Peyton Watson has played himself off the Denver Nuggets roster for next season. Keeping the breakout star will require some heavy lifting from the front office. No one would be surprised to see him land elsewhere in the summer and that next destination could easily be Los Angeles.
Kevin Pelton did a breakdown of how the Los Angeles Lakers could maneuver to fill out a capable roster of role players and supporting acts for Luka Doncic during the offseason. Watson's situation in Denver stood out as one the Laers are poised to take advantage of.
Pelton wrote, "Restricted free agency is trickier for a team such as the Lakers that can't afford to wait out the matching period, but Denver Nuggets forward Peyton Watson -- an L.A.-area native who played at UCLA -- might be gettable via sign-and-trade because of Denver's tax situation."
The Nuggets are about to be in a finacial bind during the summer of 2026. Adding another big contract similar to what Watson would be due for after a strong year is far from a formality. The Lakers could get an obvious fit and substantial boost to next season's team in the process.
Peyton Watson joining the Lakers in free agency feels like a no-brainer
Denver already have five contracts north of $20 million heading into the 2026-27 season. Nikola Jokic ($59 million), Jamal Murray ($50 million), Aaron Gordon ($32 million), Cameron Johnson ($23 million), and Christian Braun ($22 million) are all eating up a large portion of their cap space.
Braun's rookie extension may be sticking out as a regrettable payday right now after his noticeable dip in production across the board during this campaign. 9.7 points per game on 47-25-76 shooting splits certainly does not scream $22 million value for a 3-and-D player.
Unless Denver manages to slip away from one of those deals, finding a willing suitor to alleviate them, Watson returning to the Nuggets is a tough thing to bank on. That noise in the background would be Rob Pelinka's music.
Watson ticks a lot of boxes for the type of player you would want playing with Doncic.
Athletic? Check. Great defender? With his huge wingspan, definitely. Capable of knocking down the 3-point shot? Breaking out with 41.7 percent from beyond the arc on a career-high 3.7 attempts per game would suggest so, yes.
That is not the only category in which Watson is enjoying the best mark of his time in the NBA, but it would take a considerable amount of time to get to all of them. What should take less time is the Nuggets accepting a future that does not have him in Denver. That is, at the very least, what the Lakers will be hoping for.