The Denver Nuggets are naming Ben Tenzer as the executive vice president of basketball operations and hiring Minnesota Timberwolves executive Jon Wallace as the franchise’s new executive vice president of player personnel, sources tell ESPN. Both will report to Josh Kroenke.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 23, 2025
It somehow took 76 days, but the Denver Nuggets finally have someone running their front office again.
On Monday, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the Nuggets would be hiring … two separate executive vice presidents? OK, sure. One of them is Ben Tenzer, who will be in more of an overarching role and has served as Denver’s interim general manager over the last few months. The other is Jon Wallace, who was most recently an executive with the Minnesota Timberwolves after originally coming up with the Nuggets as a basketball operations associate a few years ago. He will now run Denver’s basketball operations all around.
As the Nuggets seemingly prepare to mostly run things back, aside from perhaps some additional depth pieces, the most pressing concern for Denver this offseason now turns to the biggest elephant in the room for the organization.
What will three-time MVP Nikola Jokić do with his upcoming contract decision later this summer?
On July 8, Jokić is eligible to sign a three-year, $212.5 million contract extension on top of his current deal, which has a player option in two seasons. Given that Jokić is 30, signing such an extension would effectively guarantee he spends the likely remaining years of his prime in a Nuggets uniform. Given how consistently excellent Jokić has been as the NBA’s best player, that would be music to the Nuggets’ ears. It would melt away what is easily their biggest underlying concern as a franchise, which involves Jokić’s happiness (or unhappiness?) with the team.
The expectation remains that Jokić will sign said deal, as ESPN’s Tim MacMahon and Ramona Shelburne reported back in early April. Which is fair to assume. As great as Jokić is, he has never been one to rock the boat. To this point, he has always operated as if it’s just his job to play while everyone else pulls strings behind the scenes with the big picture. That’s how he rolls.
But given where Jokić stands in his career, this looming contract decision might be his last genuine opportunity at using leverage with Nuggets leadership. If he’s unhappy about Denver’s current direction, which no one is even sure is the case, then this would be the time to decline signing on the dotted line and put some pressure on the Nuggets to make earnest changes. Make no mistake: if Jokić doesn’t sign this extension, alarm bells will be sounding off internally inside the Nuggets’ operations, regardless of whether they will ever admit it in public.
The next week or so might be a pivot point for Jokić’s feelings. Denver has the upcoming 2025 NBA Draft and the looming free agency period to try and find a path to augment its roster. If Jokić stays in line with his past behavior, it shouldn’t take much to sweeten the pot for him, as long as the Nuggets add some kind of quality depth.
But if they don’t do so, it would be foolish to assert Jokić is absolutely guaranteed to tie his future to Denver. Anyone who follows NBA superstars in these kinds of situations knows there is always a chance of a disaster, no matter how slim.