{"id":1310534,"date":"2019-05-21T19:16:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T01:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/tim-connelly-is-eager-to-finish-what-he-started-with-nuggets\/"},"modified":"2019-05-21T19:16:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T01:16:00","slug":"tim-connelly-is-eager-to-finish-what-he-started-with-nuggets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/tim-connelly-is-eager-to-finish-what-he-started-with-nuggets\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim Connelly is eager to finish what he started with Nuggets"},"content":{"rendered":"
Denver Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly considers a question during a news conference Tuesday, May 21, 2019, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DENVER \u2014 The prospects of a return home to Washington were undeniably appealing to Tim Connelly.<\/p>\n

Not nearly as alluring as this: Finishing what he\u2019s started.<\/p>\n

The Denver Nuggets president of basketball operations elected to stay in town even with the Wizards calling. Things are booming these days with a Nuggets team that boasts a young nucleus led by big man Nikola Jokic and that won 54 games in the regular season. They were the No. 2 seed in the West before losing to Portland in Game 7 at home during the second round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

There was just too much work left to be done in Denver to consider taking Washington\u2019s front office job even if it would\u2019ve been with the organization where Connelly got his start and in the area where he and his wife are from.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s safe to assume, and maybe it\u2019s me being overly optimistic, that we\u2019re going to see a better version of us next year,\u201d Connelly said Tuesday. \u201cI don\u2019t know if that means more wins. I don\u2019t know if we\u2019re going to win a playoff series and advance, but I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any reason to think there will be any regression next season.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Baltimore native, Connelly appreciated the audience with Wizards owner Ted Leonsis. He said he was flattered by their recent \u201cexchange of ideas\u201d as the Wizards look to fill the role of team president after Ernie Grunfeld was fired in April.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe relationships that have been built up here and the hard times we\u2019ve been through \u2014 it was very hard to envision leaving something that has been so hard and so long coming in its build,\u201d said Connelly, who broke into the NBA with the Wizards as an intern in the basketball operations department, then as an assistant video coordinator and as a scout.<\/p>\n

Connelly was hired as Denver\u2019s general manager in July 2013 and it took a while for the team to take off. Team President Josh Kroenke stayed patient with him. Connelly brought in coach Michael Malone before the 2015-16 season and they\u2019ve steadily progressed since \u2014 from 33 wins in Malone\u2019s first year to 40 wins in \u201816-17 to 46 in \u201817-18 and finally to 54 this season, including a league-leading 34-7 home mark.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not get off to a good start by any stretch, and (Kroenke) doubled down on what easily could have been perceived as an initial mistake because he liked the processes and liked how we attacked our job day to day,\u201d said Connelly, who was promoted to president of basketball operations in 2017. \u201cLoyalty and patience is such a rarity in professional sports and that\u2019s here in spades. So those things matter to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connelly and his staff have struck it rich in the draft, taking Jokic with the 41st pick of the second round in 2014. They\u2019ve also selected Jamal Murray, along with up-and-comers Juancho Hernangomez, Malik Beasley and Michael Porter Jr., who sat out this season as he recovered from back surgery.<\/p>\n

The biggest offseason decision remains this: What to do with veteran leader Paul Millsap. The team holds a $30 million option, which could be restructured.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fully expect Paul to be back in a Nuggets uniform,\u201d Connelly said.<\/p>\n

On the free agency front, Denver hasn\u2019t exactly been an attractive landing spot in recent summers. But Connelly sees that starting to change and believes the unselfish play of Jokic could be an enticing selling point. Denver could be in the market for another shooter and a power forward in order to take the next step.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be fascinating to make those calls\u201d in free agency, Connelly said. \u201cIf they say it\u2019s about winning and the answer is about winning and they don\u2019t talk to us, then I think it\u2019s a disingenuous answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

NOTES: Malone said Jokic\u2019s race horse, Dream Catcher, recently won a race in Serbia. \u201cHe made sure I knew about it, because the last race he won I was at,\u201d Malone said. \u201cI thought I was a good-luck charm but obviously I\u2019m not.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denver Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly considers a question during a news conference Tuesday, May 21, 2019, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)AP | AP DENVER \u2014 The prospects of a return home to Washington were undeniably appealing to Tim Connelly. Not nearly as alluring as this: Finishing what he\u2019s started. The Denver Nuggets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1310534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 19:53:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1310534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1310534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1310534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1310534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}