The Denver Nuggets have made shooting their offseason priority. According to a new report, they are looking to a familiar face to solve the problem.
Denver is showing serious interest in Bogdan Bogdanovic in free agency, league sources told The Athletic. The Atlanta Hawks veteran would reunite with Serbia national team running mate Nikola Jokic and provide the spacing Denver has been missing since Bruce Brown left in 2023.
This is the kind of move that wins a championship. The Nuggets have spent the last two years trying to find a wing scorer who can play off Jokic. Jamal Murray cannot do it alone. Michael Porter Jr. has been wildly inconsistent. Aaron Gordon is great, but he is not a primary perimeter threat.
Bogdanovic solves all of that. He is a career 38 percent three-point shooter who has played heavy minutes in the playoffs for Atlanta. He averaged 14.6 points last season on 36 percent from beyond the arc. He can run secondary actions when Murray is off the floor.
The Serbian connection matters too. Bogdanovic and Jokic have played together internationally for over a decade. They know each other’s tendencies. They have won EuroBasket gold together. That chemistry shortens the integration period from months to days.
The Hawks situation makes the move possible. Atlanta is in full retool mode after the Trae Young trade rumors and the Coby White-driven roster questions. The team is unlikely to re-sign Bogdanovic at the $15 million annual rate his market should command, and Denver has the salary cap structure to fit him in.
Calvin Booth, the Denver GM, has been criticized for letting too much depth walk in recent years. Bruce Brown left for Indiana. Jeff Green left for Houston. Christian Braun has been re-signed but is still developing. The team has had less and less Jokic support each season.
Adding Bogdanovic would change that pattern. He is a proven postseason shooter who has hit big shots in elimination games. His 30-point performance against Boston in 2022 is still talked about by Hawks fans, and his ability to handle pressure moments is exactly what Denver lacked against the Thunder last spring.
The Nuggets exit in the second round to OKC was about depth, not stars. Jokic averaged 32 and 14. Murray gave them 25 in the games he was healthy. The difference was that the Thunder had Cason Wallace, Alex Caruso, and Isaiah Joe coming off the bench, while Denver had Russell Westbrook on the floor in clutch minutes.
Bogdanovic at 33 is a perfect veteran shooting addition. He does not need 30 minutes a night. He does not need a starting role. He just needs to be on the floor in playoff games with the ball moving and the spacing right.
The contract should be manageable. The Nuggets can offer him the full midlevel exception of around $13 million annually for three years, and his market is unlikely to produce a better offer. Most contenders are tight against the apron and cannot afford to add a $15 million guard.
Other teams in the mix include the Knicks, who could use shooting after their championship run, and the Sixers, who always need depth. But the personal relationship with Jokic gives Denver an advantage no other franchise can match.
Calvin Booth deserves credit if this move happens. The Nuggets have been slow to address their roster weaknesses since the 2023 title run, and adding Bogdanovic would be the most impactful offseason signing the team has made since Brown joined.
For Jokic, this matters most. He is in his prime. He has been the best player in the world for three straight seasons. Pairing him with a Serbian teammate he has known since they were teenagers gives him exactly the kind of trust and chemistry that turns a 50-win team into a 60-win team.
Watch this signing happen in the first week of July. The market will move fast, and Denver should not let this one get away.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
