First Exclusive Interview with Ben Tenzer and Jonathan Wallace | 6/25/25

First Exclusive Interview with Ben Tenzer and Jonathan Wallace | 6/25/25

fellas congratulations man Thank you Congratulations I mean I I look at Ben and I say “Every intern here in KC can someday run the organization.” What a dream come true for you personally Absolutely I mean it’s I said it earlier when I got the internship here I I actually felt like I won the lottery And just to keep furthering um it’s surreal and it’s it it feels very special How well did you know John when he spent some time here Very well We were very good friends I I told someone out there that if I could pick anyone in the world to do this with he would be hands down the the the choice So it was very amazing to hear that you get to run an NBA team with one of your best friends John is he just saying that to make you feel good when you guys play that close No we really were really from day one when uh when I came here and it was interesting because that was when CO hit was when I was hired So you know Ben was one of the first guys to reach out make sure I got acclimated to the city well and kind of looked out for me in the office and just kind of taught me the ropes When you were here what did you do for all Nuggets fans who missed your stint here Because you left back to Minnesota with Tim pretty quickly What did you do while you were here So it was interesting Tim uh was a very uh inclusive leader And so when I got here you know there was a job description hey this is what’s expected of you And I always laugh and joke cuz I said to this day I have not done anything on that He literally said hey look man you have to learn on the fly And he threw me directly into the fire And I did literally some of everything And I’m thankful for that because it pairs right along with Ben’s story of coming in you know intern levels like you know and have done every single job to get to this point So it should make you you know well very first and easier to lead So Ben what job besides playing have you not fulfilled here I mean you’ve done it all Yeah I actually think I kind of have done it all in the sense of um being the G-League GM the last two years So kind of seeing that hat and and how that that works um the the legal side the cap side immigration um league operations stuff Um I got a nice experience as the interim GM during the playoffs dealing with like referee stuff and things that I like what are you going to deal with referees Well you’re just um Yeah it’s like if you don’t like a call you can kind of call and ask for an explanation and you know you send in clips and different things like that I went to the GM meeting at the combine which was a new thing Pretty cool to do that Um and so yeah I feel like I like John said as an intern you you’ve done it all and then you just keep growing and understanding how to manage those positions better because you were in that position and you know what it feels like when your boss says this So now you can kind of help lead with that perspective I think it’s really helpful I just thought of something You You were GM of the Nuggets GLeague You were GM of the Wolves You guys must have been arch rivals Couple big trades negotiations Two We had two trades actually So what trades did you go through on on the uh G- League side Uh Lance Stevenson Yeah Black guys know that name And then Walter Ellis Gotcha Oh yeah Lefonso’s son Exactly Lonso Two trades Yeah So what was it like working against each other in that capacity I mean the respect was always there Obviously you know you try to get what you need and differences for your team but I mean it was a breeze Shot me straight I shot him straight and we took care of each other John the question is going to come up because you you’re not a guy who’s been around 40 years like some dudes right Do you have the necessary contacts in the league to get stuff done Yeah I think uh just from my playing career and playing in so both domestically internationally coming across so many different people and personalities being around the game as a son of a coach and then playing for high level coaches you you you learn what the game is about but you’re also not so rigid to understand that hey the game is progressing and you have to meet people on a human element And I think that’s the value that I intend to bring to this group and to the team Ben a lot of Nuggets fans are wondering what will your job be versus what will his job be Can you quantify that Yeah I think kind of the way Josh said it in our press conference to I look at it like it’s a true partnership and we’ll both run the whole team together and um you know we’re very close friends strong colleagues and I think we’ll have a really good collaboration um with all aspects and that includes working with coach Adam a lot obviously presenting our findings to Josh and ownership Um so yeah I think we’ll we’ll do all of it together Mhm Yeah Speaking of the collaboration a coach is the guy who’s on the court coaching How does that work then when David may come to you and say “Man I I need this this and this and that ain’t working out.” How do you guys work that out when he comes to you Hey look that is a conversation You got to have a tough conversation Um I think you you approach it with respect but you also approach it with direct uh a direct truth so to speak And so I mean you you weigh the options You kind of see what’s available You’re realistic with the coach Hey look this may be able to get done If not who can we put in this place that we already have in house and build them into some sort of solution Yeah I think it’s important to know that um coaches their jobs are not to know their options So they come to us and say “I have this issue What are my options?” And it’s up to us to figure out through talking to different other teams for trades or maybe it’s a free agent It’s our job to bring him options and then together we can make a group decision on that stuff So if I asked you this during the press conference if you guys disagree on one fundamental player or one fundamental item how do you break that tie Run it through the ringer I mean I think a large part of the position that we’re in is knowing how to staff And so bringing in individuals have senior perspective that may be considered under us by title but not in terms of knowledge and just running that through the ringer and trying to see hey what makes sense on the granular level And then at the end of the day you know Josh has to make that call but we want to take to him whatever situation it may be with all the opportunities with all the aspects of it to make that final decision And there and there’s inherent risk with all these decisions So I think it’s important to just frame it the right way with these are important strengths these are important weaknesses and you know you come come to a decision based on your your risk tolerance in in a lot of ways too M So when you’re a junior at the University of Colorado and you decided I’m going to go get an internship with the Nuggets Why I love basketball I actually worked at the Vegas Summer League the prior year as an intern and I I the Nuggets were there and I just I I watched you know a lot of things that summer and worked in a lot of different capacities and um felt very lucky to be able to have the opportunity to get an internship I didn’t know what it would entail I just wanted to be around and and I actually told Kiki Vanway was the GM at the time and I told him that I wanted to be here more than all my classes and I remember him saying well don’t flunk out of school but you know you can be here a lot and learn So that’s what I did Well you got a basketball education that’s pretty darn sure So why law school then after spending a couple seasons here I thought it was my dad went to law school and and was a talent agent and he always explained to me the the value of law school even if you’re not going to be a lawyer because you can help it helps you think through issues differently um and separate issues and um so I thought that was important to do that Uh after going to law school after one semester I realized how much I miss basketball I got an internship at a at a sports agency that summer I stayed working at Vegas summer league and uh stayed connected as much as I could A year after I left for law school Missu Jerry was hired as the GM who was a mentor of mine So he he had me come back and do an extership here during law school And when he would be in LA and the team would come I would see them And so I was able to get lucky with him allowing me to come back and be a part of it just just one year after leaving John when you played at Georgetown obviously you’re a point guard A lot of great point guards go on to basketball coaching Why why front office over coaching So ironically I did coach first Uh came back after my playing career Um and coach at Georgetown underneath JT3 for one year John Thompson third and then uh two years underneath Patrick Euan And so a drast you know approach and kind of terminologies but I learned a wealth of knowledge through that And I think getting to know those players and having some influ influence in recruiting I felt it was a it was easy to make more of an impact from the front office side Um just from a player standpoint I was always an orchestrator and always had to kind of learn how to talk to certain players in different spaces and times of the game so that get the best out of them And I felt being on the front office side I had more of an impact overall with that When I was researching Jean’s background a little bit Ben you might appreciate this I noticed that you were once a a model for Lululemon I’m wearing my Lululemon slacks and I have many pairs So uh you’ve inspired me to go deep into my How’d you get that job Hey look basketball opens up an array of doors That’s all I can say You know it was cool experience Won’t be doing that again You You just showed up to work and said “I’m going to wear your clothes and get paid.” Did you get paid good for it or what No Well they gave me some some clothes That’s about it But it wasn’t anything financial Got to ask for the discount code you know Have you ever modeled anything yourself I have I have not I’ve not modeled I wish maybe I wish I did He mentioned how the West is young and depth reigns supreme You know it used to be the model in the NBA You get two or three stars you’re going to contend for championship Now you got to have more You got to have depth Yeah How do you gain depth Um you’ve looked at this roster You’ve looked at the payroll situation It ain’t going to be easy Have you have you gone through that in your head yet We have When we had conversations at length about that I think again one of the main things is that we have a core group of guys who know what to do And then with our young guys you have a lot of different guys who have talent levels but you have to almost kind of go back to the drawing board and say “All right how can we develop in-house How can we raise the level of you know our eight nine 10 guys and bring them up to the level of starters?” And I think through that you know you can kind of manipulate whether it’s the flow or the you know the speed of the game so that you can rest and kind of negate that that depth to where you kind of control your uh I don’t know how your your offensive strategy your defensive effectiveness sir Is it fair to say then Ben if if you want more depth you have to be able to evaluate it They have to play Yeah Young guys have to play Absolutely I think that that’s obvious that you you know they need opportunities You need to see what they can do on the court even just summer league or going to the G-League you know you just they the only way to get better is to play games You know in the NBA now you don’t practice a lot There’s you know the travel’s crazy a lot of games Um so I think to really develop you need you need to play games Okay Now that you’re here and no longer working for Tim in Minnesota can you reveal the secret to how the T- Wolves have beaten the Nuggets now six straight times Hey look the ball just didn’t bounce that way some night You know Tim Tim’s a firm believer that hey look you can do everything you can in the world but sometimes luck finds it finds its way in And you know sometimes that happen How about from your side of things Um yeah I mean I think that I’ll lean on him for all the secrets to their to their sauce Uh but yeah I mean I we feel really comfortable in our group and and we’ll we’ll get them Does it guys when you look at the Northwest Division this is the toughest division of basketball You got you guys you got now the reigning champs and you got Minnesota that’s knocking on the door I mean you got competition like no other division How challenging How daunting is that John It’s challenging but it’s exciting I mean those both those both of those teams hang their hats on defense and they’ve done that by pressing up the floor getting younger and a little bit more dynamic out front and we just got to find ways to counteract that You know I think Nicole is I know think I know Nicole is highly intelligent in terms of IQ wise So he’ll figure that out from his standpoint But you know you you get a all-star caliber guard and Jamal Murray when he’s coming in firing all cylinders Uh you look at the growth that CB has had you know you look at the shooting that Michael Porter’s had Um you know AG when those guys are healthy you have the pieces to compete And I think we also have the IQ to turn the corner and get those wins I think you also look at you know the group and what they did in the playoffs and kind of a unique situation and everyone felt really proud of of how hard they fought and how how hard they they went So feel like that’s a a really good foundation moving forward Ben can you explain Nuggets fans are asking what what are the Nuggets going to do during the draft You don’t have draft picks so what do you do during those hours We’re staying locked in we’re we have our targets and we’ll be aggressive trying to trying to get those guys and and getting picks you know because we learn from from you know Tim and and Calvin and you know all the people we learn from you know are always aggressive in the draft and so we’ll we’ll lock in on you know every pick and see where it goes and um you know we’ll see we’ll see what happens Would you classify you I’m I’m gonna ask you first Sure Are you more conservative or are you more of a risk taker in life and decisions In personal life a little more conservative Okay In other areas of life more of a risk taker How about you Ben I’d say probably more conservative I think that the lawyer comes out of me the the the liability side the the risk Uh I’d say probably more conservative in general When a GM from another team makes a call who will he call Depends on whose number he has How does that work I think either one you know it’s we’re going to be very it’ll be very healthy in terms of communication Um so we don’t really see any issues with terms of who who to call Um I think we both know most of the GMs at the league at this point and and we’ll just continue those relationships and you know it won’t matter who they call We’ll be connected all the time So it’s feasible during the draft a GM may call with an idea I mean who knows what they want to do and the the Nuggets could be active participants Yeah I mean we already have been even before he started but since he started you know we’ve just been even more aggressive you know kind of bring him up to speed So yeah there’ll be a lot of stuff going on I don’t want to you know promise anything but um we’re always going to be aggressive and there’s plenty of opportunity and plenty of different places in the draft You guys filled your summer league roster yet Are you close to filling it Yeah it’s pretty close We have a a probably five six guys that we feel good about coming Um some of it depends on the draft and how things fall Uh so we’ll probably finalize it after the draft Um but but we we have a good foundation so far So you guys both G-League experience Explain the difference Like Trey Alexander was G-League newcomer of the year Correct Year The difference between making that leap from GLeague to being a bonafide NBA player How tough is it It’s hard It’s hard because it’s it’s almost like when you win a championship two years ago you know now having a repeat you go to have to make that 2% better that 5% That’s the hardest part And so I think with him and specifically to your answer your question what you did in Agility is not always conducive to getting on the court up here and you may have to sacrifice some areas of your game but you can’t let all areas become dumb dumb dullled down uh in a sense to where you can’t perform in split-second situations Um we think he’s a good talent We think he’s u you know has he plays the right way and makes sense in our system but through summer league and other opportunities to Ben’s point early experience is the best teacher So he’s got to keep playing Last question You’re working with the gentleman Josh Kroni who played college basketball who lives the game leads the game understands the game It’s a different dynamic than most ownership groups right Because the guy that’s running this organization Stan is a huge basketball fan His son again you’re talking to people that know the game as well as anybody How different is that from most teams I’ll let him speak first because I’ve only been here I guess it’s it’s a little different I mean obviously but I think it’s also refreshing because you can have candid conversations and you don’t have to worry about hey stepping on any toes like you get the subtle nuances of the game and again to you know we keep talking about the margins we keep talking about how young the game has gotten I mean in the NIL era of players coming in it’s a different outlook upon what they’re expected and what their expectations are for the team And so you know you got to be creative but you had to have enough foundation of a knowledge in order to know tweak those those spots I think it’s a huge benefit because Josh is really knowledgeable and smart about everything related to the team the cap and he knows a bunch of rules with the apron and um so to have him as as someone we can just listen to and talk to through ideas is is very helpful I was over I was able to go to London with Josh and visit Arsenal and he was just as locked into Arsenal and it kind of blew blew me away because I knew he was a basketball guy and he he you know when I was younger I he worked in our office and kind of started here Um but it’s obvious how much he’s grown because he can adapt to that understanding with other teams that he doesn’t know the sport as well And seeing him in Arsenal was it blew my mind how locked in he was too All right John Let’s see how well you you like Ben here One pingpong match for the future of the free world Ben Tanzer versus Nicole Jac [Laughter] This is going to get to Joker That’s going to get to Nicole Yoki gentlemen Congratulations Appreciate it Appreciate it man

Hear from Ben Tenzer the Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations and Jonathan Wallace the Executive Vice President of Player Personnel in their first exclusive sit down interview with Vic Lombardi.

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First Exclusive Interview with Ben Tenzer and Jonathan Wallace | 6/25/25