MINNEAPOLIS — An offseason that started much sooner than the Nuggets hoped or expected got off to a positive start.
Mere minutes after Denver’s season ended with a 110-98 loss to the Timberwolves in Game 6 of a first-round series Thursday at Target Center, The Denver Gazette asked Nikola Jokic if coming up short of expectations impacted his long-held stance that he wants to finish his career with the same team that drafted him with the 41st pick of the 2014 draft.
Good news for Denver. It did not.
“I still want to be Nuggets forever,” Jokic answered.
Jokic then was asked if that meant he was going to sign the super-max extension available to him this summer after declining to do so last offseason. There was a financial incentive in the neighborhood of $80 million for the three-time Most Valuable Player to wait until this summer to put pen to paper.
“I still want to be Nuggets forever,” Jokic reiterated.
Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (15) looks on during the second half of Game 6 of a first-round NBA basketball playoffs series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)
Regardless of the extension, Jokic is under contract in Denver for next season. He’ll make more than $59 million in 2026-27. There’s a player option worth nearly $63 million for the 2027-28 season, if the extension doesn’t get done.
Jokic conceded the team isn’t close to championship contention after a first-round exit. That’s not to say he shared his thoughts about how the Nuggets get back into the championship mix.
“That’s not my decision, to be honest,” Jokic said. “Definitely if we’re in Serbia, we all get fired.”
First-year coach David Adelman is facing a lot of scrutiny after a tumultuous first year as coach. Jokic came to his coach’s defense after an uncharacteristically inefficient series that led to Denver’s first first-round exit since 2022 when the team was without Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr.
“It’s not his fault that we couldn’t rebound. It’s not his fault that we could not catch the ball,” Jokic said. “There is nothing to blame David Adelman (for). It was all us.”
Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, left, and Minnesota Timberwolves guard Jaylen Clark (22) get into an altercation during the second half of Game 6 of a first-round NBA basketball playoffs series, Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)
Even after the most disappointing postseason exit of his career, extending Jokic’s contract is one of the few easy calls Denver’s decision-makers face this offseason. The rest of the decisions are going to be much harder with Denver boxed into a tricky financial situation.
Christian Braun’s extension kicks in next season, and he’s set to make more than $21 million. Cam Johnson ($23 million), Aaron Gordon ($32 million) and Murray ($50 million) are all earning significant portions of the salary cap, while Peyton Watson is in line for a big raise of his own.
The hard part is not keeping Jokic around. It’s making the most of what’s left of the prime of the franchise’s most decorated player after a season stocked with injuries made it hard to gauge what’s real outside of Jokic.
“If I’m going to sit here and say ‘We’re nowhere near where we want to be,’ I think that would be an unnecessary answer right now, because we have to look at the whole season and what we were,” Adelman said.
“You have to look at our roster and see what’s going to fit going forward for our best player.”