By not fearing injury this offseason, Peyton Watson believes he helped himself avoid one.
Extreme caution would have been justified. Not only is he on the clock to sign a contract extension with the Nuggets by Monday, but around this time last year, he was nursing a strained hamstring, unable to play in any of Denver’s preseason games. The injury occurred while he was playing pickup a few days before training camp. The memory remains fresh in his mind.
The lesson taken from it was not to scrimmage less, though. Just the opposite.
“I feel like last summer, I didn’t play as much, and I got that soft-tissue injury right before the season,” Watson said Thursday when asked about staying healthy amid contract talks. “My body wasn’t able to withstand going from just shooting spot-(up) shots to playing a live-action game. … I’ve played a lot more this summer, and I honestly think it was the best thing I could have done for my body. … This is the best I’ve felt going into a season.”
It’s paying dividends from more than just a conditioning standpoint, too. Watson’s increased ball-handling responsibility has been one of the most unexpected developments of the Nuggets’ preseason. When coach David Adelman was asked this week to pinpoint a player he’s especially excited about, he went through three stages of answers: a joke (“Jokic”), a few lines of self-aware coach-speak (“the team in general”), then more naming of names. Watson was the first out of his mouth.
In his fourth professional season, Watson’s offensive role off the bench is likely to expand beyond the baseline, where he’s been used in the past as both a corner spot-up shooter and an Aaron Gordon dunker spot replica.
Not that he’ll never be assigned to that region of the floor again. After all, his 76 corner 3-point attempts were the second-most on the roster last season, and he converted on 44.7% of them. But when Watson is playing with the second unit, he’ll be asked to start plays as well, not just finish them.
It’s a job Adelman expects to be done by committee throughout the season.
“It’s still developing,” he said. “Peyton’s been really impressive. But the difference will be when they decide to put their main defender on Peyton, and we want to get him off the ball, can other guys handle that responsibility? It’s a challenge for the players because you have to know the calls as a point guard or a lead guard just as well as a guy like Jamal (Murray) does, or when Aaron (Gordon) brings the ball up, or whoever it is.
“So it’s not just about the ability to bring the ball up. It’s about the knowledge of what you’re trying to accomplish when you do it.”
Watson’s preseason usage rate was 17.3% through four games, up from 13.8% last regular season. Entering the final exhibition at Oklahoma City on Friday, he had six assists and five turnovers — identical numbers to Bruce Brown.
He was also averaging 14.7 points and 6.9 rebounds per 36 minutes on 55% shooting from the field. The 23-year-old has always felt comfortable and confident as a straight-line slasher when he’s been put in situations to play off the wings. Grain-of-salt October basketball has indicated there should be more of that coming as well.
“Our coaching staff has really put a lot of trust and belief in me this entire preseason, training camp,” Watson said, “to go out there and kind of play more like myself and have the ball in my hands. Make decisions. So I’ve been able to work on a lot of things just in live-action games against really, really talented players. I think that’s always good for confidence. It’s always good for my sharpness. And I feel great.”
This development comes amid the backdrop of contract negotiations. The Nuggets and Watson have until 4 p.m. Monday to agree to a rookie-scale extension, or he’ll be bound for restricted free agency next summer. Both sides have shown interest in getting a deal done, league sources said, and Watson has said publicly that “I’ve got more money than I ever thought that I would ever make.”
But Denver’s payroll finances could stand in the way of an agreement, especially with starting guard Christian Braun also at the negotiating table. The Nuggets are currently an estimated $23 million below the NBA’s second apron for 2026-27. That’s before signing either of their rookie extension candidates.
If they do extend both players, they’ll project as a second-apron team with only 12 of 15 roster spots filled — even if Watson does agree to a team-friendly average salary. Between the tax implications and roster-building restrictions that come with going above the second apron, they’ve been reluctant to cross that threshold in recent offseasons.
The good news for both players is that they’ve avoided injuries during the process while playing in every preseason game.
“I think it crosses everybody’s mind, regardless of contractual things,” Watson said. “When we come out here for practice, anything can happen, you know? That’s just the nature of the game. I honestly feel the more you play, the more you build the endurance to be able to continue to play through this long season.”