Peyton Watson's Nuggets Contract Offer Revealed in New NBA Rumors Amid Links to Clippers, More

The Denver Nuggets reportedly have a contract offer in place for restricted free-agent forward Peyton Watson, who has yet to make a commitment for the 20260-27 season and beyond.

According to Tony Jones of The Athletic, a five-year, $70 million offer is on the table from Denver, but Watson remains one of three unsigned RFAs in the NBA, along with Jalen Duren and Bennedict Mathurin.

Per Jones, the Milwaukee Bucks, Atlanta Hawks and Los Angeles Clippers have all expressed interest in acquiring Watson through a potential sign-and-trade deal if he and the Nuggets can't find common ground.

According to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line, it is believed within the NBA that the Bucks are the team with the best chance of prying Watson away from the Nuggets.

Milwaukee has a bevy of young players and draft picks to offer, plus a $25.5 million trade exception it can use to absorb Watson's new salary.

In order for a sign-and-trade to happen, Fischer noted that the Nuggets want at least two first-round picks in return.

The possibility of moving on from Watson may have become more real this week when the Nuggets matched the Oklahoma City Thunder's two-year, $12 million offer sheet to forward Spencer Jones.

That put the Nuggets into the second salary-cap apron and severely limited their financial flexibility moving forward.

Watson, 23, enjoyed a breakout season in 2025-26 after primarily being a bench piece for the Nuggets over his first three seasons.

Of the 54 games Watson played last season, he started a career-high 40 of them, and he has set career marks in points per game (14.6), rebounds per game (4.9), assists per game (2.1), three-pointers made per game (1.5) and minutes per game (29.6).

Watson was highly efficient offensively as well, shooting 49.1 percent from the field and 41.1 percent from beyond the arc.

He was fourth on the team in scoring behind Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon, and it can be argued that Watson is the most important factor in the Nuggets' success moving forward aside from Jokić and Murray.

Denver already lost some important members of last season's team in Tim Hardaway Jr., Jonas Valančiūnas and Bruce Brown, so they can ill afford to lose another in Watson, especially on the heels of a first-round playoff exit.

The Nuggets need to be in win-now mode with a three-time NBA MVP in Jokić on the roster, and keeping Watson in the fold likely provides them with the best chance of contending.