Nuggets Continue Brilliant Free Agent Run with Veteran Guard Signing

The Denver Nuggets have continued their flurry of free agency moves (including some trades during the period) with a critical wing signing on Tuesday night.

Denver kicked things off by sending the two years and $79.1 million remaining on streaky small forward Michael Porter Jr.’s contract, plus more importantly a totally unprotected 2032 first round draft pick, to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for combo forward Cameron Johnson.

Johnson is a better defender and passer than Porter, and will make a total of $44.1 million during the final two seasons of his current deal. Although he has missed significant time throughout his career, he doesn’t have the kind of future-threatening back issues that have plagued Porter. 

The Nuggets have since continued to build, trading non-rotation center Dario Saric and two second rounders to the Sacramento Kings for Jonas Valanciunas and signing former 2023 sixth man shooting guard Bruce Brown to a veteran’s minimum bargain of a deal.

Now, Denver is adding some seasoned shooting to fill out its bench

New York Knicks forward OG Anunoby (8) drives to the basket between Detroit Pistons forward Ausar Thompson (9) and forward Tim Hardaway Jr. (8) during the second quarter of game four of first round for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Little Caesars Arena.

David Reginek-Imagn Images

Per Shams Charania of ESPN, the Nuggets are inking free agent former Detroit Pistons reserve shooting guard Tim Hardaway Jr. to a one-year contract. His agent at Priority Sports, Mark Bartelstein, worked out final details of the agreement, Charania reports.

Terms of the deal have yet to be disclosed, meaning it could be a high-value veteran’s minimum deal. Given Hardaway’s pedigree and his solid performance for the Pistons just last season while wrapping up a four-year, $75 million contract, it seemed likely he could have fetched a bi-annual exception or perhaps even a taxpayer mid-level exception from another team.

In 77 healthy contests for the 44-38 Pistons (all starts), the 6-foot-5 wing averaged 11.0 points on a .406/.368/.855 slash line, 2.4 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 0.5 steals a game.

Now 33, Hardaway is a career 36.1% shooter from distance, on 6.3 triple tries a night. In his New York Knicks-era prime, he was a solid defender, and while he remains competent on that end, he is being brought in to shoot off the ball as a release valve for Denver MVP center Nikola Jokic and point guard Jamal Murray, the team’s two primary creators.

This has proven to be an exciting start to the tenures of newly promoted executive vice president of basketball operations Ben Tenzer and freshly-hired executive vice president of player personnel Jon Wallace, formerly a Minnesota Timberwolves executive.

The duo is replacing Calvin Booth, with whom Denver won it all in 2023 (albeit through a roster mostly constructed by then-recently departed Timberwolves president Tim Connelly). 

Booth, who had whiffed badly in the 2024 offseason by letting starting two-guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope depart for nothing in free agency and using roster spots and free agent cash on Saric and Russell Westbrook, was fired late into the 2024-25 regular season by owner Josh Kroenke.