DENVER — At some point this summer, DeMar DeRozan met with representatives from three different NBA franchises — and ultimately walked away from all three.
The Miami Heat wanted him. The Washington Wizards expressed interest. The New Orleans Pelicans did as well. But none could offer what DeRozan was actually seeking.
This week, DeRozan signed with the Denver Nuggets on a one-year, $3.9 million contract, the minimum salary for a player with his level of NBA experience. At 37, and entering his 17th NBA season, he chose the roster he believed gave him the best opportunity to finally win a championship rather than pursue a deal that might have offered greater comfort or security.
DeRozan has never won an NBA championship. Now, with his career entering its latest chapter, he is betting that Denver gives him his best remaining chance to change that.
The move closes one of the quieter questions hanging over Denver’s summer. The Nuggets traded Peyton Watson to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a sign-and-trade earlier this offseason, a deal that cost them a 23-year-old with genuine defensive upside to create the roster room they needed. The Watson trade drew criticism when it was completed for surrendering youth on a roster where Nikola Jokic, now 31, is approaching the back half of his prime. DeRozan is the Nuggets’ answer to that criticism: not a lottery prospect, but a proven half-court scorer who has reliably produced 18 or more points a night well into his mid-30s.
Last season with the Sacramento Kings, DeRozan averaged 18.4 points on nearly 50 percent shooting. His game has never depended on explosiveness. It runs on angles and footwork and a mid-range pull-up jumper that has survived seventeen seasons because it requires none of the physical attributes that erode with age. When Sacramento released him this summer, CBS Sports reported DeRozan narrowed his options to teams with genuine championship windows, dismissing franchises that could offer comfort but not a realistic ring.
The fit with Jokic is more intuitive than it first appears. When Jokic works from the post or the elbow, defenses collapse inward toward him. DeRozan, working the mid-range from the opposite side, creates a second gravitational pull that the same defense cannot simultaneously contain. Jokic needs reliable decision-makers who do not require creation opportunities to contribute. DeRozan has been exactly that for nearly two decades.
The harder question is what happens in April. DeRozan’s scoring at 37 is genuinely impressive by any historical standard. But a regular-season scorer in October looks different from a playoff scorer in May, when defensive schemes tighten, games go long, and recovery time between elimination matchups compresses into nothing. Coach David Adelman will need to manage DeRozan’s minutes carefully through a full regular season with one eye permanently fixed on how much is left when the postseason arrives.
This is, in the end, a bet on desperation as much as talent. The Nuggets are a legitimate Western Conference contender regardless of whether DeRozan produces at his statistical peak. For DeRozan, the stakes are starker. A minimum deal, a one-year window, and a franchise that has won a championship within this decade. He declined better offers to be here. That kind of deliberate sacrifice does not guarantee anything in April. But it is not nothing, either.
DeRozan has spent 17 seasons being the player everyone else built their offense around. In Denver, for the first time, he gets to be a complement. Whether that adjustment earns him the one credential his career has always lacked is the only question left to answer.
