Monte Morris, Nuggets Agree to 3-Year, $27M Contract Extension

Guard Monte Morris has signed a three-year, $27 million contract extension with the Denver Nuggets, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported Monday.   

Morris was drafted No. 51 overall out of Iowa State by the Nuggets in 2017 and averaged 9.0 points, 3.5 assists and 1.9 rebounds in 73 regular-season games with Denver in 2029-20. He then played 21.4 minutes per game over 19 postseason appearances en route to a Western Conference Finals loss to the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers. 

In front of Morris, the Nuggets are set with Jamal Murray, who started 59 games at point guard and averaged 32.3 minutes in 2019-20 while posting a career-high 18.5 points to go with 4.8 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game.

Morris played just three games at the NBA level during his first season in the league, instead spending most of the 2017-18 campaign with the G League's Rio Grande Valley Vipers, for which he averaged 17.8 points through 37 outings.

A Michigan native, Morris starred through four seasons at Iowa State, where he broke records for career assists (768) and steals (225) as a senior in 2016-17, numbers that ranked third and sixth in Big 12 history, respectively. He is the school's all-time leader in games played (140) and ranks fifth in starts (121), and his 100 wins make him the program's winningest player.

As he continues to develop, he may have a challenger for minutes off the bench in the team's new addition, point guard Facundo Campazzo, who signed a multiyear deal out of Real Madrid. Nuggets head coach Michael Malone expects Campazzo "to be a top-five pick-and-roll player in the world" and said the 29-year-old is "a seamless fit" into the culture in Denver.