scheme. He was banned from the NBA in April 2024 after admitting in court testimony that he took himself out of two games during the 2023/24 season so associates who took the under on prop bets could cash in. He added that the arrangement was his way of paying off gambling debts.

Michael Porter Jr. alluded to his brother’s case on the podcast, saying he understands how players who “come from nothing” could be tempted by the opportunity to make big money for themselves and their friends by manipulating the gambling process.

“Think about it, if you could get all your homies rich by telling them, ‘Yo, bet $10,000 on my under this one game. I’m going to act like I’ve got an injury, and I’m going sit out. I’m going to come out after three minutes,'” Porter said. “And they all get a little bag because you did it one game. That is so not OK, but some people probably think like that. They come from nothing, and all their homies have nothing.”

Porter also stated that players are constantly the target of anger from bettors because they’re always “messing up” either the over or under on prop bets, which allow gamblers to predict whether they’ll have more or less than a certain number of points, rebounds, assists and other statistics.

“We really do get death threats,” Porter said, bringing up the topic of how the league would react if an irate bettor ever decided to physically attack a player.

Porter also decried the growth of online gambling, saying sports in general would be better off if bets could only be placed in person at Las Vegas casinos.

New York Notes: Porter, Sharpe, McCullar, Knicks

July 14th, 2025 at 1:20pm CST by Rory Maher

While Michael Porter Jr. is grateful for the time he spent with the Nuggets, including winning a championship in 2023, he says he’s ready for a “new chapter” after being traded to the Nets, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post.

“I always said New York was my least favorite NBA city,” Porter laughed. “Just because I grew up in the Midwest, where there’s so much space and no traffic. So it’ll be an adjustment. But I think it’ll end up being an amazing place for me.”

The 27-year-old was frequently the third offensive option for Denver, but he’ll have an opportunity to expand his game with the rebuilding Nets. Porter recognizes there could be rough patches as he works to develop his skills, Lewis notes.

“It’s gonna be like exploring the game and working on the things in practice. Part of being a successful NBA player is when you’re working on things during the season, you should work on the shots and things you’re gonna get in the game,” Porter said. “I feel like now my daily preparation and my daily work will be a little bit different, and hopefully, that translates over to the game.

“It’ll probably be some more self-creation, iso situations. [Head coach] Jordi [Fernandez] has already talked to me about creative ways to get me in comfortable spots on the floor. So it will be a dialogue. I’m excited to see where it goes. And it’s definitely gonna be an adaptation. I won’t be the same player [on opening night] as I will be Game 20 as I adjust to that heavier load and that heavier role.”

Here a few more notes on the NBA’s two New York-based teams:

Day’Ron Sharpe‘s new two-year deal with the Nets is not yet official, but that’s merely a technicality as Brooklyn looks to maximize its cap space. The 23-year-old center said he’s glad to be back with the team that selected him 29th overall in the 2021 draft, Lewis adds in another story. “I just feel that was the best option for me, and that’s where Brooklyn was at,” Sharpe said. “I just decided what I decided.”
2024/25 was essentially a lost season for Knicks wing Kevin McCullar Jr., per Stefan Bondy of The New York Post. The 24-year-old missed last year’s Summer League and several months of his rookie campaign due to a knee injury after being drafted with the 56th pick in 2024. “This is really my real rookie season,” McCullar said Sunday after pouring in 30 points in a 94-81 Summer League loss to Boston. “Last year I just got to be able to get my feet wet a little bit. … I love playing and I missed it for so long. Now it’s pretty much my rookie season.” McCullar is one of a handful of young players vying for a roster spot in the fall — he’s technically a restricted free agent after he was tendered a two-way qualifying offer, which is equivalent to a one-year two-way contract.
The Knicks‘ decision to fire head coach Tom Thibodeau and replace him with Mike Brown has opened Leon Rose and the rest of the front office to “new degrees of accountability,” Bondy contends in a subscriber-only story. The move will be heavily scrutinized if the Knicks fall flat with Brown at the helm, particularly since there wasn’t much public desire to part with Thibodeau after he led the team to the conference finals, Bondy writes.

Nets Notes: MPJ, Demin, Wolf, Summer League

July 13th, 2025 at 9:56am CST by Arthur Hill

In addition to his on-court talents, the Nets are hoping Michael Porter Jr. can provide an example of how to win at the highest level, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Porter, who was recently acquired in a trade with the Nuggets, is the only player on Brooklyn’s roster with a championship ring, winning it with Denver in 2023.

“He’s excited to be here. I’m excited to reunite with him,” said head coach Jori Fernandez, who previously worked with Porter as a Nuggets assistant. “We have history together. I loved my time with Michael. And I know he’s going to bring a lot. His work ethic is very good. He’s a pro, works really hard, so that’s going to be good for the young guys to see a guy like him that won a championship, and why.”

As a 6’10” jump shooter, Porter can handle either forward position, but the question of where he’ll play most often hasn’t been decided yet. Fernández envisions a “positionless” approach outside of his center and said it’s really not important who Porter is on the court with. He also addressed the need for Porter to establish his own identity now that he’s no longer playing alongside Nikola Jokic.

“I don’t want him to be out of character. I just want him to be himself,” Fernández added. “And that’s why I’m very comfortable, because I’ve seen him get where he got, his career year and how he scores the ball and the work he puts in every day. The only thing we need to do is get him adjusted to his new teammates … but I know who he is and how good he is going to be. And I want him to lead being Michael Porter. He doesn’t need to be anybody else.”

There’s more on the Nets:

Egor Demin views himself as more of a “play-maker” than a point guard, Lewis states in a separate story. During the Summer League opener, the No. 8 pick in this year’s draft shared the backcourt with fellow first-rounder Nolan Traore, who fits the traditional point guard mold better than the 6’9″ Demin. “It’s one ball, and we can’t both be on it,” Demin said. “We can alternate, we can switch. And for me, obviously I can make this role look like a point guard, too, if I get the rebound and I just push it. It’s just about the game plan and looking for something we can accomplish with this combination. … How can I be playing different roles, doing whatever it takes to be efficient, being able to adjust myself and my game?”
Rookie center Danny Wolf blamed first-game nerves for his bad stat line Thursday against Oklahoma City, Lewis adds in another piece. Wolf finished with four points while missing all five of his shots from the field, and despite his proven passing skills he wound up with two assists and four turnovers. “It’s my first experience in the NBA, and obviously it’s Summer League, but it’s different,” Wolf said. “Definitely some jitters and again, just got to put this in the rear-view and learn from it. Just get better from this.”
Ben Saraf also made his Summer League debut on Thursday as the Nets followed through with their draft strategy of having several ball-handlers on the court at the same time, observes C.J. Holmes of The New York Daily News. “This is the way our roster is constructed,” Summer League head coach Steve Hetzel said. “The league is now multiple ball-handlers, multiple attackers. If you look at the team that just won the championship, they’ve got Jalen Williams and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who can both put the ball in the paint. We feel like the more people that we can have attacking and making plays, the better we are.” Drake Powell, Brooklyn’s other first-round pick, is sitting out Summer League as a precaution after hurting his knee during the pre-draft process.

Nuggets Notes: Holmes, Tyson, Valanciunas, MPJ

July 9th, 2025 at 11:02pm CST by Arthur Hill

After suffering a torn right Achilles tendon during last year’s Summer League, Nuggets big man DaRon Holmes is returning to Las Vegas to restart his NBA career, writes Bennett Durando of The Denver Post. The organization had huge expectations for Holmes after trading up to take him with the 22nd pick in the 2024 draft, but the injury forced him to sit out his entire first season. He has fully recovered and won’t be on any limitations for Denver’s first game Thursday evening.

“It can be pretty difficult, because you have to trust what the trainers are saying (while recovering),” Holmes said. “So if they’re like, ‘Hey, we don’t want you coming back in the gym tonight — rest your legs, rest your Achilles,’ I might try to fight back and say no, I want to get shots up. But I have to listen to what they have to say. They went to school for eight-plus years doing that. I grew up playing basketball. So that’s the fight. It’s more of a mental thing. But I listen to what they have to say. And I trust my form. I’ve been still getting up shots, but I listen if they say (to rest).”

Holmes considers himself to be a natural power forward, but he’ll likely see some time at center this summer. He’s a little short for the position at 6’9″, so Durando expects him to compete for backup minutes during the season at the four spot with Zeke Nnaji and Peyton Watson.

“Anywhere they put me, I’ll be comfortable playing,” Holmes added. “I spent a lot of summer time playing the five. … I trust what the coaches have. I trust this team, the organization.”

There’s more on the Nuggets:

Hunter Tyson will return to Summer League for a third season, Durando states in a separate story. The former second-round pick was the only player on Denver’s standard roster who averaged fewer than 10 minutes per game last season, so he signed up for another summer in Las Vegas to sharpen his skills. “Trying to use this opportunity to get better,” Tyson said. “Make the most of it every time I step on the floor. … Going to go out there and try and win, try and work on my game, try and get better. Use the game reps to continue to grow my game.”
The Nuggets’ trade with Sacramento for Jonas Valanciunas remains on track to be finalized this week, according to Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link), but the team hasn’t agreed to guarantee his $10MM salary for 2026/27. Valanciunas will make $10.395MM during the upcoming season and has been hoping to return to Europe to play for Panathinaikos. On Tuesday, during his first public comments since news of the trade broke, Valanciunas sounded ready to report to the Nuggets. “Once the trade is finalized, we’ll put together the plan for the trip to Denver,” he said, per Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews. “The team will outline how they see the situation, medicals, and all the details. That part is up to them.”
Michael Porter Jr. released a YouTube video thanking Nuggets fans for their support and discussing his trade to Brooklyn. Porter said he enjoyed his time with the organization, especially the 2023 championship, but added that his “ceiling in Denver kind of plateaued.”

Nuggets Trade Michael Porter, First-Round Pick To Nets For Cam Johnson

June 30th, 2025 at 6:09pm CST by Luke Adams

July 8: The trade is official, the Nets announced in a press release.

June 30: The Nuggets and Nets have agreed to a trade that will send Michael Porter Jr. and an unprotected 2032 first-round pick to the Nets in exchange for Cameron Johnson, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).

The move will create significant cap flexibility for Denver. Porter is owed a little over $79MM across the next two seasons, while Johnson’s contract has a base value of $44MM over those same two years (he also has some unlikely incentives that count toward the tax aprons).

It also looks like a potential on-court upgrade for the Nuggets. While Porter is an extremely talented scorer and shooter who averaged 18.2 points per game on a .504/.395/.768 shooting line in 77 games for Denver in 2024/25, Johnson is considred a strong defender and is a pretty good scorer and shooter in his own right.

Johnson scored a career-high 18.8 points per game on .475/.390/.893 shooting in 57 outings for the Nets this past season. He also set a new career high with 3.4 assists per contest.

The trade will move the Nuggets’ team salary more than $13MM below the first apron, potentially opening up the non-taxpayer mid-level exception to use in free agency, notes Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link). That could be a valuable tool for a Denver team looking to add quality depth to support a strong starting lineup.

The Nets, meanwhile, will use a chunk of their cap room to accommodate Porter’s incoming salary — if they had been operating over the cap, they wouldn’t be able to swap Johnson straight up for MPJ and his $38.3MM cap hit.

The move will reduce their cap room to about $17MM, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks, though that number is fluid, depending on how the team handles its non-guaranteed contracts and whether either of the reported deals for Day’Ron Sharpe and Ziaire Williams go into the room exception.

The unprotected 2032 first-round pick is clearly the prize of the deal for Brooklyn. Nikola Jokic will be 37 years old in 2032, and there’s no guarantee he’ll still be a Nugget anyway, so that pick has a good deal of variability and could turn into a very valuable asset.

Still, the Nets don’t view Porter as a mere salary dump. They’re excited about the former lottery pick – who celebrated his 27th birthday on Sunday – and intend to keep him, tweets Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.

Nuggets Notes: Porter, GM Candidates, Durant, Repeater Tax

June 8th, 2025 at 11:58am CST by Arthur Hill

The Nuggets might explore trades involving Michael Porter Jr. this summer, but the most likely scenario has him returning for at least one more season, Bennett Durando of The Denver Post states in a mailbag column. The 26-year-old forward has been the frequent target of trade speculation, but Durando believes he has more value to Denver than he would to any rival team.

Durando notes that team president Josh Kroenke has indicated that he wants to keep the current core together, recently saying, “I think a lot of our answers are internal right now.” That means fans probably shouldn’t expect Porter or any other significant rotation player to be moved this offseason unless the Nuggets receive an offer that’s too good to pass up.

Porter dealt with health concerns early in his career, but he’s been very reliable lately, appearing in 81 and 77 games the past two seasons. He averaged 18.2 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists this year with .504/.395/.768 shooting splits, giving Denver a potent outside shooting threat with plenty of experience playing alongside Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon.

Durando notes that Denver’s cap situation will become more strained in the 2026/27 season when Gordon will receive a $9MM raise and Christian Braun will likely have a new deal in place. Porter will be an expiring contract by then, so Durando sees a trade as more likely to happen next summer.

There’s more from Denver:

Interim general manager Ben Tenzer appears to be the leading candidate to fill that role on a permanent basis, Durando adds in the same piece. Tenzer has been handling all the GM duties since Calvin Booth was fired, and Kroenke has complimented his performance. Durando views Minnesota general manager Matt Lloyd as the likely alternative if Tenzer isn’t hired.
In a separate story, Durando expresses skepticism that the Nuggets can land Kevin Durant, but he lists a few potential trades just in case the Suns star decides he wants to team up with Jokic. One of Durando’s ideas involves Jamal Murray, another includes a combination of Porter and Braun, and a third features a combination of Gordon and Porter. All three options would require a third team because neither Denver or Phoenix can take back more salary than it sends out in a trade.
The Nuggets will become subject to the repeater tax next season, more than doubling their current tax bill to a projected $42.9MM, cap expert Yossi Gozlan observes in his Third Apron Substack column (subscription required). Gozlan also notes that the team has limited draft assets to offer in trades, making it harder to get rid of unwanted contracts. Denver owns five of its first-round picks over the next seven years, but is only able to trade one in either 2031 or 2032. The only second-round pick the club has available to trade is in 2032.

Northwest Notes: Nuggets, Finch, Thunder, Wolves

May 20th, 2025 at 10:02am CST by Eli Cohen

There’s a chance that Game 7’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder will be the last game together for the Nuggets‘ core four of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, and Michael Porter Jr., writes Bennett Durando of the Denver Post. The quartet, which has played together since the Gordon was acquired via trade in 2022, is looking at a financial reality that might prove too onerous for ownership to bear, especially with the team unable to get past the second round since winning the title in 2023.

Asked after Game 7 whether the Nuggets could win a championship as currently constructed, Jokic said, “If we could, we will win it. So I don’t believe in the ‘if, if’ stuff. We had opportunity. We didn’t win it. So I think we can’t.”

The loss comes after the abrupt termination of general manager Calvin Booth and longtime head coach Michael Malone, both of whom were crucial architects of the championship identity, just weeks before the playoffs began. Interim head coach David Adelman ended up coaching nearly as many Game 7s as he did regular season games.

Murray and Gordon both have extensions about to kick in. Murray’s four-year deal is worth nearly $208MM, while Gordon’s is a three-year $109MM extension after he exercised his $22.84MM player option in the 2025/26 season.

While both are trade-eligible, they have been crucial pieces of the Nuggets’ success, with Murray providing scoring and play-making while Gordon has consistently been a big-shot maker and elite defender who has displayed a seamless connection with Jokic as a cutter and screener. That may leave Porter as the best chance the team has to address some of its roster holes while it still can, especially with Christian Braun‘s extension eligibility looming.

We have more from around the Northwest:

Whatever decisions the Nuggets are forced to make due to finances and a lack of repeated Finals runs will be made more difficult by the bonds that have developed over the years. One such relationship is between Porter and Gordon, who have become close friends and support pillars for each other, Marc J. Spears writes for Andscape. Gordon played this season after losing his older brother, Drew, and Porter was someone he could lean on in times of hardship. Gordon and Porter both fought through injuries that limited them in their series against the Thunder, to the point that Porter wondered if he made things worse by being out there. “I probably should’ve just let it heal for a few games and then try to come back,” he said. “That is just not the person I am.”
Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch‘s journey to back-to-back conference finals appearances began with a rejection from a Pennsylvania high school coaching gig, writes Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. At the time, he was coaching basketball in England and desperate for a way home. That journey led him to the Rockets’ G League team, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, which eventually led him to Minnesota, where, for the second time in three seasons, Finch had to figure out how to construct an identity around a team with a new All-Star. The results were tumultuous to start the season, with the team booed for a lackluster start amid discourse about whether newly-acquired star Julius Randle should be benched for Sixth Man of the Year Naz Reid, but Finch eventually found the right buttons to push for to his new-look team. “The validation I feel is for what we’re doing overall as a program,” he said.
Randle and Gobert struggled to find their footing early on together, but in the second round of the 2025 playoffs, the Timberwolves veterans showcased why they are such dangerous players and silenced criticism about their playoff histories, writes Mark Medina of Athlon Sports. “You’ve gotten a lot of disrespect your whole career,” Gobert said to Randle. “And so have I.” Finch, who was an assistant coach in New Orleans for Randle’s breakout year, says that finding the balance of Randle’s responsibilities was key to unlocking the team: “We, at different times of the season, gave him the message, ‘Hey we need you to score more. Hey, we need you to pass more.’ And sometimes it was the wrong message… So that was a lot of our early season growth with him.“
The Thunder have some fascinating lineup choices to consider as they enter Tuesday’s Game 1 against the Wolves, says SI’s Rylan Stiles. After having gotten past Jokic, the team is likely to be less reliant on the two-big lineups featuring Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein against the athletic Randle and a more traditional center in Rudy Gobert. That, in turn, would allow the Thunder to bring more of their defensive-minded guards or wings into the lineup to try their hand at slowing down Anthony Edwards.

Nuggets Notes: Depth, Porter, Tenzer, Gordon, Westbrook

May 19th, 2025 at 9:09am CST by Luke Adams

Through two rounds of the NBA playoffs, Nuggets starters Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic, Christian Braun, and Aaron Gordon ranked one through four in the NBA in total minutes played. To some extent, that was a byproduct of Denver being the only team to play two seven-game series, but those four Nuggets all averaged between 37.3 and 41.3 minutes per game during the postseason, reflecting the team’s lack of reliable depth.

“We definitely need to figure out a way to get more depth,” Jokic said the Nuggets’ Game 7 loss on Sunday, per Tony Jones and Sam Amick of The Athletic. “It seems like the teams that have longer rotations, the longer benches, are the ones winning. You look at Indiana and OKC and Minnesota, and they have been great examples of that.”

Adding depth won’t be the easy for the Nuggets, who are hamstrung to some extent by maximum-salary contracts for Jokic, Murray, and Michael Porter Jr. Denver projects to operate in tax apron territory next season, lacks appealing trade chips, and is the only team that doesn’t have a pick in this year’s draft.

As Jones and Amick observe, it would be logical for the Nuggets to explore trading Porter, who is the most expendable of the team’s highest-paid players. Troy Renck of The Denver Post comes to the same conclusion, lauding Porter for gutting it out through a shoulder injury in the postseason but arguing that his inconsistency has become a liability for the club.

An April report indicated that Nuggets ownership has a particular fondness for Porter because he played his college ball at Missouri, the same school Stan Kroenke and Josh Kroenke attended. However, the prospect of trading Porter at this year’s deadline was “very much in play,” according to Jones and Amick, who note that the Nuggets gave real consideration to including him in a package for Zach LaVine earlier in the season.

We have more on the Nuggets:

It remains unclear who will be making the roster decisions in Denver this offseason, since the team fired general manager Calvin Booth near the end of the regular season. League sources tell Jones and Amick of The Athletic that the Nuggets haven’t moved forward with a search for a new general manager yet and there’s an expectation that interim GM Ben Tenzer has a chance to earn the position on a permanent basis, as Marc Stein and Jake Fischer previously reported.
After playing through a hamstring strain in Game 7, Gordon told reporters, including Bennett Durando of The Denver Post, that he “knew the risks” of taking the court and acknowledged that he “couldn’t sprint,” but said he was determined to give the team all he had. “There was never a doubt in my mind that I was going to play,” he said. “The only thing that made me doubt playing was the MRI. The MRI told me something worse than what I was feeling.” Interim head coach David Adelman referred to Gordon’s effort as “one of the more incredible things I’ve ever seen,” tweets Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette.
Nuggets point guard Russell Westbrook was noncommittal when asked what he plans to do with his 2025/26 player option, as Benedetto relays in another tweet. Even if he wants to remain in Denver, it probably makes sense for Westbrook to turn down that $3.47MM option, since a new minimum deal would pay him $3.63MM.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks has published his Nuggets offseason preview in the form of an ESPN.com article as well as a YouTube video. There are some key extension candidates to watch in Denver this summer, according to Marks, who identifies Jokic (veteran extension) and Braun (rookie scale extension) as two players who will be eligible to sign new deals.
In case you missed it, Adelman is reportedly considered a strong candidate to have his interim tag removed and become the Nuggets’ full-time head coach.

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