Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The Denver Nuggets face crucial off-season decisions with their core roster as Jokić enters his contract year.
- Jokić recently affirmed his deep connection to Denver, citing personal and team-building satisfaction over championship pressure.
- This steadfast commitment offers stability for the Nuggets' long-term strategy, contrasting with other superstars' restless pursuits.
For the past nine months, the NBA has been held hostage by Giannis Antetokounmpo's seemingly conflicting desires to stay in Milwaukee but compete for a championship. That tension has fueled countless news cycles of speculation about his long-term future, and it's bound to kick back up as soon as the 2025-26 NBA season is over.
The same can't be said about Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić.
Like Giannis, Jokić can become an unrestricted free agent in 2027 if he declines his $62.8 million player option for the 2027-28 season. Teams such as the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Clippers are already lining up their salary-cap sheets to take a run at one of those two all-time greats if they do reach free agency.
They should start putting together a plan B if they were banking on landing Jokić. During a recent podcast appearance (h/t BasketNews), Jokić made it clear that he has no intention of leaving the Nuggets.
"I wouldn't like to imagine that," Jokić said when asked if he can imagine playing anywhere other than Denver (around the 1:36:30 mark). "I really found peace here. My two kids were born here. Everyone is here. Peace, home, I found my life here. And I like life here. I don't feel the need, I don't have the urge to. We built something here, together as a team.
"Even if we never win anything else after this, an organic title, it means more to me than anything."
That should be music to the ears of the Nuggets' front office and a devastating blow to the rest of the NBA.
Championships aren't everything in the NBA
Antetokounmpo has spent the past few years telegraphing how badly he wants to win a second championship. He's repeatedly pledged his loyalty to the Bucks as long as they're in win-now mode, but he's hinted that he'll look elsewhere once that stops.
"I'm a Milwaukee Buck," Antetokounmpo said during an appearance on the 48 Minutes podcast in 2023. "But most importantly, I'm a winner. I want to win. And I have to do whatever it takes for me to win. And if there's a better situation for me to win the Larry O'Brien, I have to take that better situation."
He took it one step further this past spring during an appearance on the Thanalysis podcast hosted by his brother, Thanasis.
Giannis Antetokounmpo has his eyes set on a SECOND CHAMPIONSHIP. pic.twitter.com/KO0i1EY68v
— Thanalysis Show (@ThanalysisShow) April 16, 2025
Since their championship in 2020-21, the Bucks have tried to remain in the title hunt. They swung a blockbuster trade for Damian Lillard in 2023, which largely flopped. After Lillard tore his Achilles during the 2025 playoffs, the Bucks waive-and-stretched him this past offseason so they could sign Myles Turner in free agency.
However, that daring gambit appears to have backfired. The Bucks are currently nine games under .500 and four games behind the Charlotte Hornets for the final play-in tournament spot in the East. They are nowhere near championship contention at the moment, and it's hard to see their path back toward that given the rise of the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs.
In other words: Get ready for more Greek Freak trade rumors this summer.
Jokić doesn't appear to be wired the same way, though. With three MVP awards and one championship already on his resume, he seems content regardless of how the remainder of his NBA career plays out.
Granted, Jokić is already considered a top-20 NBA player of all time in some circles. (Antetokounmpo isn't far behind him.) To crack the top 12, they'd likely have to win at least one more championship, if not more.
Antetokounmpo seems fixated on doing whatever it takes to accomplish that , even if it means leaving the Milwaukee community that he's grown attached to. Jokić seems less concerned with that and more focused on how much he enjoys his life in Denver. (Besides, moving sucks!)
The grass isn't always greener
There have been plenty of cases over the years where superstars force their way out of their long-term homes, only to realize the grass wasn't greener elsewhere.
Lillard requested a trade out of Portland after 11 years, spent two seasons in Milwaukee and then wound up right back in Portland. Kevin Durant left the Oklahoma City Thunder as a free agent in 2016 and has played for four teams over the ensuing decade. James Harden forced his way out of Houston at the beginning of the 2020-21 season and has played for four other teams since.
Durant won two championships with the Golden State Warriors in the late 2010s, which seemingly validated his decision. Lillard and Harden are still searching for their first ring. And Dwight Howard, who forced his way out of Orlando in 2012 with one of the messiest trade sagas in recent memory, didn't win his first ring until his second stint with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2019-20. He played for four other teams in four straight years before that.
With the Thunder and Spurs seemingly set for global domination in the coming years, even superstars like Jokić may be forced to make peace with their lot. They can either try to hastily assemble superteams (which has rarely worked over the past few years) or stay put and continue to have their incumbent teams build around them organically.
In a few years' time, if the Nuggets find themselves where the Bucks currently do—well below .500 and with no easy path back toward championship contention—perhaps Jokić will reevaluate his commitment to Denver then. But for now, NBA teams that were banking on making a run at Jokić in 2027 free agency may be S.O.L.