Nuggets could have kept Peyton Watson for much less a year ago

The Nuggets ultimately decided Peyton Watson wasn’t worth $22 million a year.

The painful part? They apparently could have had him for considerably less a year earlier.

ESPN’s Tim MacMahon said on Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective that Watson was seeking roughly $14 million annually when he was extension-eligible last fall. Denver, according to MacMahon, wouldn’t go beyond approximately $10 million.

Instead, the Nuggets gave Christian Braun a five-year, $125 million extension.

“If they had to do it all over again, if they had to give Peyton Watson his $14 million and waited on Christian Braun … they probably would’ve been able to keep them both,” MacMahon said.

Watson then delivered a career season, driving up his price. Denver offered roughly four years and $70 million this summer, Windhorst said, but Watson eventually landed a four-year, $88 million deal from Cleveland as part of Thursday’s five-team sign-and-trade.

Windhorst said Denver essentially reached a financial crossroads and chose to prioritize Braun, Cameron Johnson and Spencer Jones rather than meet Watson’s asking price.

There may have been some tension beyond the contract talks, too.

MacMahon said some within the Nuggets questioned whether Watson could have returned from his hamstring injury during their first-round playoff loss to Minnesota, with some wondering whether he was putting “business above the team.” MacMahon stressed that he hadn’t seen Watson’s medical information and couldn’t say whether that suspicion was justified.

Either way, Watson is gone. And MacMahon wasn’t particularly kind in his assessment of what’s left behind.

“This is a bad, bad summer for the Denver Nuggets, man,” he said. “They’re really expensive, got worse.”