Trade & FA 2025-26: Free Agency Starts 5pm CST/6pm EST

[loki]

Peyton Watson is a really great target for us but I’d argue it’s because you don’t have to trade any of those guys for him. He’s a great MLE target that you can offer a big long term role next to Cooper or you can use the TPE if you want to offer more than the MLE to weed out other teams offering that. Nugs already have 211M on the books next year, they will either be paying him and going way over the second apron because they’ve decided this roster can still win championships or they simply let him walk off the books as opposed to a S&T that would take money on.

I'm not sure the MLE will cut it. I think Watson is likely to get better offers around the league. He's also a restricted free agent and Denver could probably find a way to shed a little salary and match at that price. I'm all for using the TPE if that gets it done (max 4yrs/$90.5M). 

In my S&T example though you don't necessarily have to send any salary to Denver if they don't want Naji. He just seemed like a cheap replacement they might be able to afford. It could be purely draft capital going their way if PJ is sent to a 3rd team with cap space (or if the TPE is used instead). I think PJ is a pretty expensive backup PF, so I'd look at moving him for draft assets regardless of whether a Watson deal is possible.