JULY 9: The Nuggets have officially signed Barton to his new four-year contract, according to a press release from the team.
“Will Barton is a fearless competitor that never backs down,” president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said in a statement. “He has continuously pushed himself to be the best player and teammate he can be and gives it his all no matter what role he is asked to play. We are very excited to have gotten this deal done and to keep an important player like Will as a key part of our future.”
JUNE 30: The Nuggets will come to terms on a four-year deal with free agent swingman Will Barton, Chris Mannix of Yahoo Sports tweets. The news comes an hour before the official free agency period begins.
The four-year contract will be worth $54MM, Chris Haynes of ESPN tweets, with a player option in the final year. Per Zach Lowe of ESPN, the final year of the four-year deal will include a player option.
Barton, a 27-year-old shooting guard, is coming off a career year with the franchise. The prolific two guard averaged 15.7 points per game on the season but 17.7 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists in games that he started.
It was previously reported that Barton would be meeting with the Pacers later tonight but Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders writes that that meeting was never scheduled.
With Nikola Jokic‘s recently reported five-year extension factored in, the acquisition of Barton at over $12MM annually will put the Nuggets on pace to shatter the luxury tax line.
Of course club president of basketball operations Tim Connelly will have plenty of time to rectify that and, as we wrote earlier, will be looking to shed contracts in trades.
At the end of the day, while the deal could put the Nuggets over the tax if they can’t unload any of their unwanted contracts, they have $34MM set to expire next summer when Kenneth Faried, Wilson Chandler and Darrell Arthur all come off their books.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
How can they be in agreement before the tampering period starts? I’m confused. Not sure who he is but was he already on this team? If not shouldn’t they be fined for tampering? I mean Magic can’t even say a player is good without getting the Lakers fined lol
He’s been on the Nuggets for 4 years. Watch basketball. Lol
He’s been on the team for a few years
You can contact your own free agents before hand. Lol
Impressive Denver’s loyalty to Will.
Slightly more than I thought he would get, but pretty much in that range. If they can somehow move Faried and Darrell Arthur and get back a wing player, I feel like that would be a good offseason
They will get back nothing. They will sacrifice future picks, a sound fiscal decision considering they do not need to get younger and they’re overpaying Barton.
Atlanta already has 5 picks next year, and Shlenk will get more.
I wonder if Barton promised to play better defense for that contract. Someone has to lift the level of effort for the team.
I think they are paying him a bit too much, I was thinking in the line of 4/40, not sure he is so good but anyway he is only a complimentary piece ain’t taken you over the steeple, that is Jokic.
The nuggets have great jerseys
Wonder if they’ll make playoffs next year. Golden State and Houston are locks. The rest like this year are all close. New Orleans, Portland, OKC, San Antonio, Clippers, Utah. Memphis adds Jackson and has Conley back. Dallas adds DeAndre Jordan and Luka Doncic, and Denver is waiting to see if Michael Porter Jr. can play. Phoenix will be fun to watch.
Sorry. Forgot to include Lakers.
And Timberwolves. Wiggins says he wants to be more involved. Butler says he’s tired of Anthony-Towns being a crybaby. See what happens.
Sacramento will be very good not next season but in two years. Once they shore up their rotation depth they’ll be pretty scary and athletic. Fox will be great once he develops a shot and gets a bit better with his defensive awareness, Giles can be a solid backup Big man (he’ll never be the #1 ranked recruit coming out of HS good but he can be good once he gains his legs back and mental consistency trusting himself, which he didn’t do at Duke) Justin Jackson is a decent backup SF who can score and run plays really well, Bagley is a stud in the making once he hits free throws and makes more threes… I mean there’s a LOT to look forward to in Sacramento.
And that’s not even counting Buddy Hield, who can score in bunches.
After how bad and unathletic Giles looked at the combine and in college, he looks amazing after the year off. I didnt really see what the hype was back then, other than reports, but if this dude stays healthy, he might be Chris Bosh