Tuesday's introductory press conference for Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace was supposed to celebrate a new era in the Nuggets' front office. Instead, it was overshadowed by a few outrageous comments made by team owner and president Josh Kroenke, chiefly bringing up the idea of trading Nikola Jokic without even being asked about it.
Kroenke was commenting on the perils of the NBA' CBA's second apron of luxury tax and the importance of keeping the payroll under that threshold, when, for some reason, he decided to offer that if the team was operating above the second apron, they would be one injury away from having to contemplate trading Nikola Jokic.
Kroenke sending Nuggets' fans into panic for no reason
The comments, understandably, went completely viral and sent fans into an uproar. Why would any team's owner offer the idea of trading their best player without even being prompted? And for that player to be the best in franchise history, a generational talent in the heart of his prime, while the team just took the eventual champs to a Game 7, who has never shown any shred of desire to leave? Well, that would be insane.
And yet, that's exactly what Josh Kroenke did on Tuesday. The team should not be afraid of the second apron, and even if they got stuck in a bad situation (newsflash: they're already in one), trading Jokic would never be the right answer.
Kroenke showed that KSE, the Nuggets' ownership group, would consider the harsh financial penalties and restrictions, even if that meant sending the best thing that has ever happened to the franchise out of town. It's shameful for him to even speculate about it out loud, and for a team that's already not having the brightest offseason, he stole headlines again for all the wrong reasons.
Kroenke overshadowed introductions of Tenzer and Wallace
Worse yet, this should have been a nice moment for the two newly appointed front office partners, Tenzer and Wallace. Both showed out well, answered questions, and spoke gracefully and confidently. They sound like they understand the mission and are ready to work together.
But sadly, all anyone is talking about is Kroenke and his outlandish comments. Beyond the cringe-inducing quip about trading Jokic if the team's payroll gets too high and they face injuries, the owner of the team offered up several other gems that fans will absolutely hate.
Some highlights included being asked about a possible extension for Jokic and stating, "We’re definitely going to offer it. I’m not sure if he’s going to accept it or not", talking about how he's going to be more "hands on" with the team and made it clear he's "going to be around" a lot, and repeatedly describing the team's front office situation and organization as a whole as "unorthodox".
Kroenke clarified some of his comments in a later interview, laughing about his trade comment, but it's a total shame that this will be the talk around the team. This franchise has a lot of pressure to improve going forward and get back to its championship heights. So far this offseason, they certainly haven't instilled a lot of confidence that they can do that.