The Lakers, Knicks and Heat have a built-in ace in the hole when pitching free agents. The Nuggets have a Joker.
No, they can’t dangle New York nightlife or Miami beach culture or Los Angeles glamor. But the Nikola Jokic Effect should be a compelling card to play in its own right. The evidence keeps piling up. Denver might need to lean on it this summer in a search for depth that Jokic himself has publicly implored.
“It’s definitely a big part of our pitch. It has been for a few years,” team president Josh Kroenke said. “It’s not like we broadcast that out. But yeah, in a nutshell, if you’re a certain type of player with a certain type of skill set, I think if you come play next to Jok, you’re gonna look pretty good. And that ‘pretty good’ might result in you getting paid pretty high.”
Jerami Grant in Portland. Bruce Brown in Indiana. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in Orlando. Soon, Christian Braun in Denver via a likely extension.
If teaming up with Jokic is a verifiably smart business decision for NBA role players, can the Nuggets capitalize this offseason? They need to find bodies who can hang in a playoff rotation. They don’t have a lot of money or roster spots to work with. On the free agency market, they’re limited to a taxpayer mid-level exception ($5.7 million) and veteran minimum contracts.
With maybe a couple of exceptions (That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?), free agents in their 20s who’ve played themselves into popularity on cheap deals … are unlikely to end up in Denver. Think Ty Jerome. Malik Beasley. Santi Aldama. Maybe even Gary Trent Jr., who had multiple 30-point playoff games for Milwaukee on a minimum contract.
Still, the NBA has entered a bit of a cap-space recession. The splashiest moves of this offseason will be trades, rather than free-agent signings. So, who could the Nuggets target with the limited mechanisms available to them? Veteran ring chasers? Younger players looking to prove themselves?
Here are 15 names to ponder, listed with their most recent team, their 2024-25 salary and their opening-day age for next season.
Bruce Brown, Pelicans
Position/age: G/29
Expiring salary: $23 million
Let’s get this one out of the way. Brown has been passed around between three teams since helping the Nuggets win a championship, but he just can’t quit Denver. He was practically treated as a celebrity guest of honor at Ball Arena for a playoff game last month. And when interim coach David Adelman earned the full-time job, Brown posted the team’s announcement on his Instagram story. Nobody wants to wear a Nuggets uniform more than this guy. His market is difficult to predict after a season disrupted by injuries. But he already got paid once. Maybe now’s the time to be sentimental. This is absolutely a realistic potential signing.
Chris Boucher, Raptors
Position/age: F/32
Expiring salary: $10.8 million
The Nuggets looked long and hard at Boucher before the 2025 trade deadline. Now the longest-tenured Raptor is coming off his second-most efficient season, having averaged 10 points in 17 minutes. Boucher can space the floor and defend out on the wing pretty well for his size (6-foot-9, 200 pounds). Convincing the Montreal-raised veteran to leave Canada for less money could be challenging, but he makes sense for Denver as a TMLE candidate.
Tyus Jones, Suns
Position/age: G/29
Expiring salary: $3 million ($2.1 million cap hit)
Jones went to Phoenix on a vet minimum deal for a prove-it year, hoping to replenish his value by filling a positional need on a playoff team. He was durable, posted another impressive shooting season (41.4% from 3) and remained one of the steadier assist-to-turnover point guards in the league (4.7). He was also a defensive mark who did not impact winning. As the Suns regressed from sixth to 11th place, he was removed from the starting lineup late in the season. So, do the individual stats make Jones worthy of the paycheck he couldn’t obtain last summer? Or is he better off finding another short-term relationship with another contender? If it’s the latter, he’s precisely the type of player the Nuggets should be trying to pitch the Jokic Effect. They can also pay him almost twice as much as he made in Phoenix.
Mason Plumlee, Suns
Position/age: C/35
Expiring salary: $3.3 million ($2.1 million cap hit)
Another expiring vet minimum in Phoenix, and a sneakier reunion candidate than Bruce Brown. Plumlee can still be impactful in a limited role, and he might satisfy the Nuggets’ never-ending appetite for consistency at backup five behind Jokic. He played 74 games last season and averaged 12.6 rebounds per 36 minutes. One of the lessons from Denver’s last two playoff runs should be that while Aaron Gordon is perfectly capable of handling those minutes at center, overextending him is unwise. He’s already responsible for so many other roles. By the end of 2023-24, he was admittedly exhausted. By the end of 2024-25, he was injured.
Larry Nance Jr., Hawks
Position/age: F-C/32
Expiring salary: $11.2 million
One fundamental flaw of the Jokic Effect as a pitch is that it doesn’t generally apply to backup centers. They’re the only dudes on the roster who are expected to play essentially all of their minutes without Jokic, and while their teammates benefit from the boost, they often appear even worse as a result. That’s just the nature of the job description. So maybe Denver’s best bet is to locate another small-ball five, along the lines of Gordon, who can dip into other roles. Nance couldn’t stay healthy enough to stay in Atlanta’s rotation, but when he did play (24 games), the 6-foot-8 big man was able to stretch the floor and knock down shots. The Hawks might want him back, but the Nuggets are better-suited to provide him more playing time.
Clint Capela, Hawks
Position/age: C/31
Expiring salary: $22.3 million
Alternatively, the Hawks might let Capela walk this offseason instead of Nance. He’s coming off his first single-digit scoring season since 2015-16. As he ages into his 30s, he’s probably due for at least a marginal decrease in pay, especially given the lack of cap space teams. The taxpayer mid-level exception might be the absolute low end for him, but depending on the market he attracts, Capela represents another possible path if Denver wants to nab a more traditional center.
Luke Kennard, Grizzlies
Position/age: G/29
Expiring salary: $9.3 million
Kennard was quiet in the Grizzlies’ brief playoff appearance this year, averaging 4.5 points in 20 minutes. But he’s still the sort of 3-point deadeye Denver needs more of in order to supply Jokic with space. In his last four seasons, Kennard is 45.6% from outside the arc on 5.1 attempts per game, mostly off the bench in Memphis and Los Angeles. If the Nuggets want an experienced backup shooting guard behind Christian Braun who can stagger with starters, they could do a lot worse than Kennard at the mid-level.
Jake LaRavia, Kings
Position/age: F/23
Expiring salary: $3.4 million
Another shooter with size who could fall in the Nuggets’ price range. He shot 42.3% from 3 on low volume last season, including a 15-point performance in Denver. Due to a declined team option when LaRavia was in Memphis, he’s about to be an unrestricted free agent. Sacramento cannot offer him more than about $5.1 million.
Jae’Sean Tate, Rockets
Position/age: F/30
Expiring salary: $7.6 million
As the Rockets rounded into form as a contender this season, they ran out of room in the rotation for Tate, a staple of their rebuilding years. His perimeter defense and hustle could be additive for a team like Denver that has struggled at the point of attack. The downside is that he’s never been a productive shooter, and he’s only 6-foot-4 despite being listed as a forward.
Dennis Schroder, Pistons
Position/age: G/32
Expiring salary: $13 million
Schroder has suited up for seven teams in the last four seasons, and that doesn’t even include his glorious cups of coffee with Miami and Utah, where he was rerouted on his way to Detroit all in the last 24 hours before the trade deadline this year. Schroder is a legend for the German national team, but the closest he’s been to an NBA title is the conference finals. His teams were swept there in 2015 and 2023. If he doesn’t renew with a burgeoning Detroit squad, and if the Nuggets and Russell Westbrook go their separate ways, perhaps Schroder could ring-chase in Denver.
Justin Holiday, Unsigned
Position/age: G/36
Despite former Nuggets coach Michael Malone wanting to re-sign him, according to league sources, Holiday has floated in the wind for a year. When Denver last saw him, he was making a major impact early in that fateful Timberwolves series of 2024 … until he went scoreless in 38 minutes across the last three games.
Brook Lopez, Bucks
Position/age: C/37
Expiring salary: $23 million
Somebody will probably pay Lopez more than the Nuggets can afford, or maybe the Lakers will offer him a starting job at the same salary next to Luka Doncic and LeBron James. But isn’t it fun to envision Lopez backing up Jokic in Denver? In many ways, the former All-Star is on the decline. But he can still pick-and-pop. He can still drain 3s from the corner or wing. He can still deter some shots at the rim. He’s still 7-foot-1.
Taurean Prince, Bucks
Position/age: F/31
Expiring salary: $3 million ($2.1 million cap hit)
A more realistic candidate out of Milwaukee? Pro: Prince shot a career-best 44% from 3-point range last season on 4.2 attempts. Con: After starting almost the entire season, he wasn’t able to stay on the floor in Doc Rivers’ playoff rotation, logging only three minutes off the bench in Game 3 against the Pacers and four minutes in a season-ending Game 5 loss. The Nuggets need Prince’s shooting. They also need somebody they can trust to contribute in April and May.
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