Soon after signing a two-year, $12 million offer sheet with the OKC Thunder last week, Spencer Jones hinted on LinkedIn, of all places, that there would be "more to come" on the news front.
Three days later, this promise was clearly kept.
On Sunday, less than 48 hours after he put pen to paper on Oklahoma City's proposal, the Nuggets officially decided to match the deal, thus keeping him under Denver's control through 2027-28.
In what he described as a "plot twist," Jones headed back to his LinkedIn to share his take on his somewhat controversial decision to accept a deal from a "rival" club.
"I went into free agency with clear priorities: a team that fits my skillset, a championship culture, and an organization I believe in. Both Denver and OKC checked those boxes. Either way, I was landing somewhere that made sense," Jones wrote. "The offer sheet was a business decision. It ensured I ended up in the right situation w/ what I felt was the right compensation regardless of what happened next."
Jones would continue on to highlight how, at the end of the day, "this is a business decision," one that ultimately landed him the largest fully guaranteed offer sheet ever signed by an undrafted player who initially started on a two-way deal.
While the forward may have had genuine interest in joining the Thunder this summer, at the end of the day, he's quite open about having ulterior motives in mind when he put pen to paper. Fortunately, it seems Sam Presti and company may have had a few of those themselves with the signing of Jones.
Thunder have now forced Nuggets into unfavorable financial position
The decision to ink Jones to his original offer sheet was seen as a win-win situation for the Thunder.
On the one hand, if it actually netted them the forward, Oklahoma City would be filling their 15 and final roster spot with a rising 3&D talent to fill out the depth chart behind star Jalen Williams at the three.
Of course, on the other hand, now that he's returning to Denver, it's given OKC a different kind of luxury -- thrusting a direct conference threat into unprecedented financial troubles.
With Denver's decision to match Jones' offer, they have now officially entered into the dreaded second apron, the only team set to enter the threshold in 2026-27, and are on the hook for a whopping $32 million increase in expected luxury tax payments.
On top of this, they are now more likely than not to be priced out of retaining their most prized free agent target, Peyton Watson, as a result of the Jones offer.
So while signing the 25-year-old would have certainly had its perks, missing out on him seems to still be paying off quite nicely for the Thunder.
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