It was a foregone conclusion, but Marc Stein of the Stein line Substack saved Denver Nuggets fans the trouble of wondering for too long.

Dario Šarić will be opting into his $5.4 million player option for the 2025-26 season, according to Stein.

Saric, 31, played just 16 games and 210 total minutes for the Nuggets last season after signing a two-year contract at the Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception. It was a nightmare scenario for both Saric and the Nuggets as the fit in Denver was a lot more difficult than expected. With Russell Westbrook also attempting to adjust to a bench role, and with the pairing of Westbrook and Saric was simply too disparate, the Nuggets chose to play Westbrook only and bench Saric. After the 15th game of the Nuggets season on November 23rd, Saric played just six more games for the Nuggets, regular season and playoffs.

Now, Saric has opted into his 2025-26 salary, a number that he was extremely unlikely to get on the open market this season. How the Nuggets handle the Saric situation will be interesting.

There are a couple ways to justify bringing him back. First, if Westbrook doesn’t return, the Nuggets second unit is very likely to slow down again and play a more methodical brand of basketball. Saric may be able to keep up with Jalen Pickett if that’s who ends up running backup point guard minutes. He would also be a reasonably good complement to DaRon Holmes II, in theory, allowing Holmes to develop at a slower pace himself.

Second, if Saric simply doesn’t play, the Nuggets would take a $5.4 million expiring contract into the year with the intention of using the Croatian big man’s matching salary to acquire a new rotation player.

If the Nuggets are dead set on not bringing back Saric though, they could use his salary and trade him now. Or, they could agree to a contract buyout, paying him some of his salary and saving the rest to either spend on other players or simply have some luxury tax and second apron savings.

The buyout side of this might become more appealing to Denver if they can’t find the right deal. It also might be appealing to Saric, who reportedly has standing offers from Fenerbahçe and other teams overseas. The $5.4 million was too much to simply pass up for Saric.

We will see what ultimately becomes of Saric in a Nuggets uniform, but the odds of him remaining in Denver for the 2025-26 season just went up.