Almost a month has passed since the Nuggets were eliminated from the NBA playoffs, and they’ve still yet to make any change or announcement regarding their front office. Calvin Booth, along with head coach Michael Malone, was fired as the GM in April, with just under a week left in the regular season.
David Adelman was named interim coach and Ben Tenzer interim GM for the final three games of the regular season and ensuing playoff run. Days after being eliminated, Josh Kroenke held an end-of-year press conference and announced that Adelman was being promoted to head coach on a full-time basis, but no such announcement was made about Tenzer.
It was a bit surprising in the moment, but not too crazy. But now, 25 days later, as we’ve been given no update, it’s getting extremely bizarre. If the team was planning to stick with organizational continuity and promote from within, why haven’t they done it yet? And if they are planning to bring in an outside hire, well, why haven’t they done it yet?
The hiring cycle is all but over at this point, and it’s time for teams to be fully focused on the offseason. If ownership is letting the current front office members hang in the wind, that seems like an odd tact this late in the game. If they want to interview outside candidates, they’ve had more than enough time, and the lack of clarity is becoming an issue.
Confusion around the NBA about who is running the Nuggets
Although the Nuggets don’t currently own a pick in the draft, it’s a massive leaguewide event that every team will be closely locked into. Denver should be working the phones all day and night, looking to pounce on every potential opportunity in the moment. But who exactly will be the people working those phones?
Matt Moore, AKA Hardwood Paroxysm, reported on his substack that, “Agents and executives around the league have expressed uncertainty about who they would reach out to in Denver if a deal were needed.” That’s horrifying to hear with trade talks heating up around the league, the draft just 11 days away, and free agency right around the corner.
This is a massive offseason for the Nuggets, and the moves they make, or don’t make, may define the Nikola Jokic era in Denver, the best era of basketball in franchise history. They have a window to win another title, or more, but that window is closing, and they need to capitalize immediately.
Maybe that means big moves, maybe it means no moves at all, but no matter what, these are not decisions that should be taken lightly. The fact that we don’t even know who is responsible for making these decisions is terrifying.
Whether they are trying to lure a big fish like Bob Myers or Tim Connelly, or just deciding how to handle internal promotions, the wait is a bad look for the team. It also lends credence to the idea that Kroenke is going to take on a more active role with decision-making, which may be the scariest prospect of all.
Whatever the move is, it should be made soon. The longer this lingers, the worse it looks, and the uglier it could potentially turn out.