The Nuggets will exercise their 2025 club options on Christian Braun, Peyton Watson and Julian Strawther, the team announced Thursday morning.
All three moves were expected with Denver needing affordable rotation players next season, when Jamal Murray’s max contract extension will boost roster payroll and a potential Aaron Gordon extension could also go into effect. Braun, Watson and Strawther are each on rookie contracts, making them essential counterweights to balance a top-heavy cap chart.
The Nuggets now have $199.48 million committed in salary to 13 players for the 2025-26 season, including three contracts with player options.
This is a fourth-year team option for Braun and Watson, who will enter the final year of their rookie contracts in 2025-26. Braun’s estimated cap hit will be $4.9 million, according to Spotrac. Watson’s will be $4.3 million. They were both selected by Denver in the first round of the 2022 draft.
Strawther’s is a third-year option, meaning his contract includes another team option after the 2025-26 season. He was drafted 29th overall in 2023. His estimated cap hit next season will be $2.7 million.
The Nuggets intend to use all three players in their nine-man rotation this year. Braun and Strawther have been competing for a starting job at training camp after the loss of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in free agency. Watson has been dealing with a soft-tissue hamstring injury that kept him out of Denver’s first two preseason games last weekend.
“He got through about half of practice. I know they’re ramping him up slowly,” Nuggets assistant coach David Adelman said Wednesday. “Those injuries, they’re the worst, the soft-tissue stuff. But I was just talking to him. He’s feeling a lot better. He actually got to some live stuff today. It wasn’t five-on-five, but close to it. Some three-on-three. So yeah, he’s steadily progressing.”
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