The Nuggets are the only team over the second apron, and that is why their 15th roster spot is still empty

The Denver Nuggets are the one team in the league starting 2026-27 above the second apron, and that single fact explains why their 15th roster spot is still empty a week into the season. Filling it with a minimum contract would cost Denver far more in luxury tax than it would pay the player.

Reports counted 30 payrolls after the cutdown deadline and found only Denver over the second apron, with six other teams above the first apron and six more paying tax. FanSided’s Nugglove put the Nuggets $3.15 million over the line. That figure is a reported estimate, not an official cap sheet.

The numbers Denver is working with

Put those lines together and the price of a 15th man becomes clear. A veteran minimum deal adds roughly $2.5 million to the cap sheet, and the tax on top of it is more than six times that. The bill is set by the payroll on the last day of the regular season, so every dollar added now carries that multiplier into April.

Why Kevin Porter Jr. never became a signing

Jake Fischer reported that Denver showed interest in Kevin Porter Jr. before the Bucks waived him on Monday, October 19. The shape of that interest matters. The deal Fischer later described in The Stein Line would have sent Zeke Nnaji, two second-round picks and a pick swap to Milwaukee. Porter’s $5.39 million salary would have replaced Nnaji’s $7.47 million, so Denver’s payroll would have gone down, not up. Milwaukee said no because of the $7.47 million player option Nnaji holds for 2027-28.

Signing Porter as a free agent is a different calculation, because nothing goes out. That is why the open spot is likely to stay open for now, even with Julian Strawther out at least six weeks with a sprained left knee. Denver carries 14 standard contracts and three two-way players.

The rules that bite above the second apron

Under the 2023 collective bargaining agreement, a team above the second apron cannot use the taxpayer mid-level exception, cannot combine salaries in a trade, cannot send cash and cannot take back more salary than it sends out. A team that finishes a season above the line also has its first-round pick seven drafts later frozen, which for this season means the 2033 pick. Finishing above it in three of five seasons pushes that pick to the end of the first round.

There is a way down. Moving Nnaji without taking money back would drop the implied payroll to about $217.4 million, roughly $4.3 million under the second apron. Denver would still be a taxpayer above the first apron, but the tax bill would shrink and the frozen pick would no longer apply. The Bucks talks show the Nuggets were already shopping that salary.

What comes next

The date that matters is Thursday, February 11, the trade deadline and the last chance to move salary before the payroll is locked in for the tax. On the floor, the Nuggets host the Golden State Warriors on Monday, October 26, at 10:00 p.m. ET. Follow it in the Game Center, and see every contract on the Nuggets salary page.