After firing Calvin Booth a week before the end of the 2024/25 season, the Nuggets are heading into an important off-season without a general manager. Whoever steps in to fill that role will be tasked with building out a roster around star Nikola Jokic, despite not currently owning a pick in the 2025 draft and facing a financial situation that could force changes to the starting lineup.
Based on vice chairman Josh Kroenke‘s track record, interim GM Ben Tenzer should be considered to hold pole position in the search, writes Bennett Durando of The Denver Post. Tenzer has served as the GM of the Grand Rapids Gold, Denver’s G League affiliate squad, for the past two years and has been with the organization since 2005.
Durando writes that current assistant GM Tommy Balcetis could also be a candidate if the team hires from within, though Kroenke has publicly stated that there’s no guarantee that’s the direction he will take.
“I would be naive if I didn’t think about soliciting opinions outside these walls, whether that’s from some of my own basketball contacts, or hiring a firm that perhaps might be able to give me a list of some of the brightest upcoming minds in the league,” Kroenke said, per Durando.
Minnesota’s GM Matt Lloyd has been a name circulated, Durando reports. The Timberwolves have seen success while being aggressive on the trade market, including trading into the lottery last summer to select point guard Rob Dillingham. With the Nuggets experiencing a talent drain over the past few seasons, such willingness to take big swings could be viewed as a positive attribute by top decision-makers.
In addition to candidates currently employed by other teams, such as the Heat’s Andy Elisburg and Trent Redden of the Clippers, Durando notes that there are several high-profile names available, or potentially available.
Bob Myers has been working as an ESPN analyst since leaving his position with the Warriors two years ago, and it’s worth wondering if he would be open to returning to basketball operations. It has been previously noted that league-wide belief is that it would take a “significant” offer to lure him out of retirement.
This April saw all of David Griffin, Landry Fields, and Monte McNair fired from the Pelicans, Hawks, and Kings, respectively. Griffin struggled to put together a winning team against the backdrop of New Orleans’ constant stream of injuries, but showed himself to be a high-level drafter. Fields didn’t gain ground at finally moving the Hawks out of the rut of roughly .500 ball they’ve been in for the past five seasons, but he did manage to put a coherent team vision around Trae Young, with a legion of lengthy, defensive-minded wings who can shoot threes and switch on defense.
Perhaps the most intriguing name floated by Durando is a familiar one to Denver: Tim Connelly. The former Nuggets president of basketball operations left Denver to build the back-to-back conference finalist Wolves, but he has an opt-out in his contract this summer. The expectation is that he will work out a deal with new ownership, but even if he is available, a reunion seems unlikely, especially given the Nuggets’ hesitancy to come close to Minnesota’s contract offer last time around.
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