After a long wait and facing impending roster penalties, the Denver Nuggets finally made their move with Spencer Jones.
According to Shams Charania of ESPN, the Nuggets are converting Spencer Jones to a standard NBA contract for the rest of the NBA season.
The Denver Nuggets are converting two-way Spencer Jones to a standard NBA contract for the remainder of the season, sources tell ESPN. Jones will become a restricted free agent in June. He has started 34 of 46 games for the Nuggets, averaging 6 points and 41.4% shooting from 3. pic.twitter.com/dSxQMnMGmV
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 18, 2026
Having started in 34 of the 46 games he played this season, Jones became essential to the Nuggets this year. Part of that stemmed from injuries to Aaron Gordon, Cam Johnson, Peyton Watson, and others. Part of it was because Jones turned out to be really good and helpful as a rotation piece. Jones stepped up defensively for the Nuggets to guard the opposing team’s best forwards, averaging 6.0 points and 3.0 rebounds in 23.6 minutes per game while shooting 41.4% from three.
Jones, originally signed to a two-way contract this season, had exhausted his eligibility on the “50 games on the active roster” threshold. The Nuggets were always going to convert him to a deal, but the question was when and how.
“Obviously, what Spencer’s done for us this year has been beyond a small impact,” David Adelman shared at practice today before the news of Jones’ contract ultimately broke. “The guy started a million games for us, guarded some of the best players in the league. He’s a big part of what we’ve done, and so we’re trying to get that done in the sense of what’s fair for both sides.”
Jones will play the rest of this season on a prorated minimum contract before entering restricted free agency next off-season. That’s a win for Jones, who will allow restricted free agency to dictate his market this off-season rather than settle for a cheap deal to keep the Nuggets under the luxury tax.
The Nuggets now have 14 players on their roster, a mandatory minimum of full-contract players after a rule was imposed by the CBA. The Nuggets had been carrying 13 players on the roster after trading Hunter Tyson for additional cap space. Jones fills in for Tyson’s roster spot, meaning the Nuggets have an additional spot left to fill.
According to Adelman, the Nuggets are still open to signing a buyout market candidate from outside of the roster.
“We’re looking at names to possibly help us get through this time, both the buyout market and possible two-ways,” Adelman stated plainly. “[Ben Tenzer] and [Jon Wallace] are hard at work at that. We’ll sit down and talk about it here in a couple hours.”
With Jones’ conversion, the Nuggets have both an open full-time roster slot and an open two-way contract slot they can choose to fill. Whether they do or not remains to be seen, but with Jones signing a prorated minimum contract as opposed to a longer term, higher priced deal, there’s an opening for Denver to add a player or two that can help them down the stretch.
The Nuggets have 27 games left in the regular season and are currently the third seed in the Western Conference playoff race. If there are players that can help them win games that are available, it behooves them to consider all options and be aggressive in one of their best remaining chances to win a championship in franchise history.