Peyton Watson is a soon-to-be restricted free agent who has been on the Los Angeles Lakers' radar as an ideal 3-and-D wing. Denver doesn't want to lose the 23-year-old, but re-signing him would send the Nuggets even deeper into the luxury tax, which is why ESPN insiders said that to keep him, people around the league believe they will trade one of their two starters from this past season.
The Nuggets have never been big spenders, which is why the belief around the league is that Cameron Johnson (on an expiring $23 million deal) or Christian Braun (on a five-year, $125 million extension signed in the fall) is likely to be moved to create enough room to give Watson something in the per-year range of those players.
It wouldn't be easy for the Lakers to steal Watson away from the Nuggets, anyway. Their top free-agent priority is re-signing Austin Reaves, and if LeBron James decides to keep playing in LA, those moves would take up a chunk of their available cap space.
Bobby Marks of ESPN wrote that the deal he'd offer Watson would be a four-year, $90 million contract. That could age beautifully if LA were able to offer him something like that, but Denver is willing to part with Johnson or Braun to ensure the young forward doesn't end up with another team.
Lakers would love to bring Peyton Watson to LA
Bringing Watson home to LA would be more than a feel-good story and more than a way to get back at Denver, too. Both of those things would be nice, though.
Watson would fit in perfectly with what the Lakers want to build around Luka Dončić. He averaged a career-high 14.6 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.1 blocks, and 0.9 steals for Denver in 54 games (40 starts) this past season, shooting 49.1% from the field and 41.1% from three.
His breakout season didn't have the ending he hoped for, as he didn't play after April 1 after he re-aggravated a hamstring injury that kept him out for a few weeks earlier in the season. He watched from the sideline as the Timberwolves beat the Nuggets in the first round once again.
Watson's absence reaffirmed to Denver that it made the wrong move in extending Braun over him before the season started, but the Nuggets could right that wrong by moving on from the 25-year-old this summer. Maybe that's something the Lakers could try to capitalize on.
If they had it their way, though, Watson would be making the move back home, and that's why it's something Los Angeles can't give up on yet. If there is a path to making it happen, no matter how small, the Lakers will be all over it.
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