Zeke Nnaji signed a four-year, $32 million extension with the Denver Nuggets on the cusp of ... [+]
Three days before the start of the 2023-24 NBA regular season, the Denver Nuggets and general manager Calvin Booth officially announced that versatile big man Zeke Nnaji had agreed to aligning a multi-year extension.
In Nnaji, the Nuggets retain a player who has shown great defensive versatility and acumen, the potential to be a legitimate three-point threat, and the promise of being a viable long-term frontcourt backup to Nikola Jokic and Aaron Gordon.
“I’m ecstatic to have it officially done,” Nnaji said at a practice media availability. “To show they have a trust and belief in me. I’m ready to help this team win to run it back.”
The deal is for four years, $32 million, and guarantees Nnaji through the 2027-28 season, with a player option on the final year of his contract, as first reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
That averages out to $8 million a year, but the salary is structured to decline each season, meaning that as a percentage of the salary cap, according to Spotrac (the source for the salary figures here and in the chart below), Nnaji’s contract will take smaller and smaller bites out of Denver’s overall payroll over time.
The salary details of Zeke Nnaji's four-year, $32 million extension with the Denver Nuggets
This descending salary framework is beneficial for a Nuggets team that projects to be over the punitive second luxury tax apron next season, with a massive payroll of over $190 million already on the books for 2024-25. That number is largely comprised by the maximum salaries of Finals MVP Nikola Jokic's $51.4 million (36.2% of the projected 2024-25 salary cap), Jamal Murray's $36 million ((25.4% of the cap) and Michael Porter Jr.'s $35.9 million (25.3%), and puts Denver about $1 million above the second luxury tax apron next season, leaving Booth and his front office staff with relatively little room to work with around the margins. So as the upcoming seasons progress, Nnaji making about $1.4 million less in the fourth year of his extension (should he opt in) compared with the first year, and his contract representing 4% rather than 6.3% of the cap, may seem like small numbers, but they’ll likely make a bigger impact for Denver that it would for many other teams not facing the same tax pinch.
And although the salary on Nnaji’s extension is on the lower end among the other players from his same rookie class, this deal appears to potentially be quite favorable for him as well. Nnaji has had a challenging start to his NBA career due largely to injuries which have prevented him from staying fully healthy in any of his three seasons – and also on account of things like inconsistency, shooting struggles and rebounding issues making it hard to get minutes at times.
Zeke Nnaji Career Games Played for the Denver Nuggets
Since being drafted in 2020, Nnaji has played in only 136 of 236 possible regular season games, or 58%, and those missed games are fairly evenly distributed over each season (i.e., he never missed an entire season). And it has seemed like every time he starts getting more playing time, showing more growth and delivering on his opportunities, another injury setback pops up, both squelching that momentum and setting him back in terms of his spot in the rotation. The aforementioned inconsistency is surely at least partly attributable to the inconsistency of his availability.
If Zeke Nnaji were to really step up and shine this season, there’s a chance he might have landed a more lucrative deal on the market next summer as a free agent. But given how difficult it’s been so far in his career to demonstrate what many – including and especially the Nuggets – believe to be a strong skill set and upside that will make him a legitimate rotation NBA player, that idyllic (and now moot) idea of a contract seems at a minimum unlikely, but more importantly, far from guaranteed.
Now, Nnaji has earned not only the guarantee of life-changing money, but also some time and comfort (both on the court and financial) as he ostensibly enters this Nuggets season with the largest role he’s played for the team, as Jokic’s full-time backup center off the bench.
“I’m feeling great and healthy, so I’m ready to go,” Nnaji said at a practice following the extension announcement.
Maintaining that good health will be imperative in helping the 22-year-old big man to maximize the increased opportunity he appears to have this season following the departures of Nuggets bench fixtures Jeff Green and Bruce Brown in free agency last summer, as well as the unfortunate, and likely season-ending ACL tear Vlatko Cancar suffered playing for his Slovenian national team in early August.
Career statistics for Zeke Nnaji with the Denver Nuggets
Nnaji’s early career statistics don’t exactly fly off the box score, which is meant neither as a knock on him (time to develop is to be expected especially among young bigs) or to devalue other important aspects of his game – primarily defense – which metrics can’t very well capture. But strictly in terms of his choosing to extend rather than gamble on himself in free agency next summer, it’s certainly part of the calculus that had to be considered. Simply put, if he’d chosen free agency, and had not fairly drastically outplayed his first three seasons, would any team out there have taken a flier on him for over $8 million a season?
For his career, Nnaji has averaged 5.0 points and 2.6 rebounds in 13.4 minutes, shooting .527 from the field and .382 on three-pointers, per Basketball-Reference. But that doesn’t actually do justice to the potential he’s shown in his better streaks of games and moments on the court.
Isolating the 48 of 136 total regular season games he has played in which he had 17 or more minutes paints a more productive and efficient picture of who Nnaji can be at his current best, and the even better player he should develop into if he can actualize his upside. In that set of games, Nnaji averaged 9.1 points and 4.3 rebounds and 1.0 threes with an effective field goal percentage (eFG%, which accounts for the value of 3-pointers) improved to .640 over his career average of .607. In those stretches where he was at his best, these figures are more reflective of Nnaji’s production.
Back in December of 2020, I was singing (and tweeting) praises of Zeke Nnaji and his potential to become a very good, or even great shooter:
There are many valid reasons to think that this might finally be the season when Nnaji puts all the impressive flashes he’s shown together, especially if he remains healthy and has a longer, uninterrupted runway that better facilitates becoming more consistent.
By signing his extension, Nnaji has essentially widened his window of opportunity to prove he can be that more valuable player more consistently, hopefully even over the course of an entire season or more, without free agency forcing the issue next summer, and with the security of a very respectable raise. No doubt both he and the Nuggets are grateful and relieved to simply not have this looming over their whole season.
And perhaps that peace of mind will be another helpful factor if Nnaji can have the breakout he’s primed for in the most important season of his career.
