Following reports that he was delaying signing a contract extension with the Denver Nuggets for another summer, Nikola Jokić weighed in on the topic Monday.
He intends to eventually sign an extension with the Nuggets. And he plans to finish his career with the franchise that he led to its first and only NBA championship.
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That’s per Jokić, who was asked about the subject after leading his native Serbia to a win over Bosnia and Herzegovina in a World Cup qualifier Monday.
“My idea is to sign next summer and stay with Denver for the rest of my career,” Jokić said, via translation from Serbian.
Here’s the rest of the quote, per translation by the Nuggets provided to The Athletic.
“My idea and my wish is to stay in Denver,” Jokić continued. “I will most probably sign next summer.
“The decision is strictly business oriented. My wish is to stay and play for Denver the rest of my career. It’s on them if they want me.”
That should provide a sense of relief for Nuggets fans, who are now experiencing a second summer of Jokić not signing a contract extension despite being eligible to do so.
Why Jokić plans to delay extension again
Jokić, 31, has two years remaining on a five-year, $276 million supermax contract. He can opt out next offseason ahead of the final year of the deal.
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He was eligible in the 2025 offseason to sign a three-year, $212 million extension that would have kept him under Denver’s control into his mid 30s. He opted not to amid estimates that waiting a year to sign an extension would allow him to sign a four-year deal with roughly $80 million more in guaranteed money.
That brings us to this offseason. And Jokić is again facing a scenario in which waiting another year could again secure tens of millions of dollars more in guaranteed money. Per The Athletic, waiting another offseason to sign would allow Jokić to secure yet another $80 million in guaranteed money with a five-year extension through his age-37 season in 2031-32.
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Amid that context, reports surfaced in June that Jokić was again delaying signing an extension. But he hadn’t addressed the topic until Monday’s postgame media scrum.
The math adds up, but …
The math here isn’t hard. Jokić is opting to take on the low risk of a catastrophic, career-altering injury against securing another $80 million in guaranteed money.
And, per translation, Jokić “will most probably sign next summer.”
But if and until Jokić does put pen to paper, there’s room for anxiety among Nuggets fans to ponder the unlikely scenarios that would prevent him from doing so. That “probably” isn’t exactly comforting.
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In the meantime, the Nuggets face pressure to rebuild a contender around Jokić on the heels of early exits in consecutive postseasons in which they’ve been surpassed in the West by the Spurs and the Thunder.
It’s a proposition that has Nuggets fans pondering the previously unthinkable — pursuing LeBron James in free agency — and hoping that another season without a deal doesn’t tempt Jokić to look elsewhere.
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