Nuggets starters to move in order to keep Peyton Watson

The Denver Nuggets are heading into one of the more-consequential offseasons in recent franchise history. The roster, as currently constructed, isn’t realistically able to extend Peyton Watson without moving significant money elsewhere. And the names sitting on the other side of that equation aren’t insignificant.

Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, Cam Johnson and Christian Braun all represent meaningful pieces of the Nuggets’ core. One of them, in all likelihood, is going to have to go.

On a recent edition of “Stokley and Evans, with Mark Schlereth” on 104.3 The Fan, Mike Evans walked through the candidates and made his preferences clear. His first pick was the one that drew the cleanest line.

“For me, Cam Johnson. Thank you. You showed a little bit in the playoffs, at the end that I didn’t see all season long. But I’d rather have Peyton Watson over Cam Johnson,” Evans said.

It’s a measured take that acknowledges Johnson’s contributions without overstating them. The veteran wing was streaky for most of the season after arriving in Denver, finally finding a rhythm late in the year and into the postseason. His shooting fits next to Nikola Jokic. His length matters. But Watson’s ceiling makes the math difficult to argue with.

Evans then addressed the player he was unwilling to part with under almost any circumstance.

“Would I rather have Peyton Watson over Jamal Murray? No. I like Jamal, I’ve always been team Jamal. I don’t think you’d become that much better of a team if you unload Jamal Murray,” Evans said.

That’s a clear line in the sand. Murray is coming off the best regular season of his career, so his trade value may never be higher. But Evans recognizes the obvious truth: The Nuggets win because of the two-man game between Murray and Jokic. Breaking that up to fund a developmental wing, no matter how promising, would damage the very thing that makes Denver dangerous in the first place.

The toughest call, predictably, came with Aaron Gordon.

“Would I move Aaron Gordon? I would. I love Aaron Gordon, but at this point of his career, I just don’t see him discovering some magic fountain of health,” Evans said.

It’s the kind of honest assessment that only emotional distance allows. Gordon is Mr. Nugget. He was the steady veteran presence on the 2023 championship team and remains one of the most-beloved players in franchise history. But the injuries are accumulating, the athleticism is starting to dip and the cap hit attached to his name only grows more difficult to justify as he ages. Evans isn’t saying it would be easy. He is saying it might be necessary.

The Nuggets aren’t going to walk out of this offseason without losing someone they would rather keep. Evans has laid out his preference order, Johnson first, Gordon second, if it must come to that, and Murray off the table entirely.

The front office’s decision will say a great deal about how they view Watson’s ceiling. And if Evans is right, the answer to that question is more important than the sentimental weight of any of the names on the way out.

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