In 2016, Kevin Durant listened to pitches from five other franchises before choosing the Golden State Warriors. The Oklahoma City Thunder had built around him, finished 55-27, and taken the Western Conference Finals to a Game 7 after leading 3-1. Then they woke up to his resignation letter on The Players’ Tribune. Brian Windhorst has seen versions of this story before and has a cautionary message for the Denver Nuggets regarding Nikola Jokic.

Windhorst gave his take on the situation.

“He’s going to be 31 this year,” Windhorst said on the Hoop Collective podcast. “So the idea is that if he doesn’t sign now and he signs when he’s 32, he can sign all the way out to his 37, 36, 37. So the idea is, why not guarantee yourself whatever, $70-whatever million at age 36 — why not do that? And if you’re a Nuggets fan, you’re saying, ‘Sounds good. I’m going to go to sleep and sleep well.’”

“But if that’s the case, he’s got a player option for next year,” he continued. “And you got people in Denver saying to me, ‘I know this guy as well as anybody — he ain’t going anywhere.’ And I’m not saying he is. I’m just saying, I don’t know how you can sleep well.”

By waiting until the 2027 offseason, Nikola Jokic aims to forgo a four-year, $278 million deal in favor of a record five-year, $359.5 million supermax contract extension. He was eligible in the 2025 offseason to sign a three-year, $212 million extension that would have kept him under Denver’s control into his mid-30s.

He decided not to, amid estimates that waiting a year would allow him to sign a deal with roughly $80 million more in guaranteed money. Now, one year later, he is already under contract for 2026-27 and owns a $62.8 million player option for 2027-28. By declining that option, he becomes eligible for a five-year supermax that guarantees significantly more money and another season of security.

Just in the last two years, superstars like Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo left their respective franchises despite widespread optimism that they would stay. Both of those franchises believed they knew their star as well as anyone. Both went to sleep confident. Both woke up to something different.

On March 8, during an interview on the X&O’s CHAT podcast, Jokic explained his attachment to Denver.

“Even if we never win anything else after this, an organic title, it means more to me than anything. I really found peace here. My two kids were born here. Everyone’s here. Peace, home, I found my life here. And I like life here.” His public messaging has been consistent. As he said in Serbian following the extension delay: “My idea is to sign next summer and stay with Denver for the rest of my career.”

Denver’s Kroenke family has said the offer will always be there. Jokic has said the answer will come next summer. Windhorst is just asking, quietly, whether anyone has confirmed those two things are the same conversation.