Peyton Watson Details How His Game Is Changing After Leaving Nikola Jokić

Three days before his regular-season debut with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Peyton Watson said Monday that his spacing and cutting have changed after four seasons in an offense built around Nikola Jokić in Denver.

Cleveland acquired the 24-year-old forward in a five-team sign-and-trade in late August. He signed a four-year, $88 million contract that includes a player option and a trade kicker.

Denver received Cleveland's 2031 first-round pick and a 2032 second-round pick from Sacramento. Max Strus went to the Los Angeles Clippers. The Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks, and Portland Trail Blazers had also shown interest in Watson.

Completing the Watson trade cleared the way for Cleveland to re-sign James Harden in August. The Cavaliers had stepped up their pursuit of Watson after LeBron James signed with the Philadelphia 76ers in late July.

When Denver's opponents doubled Jokić in the post, Watson's job was to cut in behind them.

"It's a lot different. It's a lot different playing outside in as opposed to inside out," Watson said. "Obviously, the first four years of my career, I played with a super, super talented offensive engine, probably the most talented in a long time. And it made things easy for me, but I also had adjustments to make there, where it was being in the right place at the right time, being in the right spot, spacing the floor correctly so that he could have space to operate in the interior."

"I think now it's a little bit different because it's more so moving with the ball on the perimeter, so making sure that my spacing is correct depending on which way the ball is driven, and then also finding avenues to cut," Watson continued. "There aren't as many, because with post-ups with Nikola, they would double a lot, which means if [your] man [doubles], you follow right behind him if you cut or you move into the open space, depending on where he is on the floor."

"But here it's a little bit different, because the cuts are more opportunistic, and I've got to find ways to get in there," Watson added. "So it's definitely different, and that's kind of what the preseason was for, just being acclimated to that change."

Watson started 40 of his 54 games for Denver last season and averaged career highs of 14.6 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 2.1 assists.

He shot 41.1% from 3-point range. His 81 made 3-pointers were up from 48 the season before.

Watson scored 30 or more points four times. Three of those games came in January, when Jokić was out of the lineup.

He has 64 career starts in 225 games, all for Denver. He was a rookie on the Nuggets' 2023 title team.

His first game with Cleveland's projected starters came Oct. 11, a 119-105 preseason win over the Orlando Magic. Harden, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen started with him.

With Mobley and Allen behind him, Watson can switch onto a guard instead of trailing him off a screen.

"Like I mentioned before, just having that back line there to help me out and kind of deter shots at the rim or make that ball handler think [twice] before going in there," Watson explained. "And even that little hesitation is enough for me to recover, keep the defense off balance, and keep them guessing. So I think that having those two guys there, their interior presence, just helps me a lot."

"And then also just us, even though those guys are bigger than me, us having similar size," Watson detailed. "I think our switchability becomes better, and we don't have to play as much mismatched basketball, where I'm coming off the screen trailing a guard."

"Having Evan and Jarrett in front of me, knowing that they can switch on the guard and slide their feet for a few seconds and turn those guards and get them deep into our paint, that helps," Watson noted. "I think it just helps having more versatility on that end and being able to do more things."

Mobley was the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year in 2024-25. Allen shot 63.8% from the field in 56 games last season. Watson is listed at 6-foot-8.

Allen said he and Watson have come out of nearly every play with something positive to say about how they guarded it.

"His switchability and his willing[ness] to do the dirty work," Allen said. "We were talking, it was like, after every play, we have something positive to say about how we guarded the pick-and-roll or just any action that we were guarding. So just his ability to guard one through five."

Kenny Atkinson is in his third season as Cleveland's coach. Watson said Atkinson coaches from what he called a moralistic standpoint, asking players to do the right things, play for one another, and accept that they will have to sacrifice.

"I think just going back to the fundamentals and the basics of basketball. A lot of what he talks to me about is not, 'Get more arc on your jump shot,' or, 'Be in this place,' or, 'Do that,'" Watson said. "It's more so play with intensity, be alert, communicate out there. It's just those [little] things that he reminds us about, because in the game, the schematics and everything matters, and the analytics matter if you want to be a smart player with a good IQ. But at the end of the day, a lot of it comes down to willpower and who wants it the most, and we've got to be that team this season."

Watson came in at No. 91 in Bleacher Report's top 99 players entering the season.

Watson's Cleveland debut comes Thursday at Philadelphia, a 7 p.m. ET tip-off on ESPN. The Cavaliers host the Brooklyn Nets in their home opener Saturday.