It's Time For Denver's Head Of The Table To Take His Place

The Nuggets need their head of basketball operations.

Some fans are protective, and some fans are suspicious. Nuggets fans are a little bit of both right now.

The NBA Draft, as I write this, is 15 days away. The Nuggets don’t have a pick in either round.¹ But that night figures to be busy with a lot of trade options going around the league as teams try to settle their books for the start of the new fiscal year.

There will be opportunities to sneak into deals as part of making the money work. There will be chances to possibly sneak into a first-rounder if a team² has too many in the round and doesn’t want to use all of them.

That doesn’t mean it will happen. But there will be chances.

The Nuggets still don’t have a head of basketball operations. Ben Tenzer remains the acting general manager, and the KSE line is that there’s nothing to see here; Tenzer is in charge while the company reevaluates the situation.

There was widespread speculation bordering on assumption locally that Tenzer would be announced as the new full-time GM when David Adelman was introduced as head coach.

That never happened. There has been no announcement or messaging since then.

Agents and executives around the league have expressed uncertainty about who they would reach out to in Denver if a deal were needed.

I’ve reported here several times that there was a “high probability” that the team would hire a new President of Basketball Operations while Tenzer took over the full-time GM duties. That would create a fresh set of eyes at the top to handle things at a high level while keeping continuity (and saving on more expensive hires, even if it came with new staff).

That’s probably the best outcome. But the Nugget have to… you know… do it.

I waited to write this column for a few reasons. I think local media can be unnecessarily insistent and impatient because they lack the experience of watching other franchises in the same sport and how these things typically unfold. The timeline comparison is only from football to basketball to hockey to baseball.

There’s also the ever-annoying fear that you’re going to write it and then they’re going to announce it the day of.

So I’m well aware that as I write this on Tuesday at 9:08 a.m.MT, the Nuggets may announce leak a hire to Shams and then announce it at noon.

But it’s time.

The Nuggets have got to make a decision on their front office.

Josh Kroenke is not a basketball GM. I’ve detailed before the respect he deserves as the head of multiple franchises (EVEN THOUGH STAN KROENKE IS THE OWNER WHICH APPARENTLY IS A VERY IMPORTANT THING THAT HAS TO BE MADE CLEAR).

But he does not have the time or bandwidth to be the head decision maker for basketball operations for the Nuggets.

Hiring Tenzer is a fine decision, especially if they focus on continuity by retaining the rest of the existing front office that got caught in the Malone-Booth crossfire, like Tommy Balcetis and Senior Analytics Analyst Layne Vashro, both respected around the league.

Hiring a new POBO is fine, too. It would make Nuggets fans feel better to think there’s a new direction to guide the familiar structures.

Hiring a new GM and staff is fine, but that’s a decision that probably should have been made the week after the Nuggets’ second-round loss to the Thunder and not now.

But continuing to wait is not tenable or responsible.

If the Nuggets clean house, we are getting late in the cycle. Staff members across basketball operations will not have sufficient time to find alternative employment. It’s not just the main people at the top with their names in headlines; it’s support staff as well.

If a new regime takes over and wants its people in place, that’s completely reasonable and how things usually happen.

However, there needs to be some consideration for the timing of both the outgoing staff and the basketball events that the Nuggets need to capitalize on over the next four weeks.

The Nuggets don’t have draft picks. They don’t have cap space. They are largely committed — whether by force or by choice — to running it back with the starters next season. But if a golden opportunity comes along to add a superstar talent, or a can’t-say-no deal is offered for whatever reason, no matter how unlikely, you need the mechanisms in place to capitalize.

Deals in the NBA, both in free agency and trades, vanish almost as quickly as they originate.

The right thing to do for people with the Nuggets now, for the organization, and for the fans, is to make the decision on the new front office structure now.

As for the reasons it’s taken this long? KSE has never exactly been the most transparent organization.

Whether it’s an attempt to lure Tim Connelly despite Connelly’s comments about Minnesota being “stuck with” him at his postseason press conference, or interviews with Connelly’s lieutenant, Matt Lloyd³, or another potential candidate⁴, the delay at this point is unexplainable, and that’s cause for fan anxiety.

The Nuggets need to send the message not only to the fans, but also to Nikola Jokic, that they’re locked in on getting their ship of contention back on track. That starts with installing the head of the basketball table, even if Josh Kroenke is at the head of the dining hall and Stan Kroenke is in the VIP back room lighting cigars with $100 bills.

It’s time for Denver to make the hire.

1. Their first-rounder was sent in the Aaron Gordon trade.

2. Like Brooklyn

3. To be clear, I have no reporting to provide on any interviews

4. A few names have been burbling in rumor mills