Josh Kroenke didn’t need much time to decide to promote the Nuggets’ next head coach from within.

Denver’s team president isn’t operating at the same pace when it comes to the franchise’s next lead executive.

“The front office stuff, I want to take my time a little bit more,” Kroenke said after naming David Adelman the next head coach during a press conference on Thursday. “(Interim general manager) Ben Tenzer has done an unbelievable job over the last six weeks, getting things reorganized … along with the rest of our staff.”

How David Adelman’s earned Denver Nuggets coaching job after short interim stint

Tenzer and Tommy Balcetis are the top two internal candidates. Denver’s last two general managers, Tim Connelly and Calvin Booth, were promoted from within the organization. Tenzer joined the Nuggets as a director of team operations back in 2013. He spent last season balancing roles as general manager of the Grand Rapids Gold, the Nuggets’ G League affiliate, and the Nuggets’ vice president of basketball operations. Balcetis joined the franchise around the same time at Tenzer and advanced from Denver’s analytics department to the team’s assistant general manager.

“These guys have seen the ups and downs through thick and thin over the last 10-plus years,” Kroenke said. “Then, I’m also going to be soliciting some outside opinions. There’s going to be an extensive process from a front-office standpoint.”

Ex-Nuggets coach Michael Malone refers to Oklahoma City’s as ‘the best fans in the NBA’

The next general manager or president of basketball operations walks into a tricky job. Whoever it is won’t be able to pick their own head coach, and the Nuggets have 11 players under contract for next season and could be down to two open roster spots if Dario Saric and Russell Westbrook opt into their player options. The options are limited, and the expectations are high.

“When you have the roster that we have, anything outside of a championship is not acceptable,” Kroenke said.

Your daily report on everything sports in Colorado – covering the Denver Broncos, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, and columns from Woody Paige and Paul Klee.

Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

“We’re going to get to work on addressing the issues that we think that we’re facing as a squad, as a team, as an organization. I think that some of those, the issues that we’re facing, need to be examined very, very carefully (and) thought through very, very extensively.”

How the Denver Nuggets’ roster situation stands heading into important offeseaon

Booth’s successor also walks into a complicated financial situation with Nikola Jokic ($55.2 million), Jamal Murray ($46.4 million), Michael Porter Jr. ($38.3 million) and Aaron Gordon ($22.8 million) set to make more than $162 million next season. The Nuggets will almost certainly operate in the first apron of the collective bargaining agreement and could struggle to meaningfully add to the roster without approaching the more punitive second apron. The Nuggets enter the offseason without a pick in this year’s draft.

“There’s an urgency to improve the team and the organization everywhere whether that’s via trade, via draft,” Kroenke said. “Right now, I think that having a cohesive organization from coaching staff to front office is our main goal.”

Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wins NBA MVP over Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic

Trading a player like Porter or Murray to address Denver’s lack of depth is one option. Another is keeping a core that took a historically good Oklahoma City squad to seven games together, making smaller moves on the margin and betting on young players continuing to develop. Finding the person with the right approach is going to take some time.

“There are a lot of different traits that go into different general managers, presidents of basketball,” Kroenke said.

“I’ve promoted from within for several cycles now. Am I going to do that again? I’m not 100% sure, but I know we have some very capable people in this organization. … I would be naïve if I didn’t think about soliciting opinions outside these walls whether that’s from some of my own basketball contacts or hiring a firm that perhaps might be able to give me a list of some of the brightest, upcoming minds in the league. I’ve got a lot of great relationships around basketball. I’m going to be leaning on them heavily. I’ve already had a lot of people reaching out.”