What are the Nuggets doing?

[AleksandarN]

First they let Masai Ujiri go because they didn't want to pay him what he deserved now they are going to do the same with Tim Connely. Cheap ass owners. They still don't have a training facility. Yeah you can say they are going to be a lux tax team but they cheap out on everything else. Funny this coming after Jokic saying that the main reason that he will sign the max because he loves the management and organization. I wonder how he feels about it now. Denver better not make the same mistake again. **** cheap ass Stan Kroenke. This is perhaps the most important off season in recent history for the Nuggets and they going to let your leadership walk over money. If this happens the offseason will be in turmoil when it is the most important one to date.

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[scrabbarista]

Maybe the real genius is the guy hiring the GM's, and he'll just keep hiring brilliant guys after the last one leaves. Ever think of that?

[scrabbarista]

But seriously, I think we all want the same thing here: Jokic on a squad. If Connelly leaving and Jokic opting out and going somewhere like Dallas or Memphis or Minnesota is what it takes for that to happen, then who am I to condemn?

[AleksandarN]

But seriously, I think we all want the same thing here: Jokic on a squad. If Connelly leaving and Jokic opting out and going somewhere like Dallas or Memphis or Minnesota is what it takes for that to happen, then who am I to condemn?

Unless you like the Nuggets and want Jokic to win in Denver.

[Exp0sed]

Jokic might do that eventually, but from his European culture, loyalty to the franchise is a big deal

He probably models himself more on a career like Dirk's on Duncan's..playing his whole career in Denver

sadly, that preference will cost him in accolades and many championships

[GSP]

Jokic gone

He should just spare everyone this nonsense and sign with Boston

[scrabbarista]

But seriously, I think we all want the same thing here: Jokic on a squad. If Connelly leaving and Jokic opting out and going somewhere like Dallas or Memphis or Minnesota is what it takes for that to happen, then who am I to condemn?

Unless you like the Nuggets and want Jokic to win in Denver.

I hear you. Jokic is my favorite player, though. I used to think people who followed a player instead of a team were super weird, but once the 2018 WCF confirmed for me once and for all that stuff really is rigged, I started to take the NBA a lot less seriously. Now I just want to be entertained, and Jokic is the most entertaining player in the league in my opinion, so I want to see him do well. Preferably in Denver, because why not, but I wouldn't trip if he wanted to go somewhere where winning was more likely. I'm the guy who said, "I woulda done the same thing" when Durant went to GSW, after all.

[The Rebel]

First they let Masai Ujiri go because they didn't want to pay him what he deserved now they are going to do the same with Tim Connely. Cheap ass owners. They still don't have a training facility. Yeah you can say they are going to be a lux tax team but they cheap out on everything else. Funny this coming after Jokic saying that the main reason that he will sign the max because he loves the management and organization. I wonder how he feels about it now. Denver better not make the same mistake again. **** cheap ass Stan Kroenke. This is perhaps the most important off season in recent history for the Nuggets and they going to let your leadership walk over money. If this happens the offseason will be in turmoil when it is the most important one to date.

Ujiri didn't leave because of money, he left because he wanted to be the guy in charge and not share the power with Josh Kroenke.

Connelly is POBO and got a big raise when he was talking to the Wizards 2 years ago, if he leaves now I doubt it is about money.

The fact of the matter is that Connelly is great at drafting, arguably the best in the league, but he has not been very good with free agent signings or with trades.

While the Aaron Gordon trade was okay, trading Beasley, Vanderbilt, and company for a late 1st was a terrible deal. I wouldn't call the Forbes deal a win either, we traded a better player and 2 2nds for McGee to sit on the bench a year ago, about the only other trade that Connelly has been involved in that we won was Grant for a 1st. When he finally got around to trading Faried, Chandler, and Arthur at least a year too late both trades were disasters.

He has also struggled with free agency, having JaMychael Green opt out and re-sign for more money was bad, then signing Jeff Green at the same time makes no sense. Hell he has always done crap that way, he signs marginal free agents while at the same time burying the young guys on the roster. That is not even getting into some of the contracts he has given to Nuggets young players that he has drafted.

Connelly is a good GM, but the world doesn't end if he is gone. Fact is our overall depth and talent has taken huge hits over the last 2 years. Some of it was money, but some of it was just bad decisions and stupid moves.

I wouldn't fire the guy, Hell I would consider giving him a small raise but it is not like the world ends when he leaves, and outside of this year's 1st we don't have pick at all next

[Statlanta]

Didn't the Bucks do this. Let Hammond go in the middle of rising to the top. The difference is that I feel the Timberwolves are alright right now and need a consistent hand(no GM change) over a new and better hand.

[AleksandarN]

First they let Masai Ujiri go because they didn't want to pay him what he deserved now they are going to do the same with Tim Connely. Cheap ass owners. They still don't have a training facility. Yeah you can say they are going to be a lux tax team but they cheap out on everything else. Funny this coming after Jokic saying that the main reason that he will sign the max because he loves the management and organization. I wonder how he feels about it now. Denver better not make the same mistake again. **** cheap ass Stan Kroenke. This is perhaps the most important off season in recent history for the Nuggets and they going to let your leadership walk over money. If this happens the offseason will be in turmoil when it is the most important one to date.

Ujiri didn't leave because of money, he left because he wanted to be the guy in charge and not share the power with Josh Kroenke.

Connelly is POBO and got a big raise when he was talking to the Wizards 2 years ago, if he leaves now I doubt it is about money.

The fact of the matter is that Connelly is great at drafting, arguably the best in the league, but he has not been very good with free agent signings or with trades.

While the Aaron Gordon trade was okay, trading Beasley, Vanderbilt, and company for a late 1st was a terrible deal. I wouldn't call the Forbes deal a win either, we traded a better player and 2 2nds for McGee to sit on the bench a year ago, about the only other trade that Connelly has been involved in that we won was Grant for a 1st. When he finally got around to trading Faried, Chandler, and Arthur at least a year too late both trades were disasters.

He has also struggled with free agency, having JaMychael Green opt out and re-sign for more money was bad, then signing Jeff Green at the same time makes no sense. Hell he has always done crap that way, he signs marginal free agents while at the same time burying the young guys on the roster. That is not even getting into some of the contracts he has given to Nuggets young players that he has drafted.

Connelly is a good GM, but the world doesn't end if he is gone. Fact is our overall depth and talent has taken huge hits over the last 2 years. Some of it was money, but some of it was just bad decisions and stupid moves.

I wouldn't fire the guy, Hell I would consider giving him a small raise but it is not like the world ends when he leaves, and outside of this year's 1st we don't have pick at all next

Where did you hear he got a big raise in 2018? By the reports I have seen Tim is still underpaid. Yes Tim has his flaws but he is still a top 5 executive in basketball. And yes Uriji got a hell of a pay raise when he left the Nuggets. Josh Kroenke Is notorious for penny pinching when it comes to other finances with the team. Why do you think the Nuggets don’t have a training facility? Uriji was under paid and so is Tim. Also glad you brought up the trade with the Twolves. That was due to money restraints and their ability at the time to resign those players. I thought it was going to be different when Josh said they will finally pay the luxury tax going forward. First time in like 10 years. Only to find out they are letting Tim let go because of cutting corners in other areas.

And going back to Uriji they had all year to resign him. They didn’t they were being cheap. They waited last minute to finally offer him a contract extension by that time the Raptors came in offered 3 million dollars. This had nothing to do with power. This about the Kroenkes not paying their front end staff. Same thing is going to happen with Tim

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/9330616/masai-ujiri-leaving-denver-nuggets-toronto-raptors

Denver has a history of paying its front-office architects below-market salaries, from Kiki Vandeweghe to Mark Warkentien and Ujiri, who was one of the league's lowest paid GMs with an annual salary south of $1 million. The Nuggets could look to Pete D'Allesandro, Ujiri's right-hand man in Denver, to take his boss' place, but he might also follow Ujiri to Toronto.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/raptors/2013/05/31/masai-ujiri-toronto-raptors-general-manager/2372457/

Also Uriji was making 500k a year as GM at the time and the Nuggets only offered 1.5 million extension. They low balled the executive of the year. The Raptors didn’t the rest is history.

[AleksandarN]

Btw just so we are clear here. Tim Connelly’s “big raise”. 2 million per year? I bet that is on the low end for executives in the nba. The Kroenke’s have never opened up their wallets for their front offices. It is a joke considering how much they throw money at the rams. They should sell the team if they are going to continue to handicap the team. Why haven’t they gotten a new training facility built yet? Why haven’t they gotten a tv deal with Comcast. Over half of Denver can’t watch their local teams on basic tv for crying out loud.

Connelly just got a two-year extension from Denver owner Stan Kroenke that will pay him, industry sources say, somewhere just north of $2 million per year through 2021.

[dc]

Didn't the Bucks do this. Let Hammond go in the middle of rising to the top. The difference is that I feel the Timberwolves are alright right now and need a consistent hand(no GM change) over a new and better hand.

I didn't closely follow the Bucks rise, but I remember Hammond just spent several years in a row drafting a bunch of tall, long armed guys and one of them just happened to be Giannis, and he was the only one of the bunch who amounted to anything. And you'd also have to credit him with the Middleton trade as well.

But when he went to Orlando and drafted Bamba, I figured that was right in line with what he'd always done.

[Sane]

Most NBA owners are among the richest people in the history of the world sitting on one of the most profitable and still fun assets in the world, yet they always act like they're about to be broke.

The teams need to be owned by the players and fans, there's no point having these owners. Players would all be willing to take reduced salaries if they also received ownership in the team's profits while they were there and collective decision making power.

[scrabbarista]

Most NBA owners are among the richest people in the history of the world sitting on one of the most profitable and still fun assets in the world, yet they always act like they're about to be broke.

The teams need to be owned by the players and fans, there's no point having these owners. Players would all be willing to take reduced salaries if they also received ownership in the team's profits while they were there and collective decision making power.

Sounds pretty communist.

[brettski]

Didn't the Bucks do this. Let Hammond go in the middle of rising to the top. The difference is that I feel the Timberwolves are alright right now and need a consistent hand(no GM change) over a new and better hand.

We sure did. But a few notes:
- Look at what Hammond has achieved in Orlando aka nothing so I don't think it was a bad move
- The new GM search was absolutely botched... too many people with an opinion and the person who got it wasn't even originally in the running

We got real lucky

[The Rebel]

First they let Masai Ujiri go because they didn't want to pay him what he deserved now they are going to do the same with Tim Connely. Cheap ass owners. They still don't have a training facility. Yeah you can say they are going to be a lux tax team but they cheap out on everything else. Funny this coming after Jokic saying that the main reason that he will sign the max because he loves the management and organization. I wonder how he feels about it now. Denver better not make the same mistake again. **** cheap ass Stan Kroenke. This is perhaps the most important off season in recent history for the Nuggets and they going to let your leadership walk over money. If this happens the offseason will be in turmoil when it is the most important one to date.

Ujiri didn't leave because of money, he left because he wanted to be the guy in charge and not share the power with Josh Kroenke.

Connelly is POBO and got a big raise when he was talking to the Wizards 2 years ago, if he leaves now I doubt it is about money.

The fact of the matter is that Connelly is great at drafting, arguably the best in the league, but he has not been very good with free agent signings or with trades.

While the Aaron Gordon trade was okay, trading Beasley, Vanderbilt, and company for a late 1st was a terrible deal. I wouldn't call the Forbes deal a win either, we traded a better player and 2 2nds for McGee to sit on the bench a year ago, about the only other trade that Connelly has been involved in that we won was Grant for a 1st. When he finally got around to trading Faried, Chandler, and Arthur at least a year too late both trades were disasters.

He has also struggled with free agency, having JaMychael Green opt out and re-sign for more money was bad, then signing Jeff Green at the same time makes no sense. Hell he has always done crap that way, he signs marginal free agents while at the same time burying the young guys on the roster. That is not even getting into some of the contracts he has given to Nuggets young players that he has drafted.

Connelly is a good GM, but the world doesn't end if he is gone. Fact is our overall depth and talent has taken huge hits over the last 2 years. Some of it was money, but some of it was just bad decisions and stupid moves.

I wouldn't fire the guy, Hell I would consider giving him a small raise but it is not like the world ends when he leaves, and outside of this year's 1st we don't have pick at all next

Where did you hear he got a big raise in 2018? By the reports I have seen Tim is still underpaid. Yes Tim has his flaws but he is still a top 5 executive in basketball. And yes Uriji got a hell of a pay raise when he left the Nuggets. Josh Kroenke Is notorious for penny pinching when it comes to other finances with the team. Why do you think the Nuggets don’t have a training facility? Uriji was under paid and so is Tim. Also glad you brought up the trade with the Twolves. That was due to money restraints and their ability at the time to resign those players. I thought it was going to be different when Josh said they will finally pay the luxury tax going forward. First time in like 10 years. Only to find out they are letting Tim let go because of cutting corners in other areas.

And going back to Uriji they had all year to resign him. They didn’t they were being cheap. They waited last minute to finally offer him a contract extension by that time the Raptors came in offered 3 million dollars. This had nothing to do with power. This about the Kroenkes not paying their front end staff. Same thing is going to happen with Tim

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/9330616/masai-ujiri-leaving-denver-nuggets-toronto-raptors

Denver has a history of paying its front-office architects below-market salaries, from Kiki Vandeweghe to Mark Warkentien and Ujiri, who was one of the league's lowest paid GMs with an annual salary south of $1 million. The Nuggets could look to Pete D'Allesandro, Ujiri's right-hand man in Denver, to take his boss' place, but he might also follow Ujiri to Toronto.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/raptors/2013/05/31/masai-ujiri-toronto-raptors-general-manager/2372457/

Also Uriji was making 500k a year as GM at the time and the Nuggets only offered 1.5 million extension. They low balled the executive of the year. The Raptors didn’t the rest is history.

No where did I say that the Kroenkes aren't cheap, but it was pretty widely reported they allowed Ujiri out of his deal because it was his dream job. The fact is he and Josh Kroenke were basically co-gms. They offered to give Ujiri a matching contract from the Raptors offer, but he wanted full control.

But fair or not, Josh Kroenke gets a lot of credit in Denver NBA circles as being heavily involved. To be direct to the real owner is impossible in Denver at this point, Josh is legally in charge but everybody knows Stan holds the purse strings and controls the TV deal.

The point is maybe we need a different voice in the front office at this point. You have not convinced me that he is the right answer just because the Minny owners have him as a top 5 front office guy, my point is simple. He took over that 57 win team, announced a down year, and next thing you know it was a 36 and then a 30 win team. When Gallo got hurt it was obvious that was mismanaged, but the fact is his big signing the year he joined the Nuggets was JJ HIckson, after multiple stops and showing he was a failure. He panicked and signed Randy Foye, after he was convinced Igoudala was coming back despite everybody knowing Igoudala was gone during the playoff series, but he made some major mistakes. He also waited way to long to trade the veterans after it became obvious that they did not want Faried, Gallo bailed, and Chandler became injury done.

There may not be a better NBA talent scout than Connelly, I would love to see someone argue otherwise, he is an amazing scout and not just for Jokic. FAct is though we have 1 pick in the next 2 years. Jokic is also entering his prime, we cannot afford to develop a bunch of young guys and compete for a championship. We have a lot of young talent that ended up injured but they need development time and have none because of Connelly's biggest issue with building a team.

Connelly gets attached to our guys, it is like he is close friends with most of them. Just about everybody he has traded, he traded months to years too late. 3 years ago we had a stacked team, Vanderbilt a guy who started on a playoff team couldn't get a minute of time here, Beasley was the 5th guard. By the time he traded them they had next to no value.

He has found a couple of young guys floating around the Gleague and overseas that we got as free agents like Dozier and Torrey Craig, but overall he has been terrible in free agency since the start. We signed JaMychael Green and Jeff Green on the same day, despite having NNaji, Bol, and Cancar who all play Power Forward, meanwhile we let McGee walk after giving up 2 2nd round picks for him and never signed a true backup Center until Cousins.

Connelly came to the Nuggets with 3 1st round picks in 2016, the KNicks pick, and the Knicks swap that became Murray. He did his job, he built a very talented young team, and then he has made 2 years of mistakes. Maybe the Nuggets wouldn't mind to get a guy who is better at knowing when to make trades and how to fill roster holes through Free Agency. They are different skill sets.

[MemphisX]

Jokic might do that eventually, but from his European culture, loyalty to the franchise is a big deal

He probably models himself more on a career like Dirk's on Duncan's..playing his whole career in Denver

sadly, that preference will cost him in accolades and many championships

This is some made up BS. There is no European culture of loyalty to the franchise. One look at European Football would show you that. Somehow people have confused loyalty with players staying with the organization that can pay them the most.

[SelfishPlayer]

Maybe the real genius is the guy hiring the GM's, and he'll just keep hiring brilliant guys after the last one leaves. Ever think of that?

Great post.

[queridiculo]

I'm more upset that Connelly turned down the Wizards job citing loyalty to the Nuggets only to join the.... Timberwolves three years later

[Raps in 4]

2023 off-season about to get a lot more interesting.