DENVER — Nikola Jokic plans to wait one more year to sign his next contract with the Denver Nuggets, he told reporters in Serbia on Monday, the first day he was eligible to sign a new supermax extension this offseason.

That deal would have extended him four years at an estimated $278 million, through the 2031 offseason. By delaying contract talks for a second consecutive summer, Jokic will enter the last guaranteed year of his current contract without an official agreement in place to keep him in Denver beyond 2027.

But the three-time MVP center directly addressed that uncertainty in his home country Monday, verbally committing to take the Nuggets’ offer next year. He has a player option in 2027.

“My idea is to sign next summer and stay in Denver for the rest of my life (career),” he said. The quote has been translated from Serbian to English.

Despite a recent report by The Stein Line suggesting that Jokic might delay his extension and widespread speculation around the NBA that he was applying pressure to Denver’s front office, the Nuggets have remained bullish in recent weeks that Jokic isn’t going anywhere, team sources repeatedly stressed to The Denver Post.

The Nuggets also understand that his decision to delay again, one source said, is motivated by the fact that Jokic can decline his player option next summer and sign a new five-year deal that extends him through 2032, instead of 2031. If he follows through with that plan, he’ll be under contract as a Nugget until he’s 37 years old. He can also secure a no-trade clause by waiting — a rarity in the NBA.

The five-year extension would be worth an estimated $360 million. It would be the most lucrative contract in league history.

Jokic will already be the league’s second-highest-paid player next season with a $59 million cap hit, behind only Steph Curry. After the Nuggets were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in April, Jokic reiterated the sentiment that “I still want to be Nuggets forever.”

When he was asked if that meant it was safe to assume he would sign his extension this summer, the famously stubborn superstar parried: “I still want to be Nuggets forever.”

His comment on Monday was the first time he had directly acknowledged the specifics of his contract options.

Rival teams are still expected to monitor Jokic’s happiness in Denver as the next season unfolds, especially now that even the slightest possibility remains that he could hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent in 2027. He would become the most coveted NBA free agent in years if he declined his player option and chose not to extend with the Nuggets, who’ve won only two playoff series in the last three years.

Jokic joined Bill Russell and Larry Bird last season as the only players in league history to finish top two in MVP voting for six consecutive years. He averaged 27.7 points, 12.9 rebounds and 10.7 assists, marking the seventh time a player has averaged a triple-double for a full season (and the second straight year Jokic has done it).

“We just can’t comment on (extension talks) because of the league rules, but you’ve heard what he’s said about his happiness here,” Nuggets executive vice president of basketball operations Ben Tenzer said on June 24. “We feel really comfortable with that relationship.”

Jokic is currently playing with his national team in a series of FIBA World Cup qualifying games. Serbia defeated Bosnia 94-81 on Monday.

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