By Jordan Long
The Denver Nuggets are keeping their best center. They declined a team option on Nikola Jokic for this year but will give him a 5-year $146.5 million max deal, paying him $29.3 million a year. This is in hopes of the Nuggets building around Jokic to become not only a consistent playoff team, but also an NBA Championship contender.
Jokic is deserving of this new deal. He has been the top center for the Nuggets the past 3 years. When Jokic is in the game, he plays at both ends of the floor. He can score down low or from the three-point line. He averages 14.9 points in his career. Opponents have a difficult time defending him because of his size at 6 foot 10 inches. Jokic can box out for second chance points. Jokic also feeds his teammates for easy baskets.
Defensively he can block shots and rebound the basketball to start fast breaks. Jokic averages 6.6 defensive rebounds, 0.7 blocks, and 1 steal per game.
The Nuggets knew they wanted to keep him. Jokic is young at 23 years old and his skills are only going to improve. Denver wasn’t going to allow him to test free agency because of how important he is to the team. Jokic is becoming a “super star” in the league.
With this contract now done, the Nuggets can focus on free agency. Will Barton is Denver’s main unrestricted free agent. Barton was their starting small forward. He was able to take pressure off of Jokic to score points averaging 15.7 points per game. The Nuggets must do whatever they can to keep him because of how important he is to the offense. If they let him go, Denver must replace his production. Hopefully the Nuggets will be able to become a playoff team next season for the first time since 2013.
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