As the offseason marches on, the Denver Nuggets truly can't afford to drag their feet much longer in free agency when it comes to signing free agent Peyton Watson. 

Watson may be the Nuggets' number one free agency target, but they so far haven't made any progress on actually signing the forward, who had a breakout season in 2026-26, and while they continue to not make a deal, other interested teams are going to keep closing in. 

One of those teams is the Los Angeles Clippers, who have had an incredibly aggressive offseason compared to the Nuggets' relative inaction.

Even after the many moves that the Clippers have already made, most recently being them signing former Los Angeles Lakers' forward Rui Hachimura, the Clippers are still in the running for Watson, but the Nuggets may be able to spin this situation to their advantage if they aren't willing to pay Watson, but still want to get something out of the Clippers' interest.

“We're still being told that the Clippers are not ruling themselves out of the sign-and-trade chase for Denver's Peyton Watson even after signing Rui Hachimura to a two-year, $28 million deal," Marc Stein wrote. "They would need to assemble a sign-and-trade to acquire Watson and overcome Denver's behind-the-scenes insistence that it will match any offer sheet for Watson." 

The Nuggets have maintained that they're willing to match any offer give to Watson in free agency, but depending on how aggressive the Clippers are willing to be in their pursuit of Watson, especially if they're willing to do a sign-and-trade with Denver, then the Nuggets could spin a deal to their advantage. 

Using the Clippers aggression in pursuing Watson via sign-and-trade could help the Nuggets acquire a ton of assets of their own. Obviously, the Clippers have been on a tear this offseason and have a lot of young players and draft picks to their name and if the Nuggets play things the right way, they could land a healthy haul for Watson.

That looks more and more like the best move for the Nuggets to make at this point as they drag their feet in free agency.

The worst case scenario for them is that they let Watson walk for nothing after an offseason dedicated almost entirely to the pursuit of him. 

By making peace with the fact that that Watson may not be on their roster moving forward, the Nuggets could flip that situation into a sign-and-trade that sets them up for the future instead.