Nuggets sign EuroLeague DPOY Alpha Diallo

About a decade ago, a lanky youngster named Alpha Diallo was the best thing happening at Denver West High School — a 4-star recruit who played AAU ball with the Colorado Hawks, carried the Cowboys to the Sweet 16 in the Class 4A state tournament for the first time in years. Then a transfer-eligibility fight with CHSAA forced him out of the state, and the basketball world forgot he’d ever been here.

It took the long way around — Brewster Academy, four years at Providence, an undrafted night in 2020, a season grinding in the Greek league, five years building a name with AS Monaco in the EuroLeague — but on Sunday, the road finally bent back toward Denver.

Diallo has agreed to a one-year, $1.4 million fully guaranteed deal with the Denver Nuggets, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. The 29-year-old forward, who was named the 2025-26 EuroLeague Defensive Player of the Year by a vote of the league’s head coaches, will make his NBA debut next season for the team in his old (temporary) backyard. BasketNews’ Donatas Urbonas first reported Denver’s interest a few days ago, and though multiple NBA teams were in pursuit, the Nuggets closed before the July 15 exit clause in Diallo’s contract with Dubai Basketball expired.

The signing of Diallo is simple. Denver has a defensive problem, and everyone in the sport knows it. Denver has a money problem and this forward came cheap.

The Nuggets finished 2025-26 with the best offensive rating in the NBA at 122.6 and the league’s top three-point percentage. None of it mattered come April. The defense ranked 21st at 117.4, and Minnesota exposed that gap in a first-round series loss, getting downhill and to the rim at will even without their top ball-handlers healthy. That made what looked like a strong Nikola Jokic stat line end in one of his worst playoff performances as the team flamed out in the first round for the first time with a healthy three-time MVP and Jamal Murray. There are fixes needed on both sides of the ball but just getting more bodies on the defensive end was chief among the things to target from the front office this summer — something they even admitted.

Diallo is about as targeted a response as you’ll find at this price point. He averaged 11.9 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.4 steals in 28 minutes a game for Monaco this past season in EuroLeague play. Synergy Sports graded him “excellent” in overall defensive possessions, man-to-man coverage and pressing situations. He led all EuroLeague forwards in points allowed per possession at 0.844 and ranked in the top 20 league-wide in pick-and-roll defense, holding ball-handlers to just 0.706 points per possession. Monaco forced the fourth-most turnovers in the competition, and Diallo was the catalyst.

The obvious caveat: the EuroLeague is not the NBA. Diallo has never played a minute in pro ball in his home country. There is a real possibility that a player who dominates a slower game struggles to keep up with the pace and power of an NBA wing rotation. But the Nuggets need to take calculated bets with where they are right now and the profile is good. He’s 6-foot-7, 210 pounds, switchable, physical, capable of guarding across multiple positions.

On offense, he’s not going to be mistaken for a guy Denver runs offense for, but his shooting is functional enough that he won’t be a liability standing in the corner waiting for Jokic to find him. His career splits across 312 professional games overseas sit at 51%/37%/74%. He can make the open three.

What makes this signing feel like more than a back-of-the-roster flier is the context surrounding it. Christian Braun and Peyton Watson deserve more credit as perimeter defenders than they typically receive — Braun’s physicality has shown up in playoff series, and Watson’s length and motor are legitimate tools — but the Nuggets don’t just need their existing defenders to be better. They need more of them. Denver needs someone who can fight over a screen, switch onto a guard and hold up, make Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Anthony Edwards work for every inch in a half-court possession. It’s a mission Diallo will be tasked with, bringing over his skills stopping Europe’s best.

The financial picture is what turns a solid depth signing into a revealing one. Denver is so far into the luxury tax while having just about a dozen players on their 18-man roster.

Peyton Watson’s restricted free agency has turned into a standoff — he’s seeking around $25 million annually, comparable to what draft classmate Braun got, and negotiations with Klutch Sports remain far apart, per recent reports. Spencer Jones, the other restricted free agent, wants to test the market as well.

If both come back on fair deals, the front office may need to move one of Braun or Cam Johnson at the behest of ownership to keep the luxury-tax bill down, staying under the second apron. Though as of now, the Nuggets are sprinting toward being past it.

Diallo’s $1.4 million salary looks like a bargain, and it is — but because of the way the NBA’s minimum-salary rules work, Diallo will count for approximately $2.45 million against Denver’s cap and apron calculations regardless of what the team actually pays him. Every dollar counts right now, so it’s worth a mention — though, this is just about the cheapest way for the Nuggets to fill a roster spot. Still, it allows the Nuggets an easier path to get under the second apron if they so choose or he’s just a cheap, most likely playable, option if Denver is that deep into the tax.

It’s worth remembering that the last time Denver dipped into the EuroLeague talent pool, the team signed Facundo Campazzo out of Real Madrid in 2020. Campazzo was a fun, fiery, undersized point guard who brought playmaking creativity and defensive effort but ultimately couldn’t overcome the size limitations the NBA exposes in 5-foot-11 guards. He lasted two seasons. Diallo is a fundamentally different bet — built for the switchability and physicality the modern game demands rather than the kind of skill-based novelty that’s harder to sustain against NBA-caliber athletes.

Diallo went undrafted out of Providence after four years as a starter — two All-Big East selections, 1,591 career points, 833 rebounds, 165 steals — and spent half a decade overseas turning himself into one of Europe’s premier two-way forwards.

At 29, Diallo finally gets his NBA shot, in the city where he played prep ball. The Nuggets might need him as bad as he wants this chance to prove himself.

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