MILWAUKEE — You can now count on one hand the number of NBA games Spencer Jones is allowed to play under the terms of his two-way contract.
He’s down to his last five, after logging a team-high 38 minutes Friday in a 102-100 win over the Bucks. Jones, 24, has been an unlikely contributor for the Nuggets in what was supposed to be his second season splitting time between them and their G League affiliate, the Grand Rapids Gold. He’s been active for 45 of Denver’s first 46 games at the NBA level, has played in 41 of them and has started 29.
Two-way players can only be active for up to 50 NBA games before they’re ineligible for the rest of the season. They’re not allowed to appear in playoff games. The Nuggets have desperately needed Jones — they might need him right now especially, depending on the severity of Aaron Gordon’s latest hamstring injury — but their time is about to run out on being able to use him. Unless they sign him to a standard NBA contract.
Denver’s front office officials have been communicative with Jones about the possibility of converting his contract, he told The Denver Post on Friday, but he and the team have been preparing for him to run out of eligibility for at least a few games before reaching a resolution.
“You want to figure out, where you’ve got a championship push, everything you need to make that push. So yeah, I always knew the decision wasn’t going to be until the deadline, (that it) won’t be decided until around then,” Jones said. “I may run out of games before then. So they’ve mentioned the possibility of sitting out one or two just ’cause. So we’ll see how it pans out.”
If Jones continues to be active for every game, his last on a two-way will be Feb. 1 against Oklahoma City. The trade deadline is later that week, at 1 p.m. MT on Feb. 5. League sources have told The Denver Post that the Nuggets signaled in recent weeks they’d like to shed enough salary to get under the luxury tax. Their payroll is currently about $400,000 over that threshold, and they’re carrying 14 players on their 15-man active roster. (Two-way players such as Jones don’t count on the 15-man roster, and their salaries don’t count against the cap.)
Teams cannot carry only 13 players on their 15-man roster for more than two consecutive weeks, so Denver won’t be able to trade someone solely for salary-shedding purposes without subsequently adding another player, either via the same trade or by signing someone like Jones. If his contract is converted, he would be owed a prorated salary against the cap for the remainder of the season. The buyout market could be another avenue for the Nuggets to acquire more talent. But if they fill all 15 roster spots, that in all likelihood would require them to be comfortable with paying the luxury tax.
Basically, the front office’s challenge in the coming weeks is to thread a complex needle between contradictory principles: lowering the payroll and improving a championship-caliber roster. Jones seems to represent a sweet spot. But if he’s to be converted, other dominoes might have to fall first.
He has a vote of confidence from his coach.
“Whatever happens with Spence, he’ll be fine. What he’s done and what he’s put on tape is a professional basketball player that belongs in a rotation,” David Adelman said in Milwaukee. “And he’s earned it. … We’ll figure it out. What that means, I don’t know. And those are Ben (Tenzer) and Jon (Wallace) questions; we’ll have that conversation with them. But we’ll do the best we can do for (Jones) and for the whole roster as we go forward.”
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Denver’s open roster spot has been a source of quiet motivation all year, though he’s also made a point to try not to obsess over it.
It’s getting more difficult to ignore now that the clock is about to strike midnight.
“Control what I can control. Keep playing until it pretty much runs out,” he told The Post. “I don’t think about it. I don’t really look into it. I mean, I kind of know when, what day it is, but it’s not like I’m checking every day or anything like that. But just keep playing. Keep trying to rack up wins for this team. We’ve got plenty of guys out. And then what they choose to do is what they choose to do. Talked with my agent about it, the possibility. … I know (the Nuggets) want to wait for some things. See how it pans out. So I always knew it was going to be closer to the deadline.”
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