{"id":51570,"date":"2025-05-23T10:09:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T10:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/51570\/"},"modified":"2025-05-23T10:09:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T10:09:12","slug":"does-josh-kroenke-want-to-run-it-back-with-current-nuggets-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/51570\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Josh Kroenke want to run it back with current Nuggets roster?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nuggets have their next coach<\/a>, but they still need a new architect for a roster that\u2019s already built by cement.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t expect them to hire a general manager today or tomorrow.<\/p>\n

At least, that was the indication team president and governor Josh Kroenke gave while speaking with reporters on Thursday afternoon following the announcement of interim coach David Adelman\u2019s<\/a> promotion to the full-time job.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the front office stuff, I want to take my time a little bit more,\u201d Kroenke said.<\/p>\n

Essentially, while one search came to a quick conclusion, the other remains in its infant stages. Might Kroenke double-dip on internal hires?<\/p>\n

\u201cBen Tenzer has done an unbelievable job over the last six weeks, getting things reorganized,\u201d he said, lauding his interim GM. \u201cBen\u2019s been with us a very long time. I want to solicit his opinion. (Assistant general manager) Tommy Balcetis is in our front office. I want to solicit his opinion. Because these guys have seen the ups and downs through thick and thin over the last 10-plus years. And then I\u2019m also gonna be soliciting some outside opinion. So there\u2019s gonna be an extensive process.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was just one of numerous topics addressed by Kroenke at the Nuggets\u2019 end-of-season news conference that ran for approximately 25 minutes. Here are three takeaways from his session with reporters:<\/p>\n

\u2018Brightest upcoming minds\u2019 for GM<\/p>\n

Kroenke said: \u201cI\u2019ve promoted (general managers) from within for several cycles now. Am I going to do that again? I\u2019m not 100% sure. But I know we have some very capable people in this organization, and they\u2019ve made me rethink a few things that I\u2019ve already been thinking myself, which is great. I don\u2019t want an organization where everyone agrees. I want everyone to challenge people, and then when the door opens and we move out, we\u2019re all moving in unison. \u2026 I would be naive if I didn\u2019t think about soliciting opinions outside these walls, whether that\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Translation: Even if the Nuggets end up hiring from within, they\u2019re clearly planning to consider other candidates in a more deliberate process. Either way, it seems unlikely that Denver\u2019s next general manager will be a grizzled veteran executive. Kroenke\u2019s use of the phrase \u201cbrightest upcoming minds\u201d was notable.<\/p>\n

The risk with hiring a candidate like Tenzer or Balcetis: perpetuation of insular thinking. The risk with an unfamiliar newcomer: no guarantee of philosophical alignment between the GM and a coach who was already hired. The Nuggets should be pretty sensitive to that<\/a> dynamic.<\/p>\n

Trades? Maybe not<\/p>\n

Kroenke said:\u00a0\u201cI think a lot of our answers are internal right now. With where we are from a roster standpoint, we have guys locked into contracts. We\u2019re going into a coaching transition. And to be frank, that\u2019s a huge change. Huge change. \u2026 DA\u2019s philosophy, how he might use these guys slightly differently, there\u2019s gonna be a lot of big changes throughout our organization already.\u201d<\/p>\n

Translation: Run it back? This was perhaps the defining theme of Kroenke\u2019s news conference. When he was asked if he feels urgency to explore trading a high-salary player to fix Denver\u2019s problematic lack of depth, Kroenke instead referenced \u201ca lot of successful teams that have developed their benches.\u201d These answers sound like code for: Michael Malone didn\u2019t develop his bench enough to give Denver\u2019s depth a chance.<\/p>\n

In any case, the Nuggets clearly believe Adelman can get something out of this roster that Malone couldn\u2019t by the end of his regime. And considering the team\u2019s shortage of avenues to acquire new players, it sounds like Kroenke is placing the onus on Adelman to develop his young bench players into more viable options. The Nuggets fired Calvin Booth, but they haven\u2019t fired his idea yet. Or maybe they just feel stuck with the idea.<\/p>\n

What about Kroenke\u2019s role in basketball ops?<\/p>\n

Kroenke said: \u201cThe thing that was tough to deal with is: Should I have been more hands-on or more hands-off in the transition (from Tim Connelly to Calvin Booth) a couple years ago? Well, we won the championship the first year. We\u2019d never done that before. So I don\u2019t know what the right balance was then. I think, actually looking back on it, I should have been more hands-on in the wake of the championship. \u2026 I need to be more hands-on in the moments of transition, while also recognizing when I need to take a step back and allow people to do their jobs. It\u2019s a delicate balance, one that actually requires the art of just reading people. \u2026 I should\u2019ve recognized certain human elements that were going on that could affect the group later on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Translation: Perhaps it\u2019s a pang of regret over the guaranteed contracts that Denver kept giving its low draft picks after winning the championship \u2014 interpreted by Malone as acts of egotism and authoritarianism by Booth, snowballing into semi-wasted years for those players.<\/p>\n

Julian Strawther, Jalen Pickett, Hunter Tyson and DaRon Holmes II currently occupy four roster spots on the 2025-26 roster, but none of them have been consistent enough (or healthy enough) to make an everyday playoff rotation. Expect Kroenke to be pretty closely involved in Denver\u2019s upcoming roster decisions as the team (and its new GM) tries to navigate out of a tough spot. At the bare minimum, he seems anxious to avoid more fallout of clashing ideologies.<\/p>\n

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally Published: May 22, 2025 at 6:45 PM MDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nuggets have their next coach, but they still need a new architect for a roster that\u2019s already…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[7,4187,765,2288,250,301,187,3943,766,4091,1361,3787,763,165,4231,252,6,253,302,66,4713,3994],"class_list":{"0":"post-51570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-calvin-booth","10":"tag-colorado","11":"tag-daron-holmes","12":"tag-david-adelman","13":"tag-denver","14":"tag-denver-nuggets","15":"tag-denvernuggets","16":"tag-front-range","17":"tag-hunter-tyson","18":"tag-jalen-pickett","19":"tag-josh-kroenke","20":"tag-julian-strawther","21":"tag-latest-headlines","22":"tag-michael-malone","23":"tag-more-nuggets-news","24":"tag-nba","25":"tag-nikola-jokic","26":"tag-nuggets","27":"tag-sports","28":"tag-stan-kroenke","29":"tag-tim-connelly"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114556604518497694","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}