DeRozan Accepts Denver Minimum: One Year, $3.9M to Play with Jokic

DeMar DeRozan has made his choice, and he's chosen basketball. The shooting guard agreed to a one-year, $3.9 million contract with the Denver Nuggets, according to sources who confirmed to ESPN, closing the deal in just two days after Chris Haynes reported the Nuggets' interest on Thursday.

The figure is the real story. It's the veteran minimum, the only formula Denver could offer with $223 million already committed, and it represents the largest salary cut of a player's career who was coming off making more than $24 million annually. At 36 years old, with six All-Star selections and never having advanced past a conference semifinal, DeRozan has decided that the missing piece of his resume is worth more than the paycheck.

The Quick Watson Replacement

The move completes a frantic week in Colorado. The trade of Peyton Watson to Cleveland on Wednesday left a production hole on the wings and made the DeRozan signing an absolute priority, according to the sources cited. Seventy-two hours later, hole filled, and with clear offensive improvement: in comes a scorer averaging 18.4 points, 4.2 assists and 2.9 rebounds—the numbers he posted last season in 77 games with Sacramento.

The fit with Jokic looks promising. DeRozan is one of the best mid-range shooters of his generation, and the Serbian, the best interior passer in recent history: the partnership of pick-and-rolls, hand-offs and reads between the two writes itself. What Denver loses in the trade is the other side: Watson was their best perimeter defender, and that bill, as we analyzed this week, the offense doesn't pay.

The Doors That Closed

Along the way, the alternatives fell away. Miami ended up directing its money toward Klay Thompson, and the romantic return to Toronto alongside Kawhi Leonard never got past hypothesis, held hostage by a trade that remains frozen by an NBA investigation.

With DeRozan placed, the free agent market is reduced to its bare minimum: Jonathan Kuminga, Bennedict Mathurin and Jalen Duren, all three stuck in restricted free agency, are already the last major names of the summer.