It better be a cleanser, not a Tenzer.
A franchise with peak Nikola Jokic deserves a Jokic-level general manager. ESPN analyst Bob Myers, who built a dynasty at Golden State. Miami’s Andy Elisburg. Monte McNair. David Griffin. Heck, even a Tim Connelly reunion would feel like a shot in the arm right about now.
Lord help Josh Kroenke if he’s kept Nuggets Nation waiting on the front porch for two straight months only to keep the GM job in-house.
No offense to interim GM Ben Tenzer, but this is getting a little ridiculous. The NBA draft is next Wednesday. Free agency begins three days after that. Teams can talk to upcoming free agents beginning at 4 p.m. on June 30. That’s a week from Monday.
Meanwhile, as of Tuesday afternoon, the 2023 NBA champions, stewards of the best basketball player on the planet, didn’t have a full-time president of basketball ops, full-time general manager or an assistant general manager in place. Fare thee well, Tommy Balcetis.
What are we doing? More to the point, what the heck are we waiting on?
“It is a little bit unusual,” former Nuggets GM and president Pete Babcock told me by phone Tuesday.
“The standard operating procedure is (to) have someone in place. If their job was to put the puzzle together and build the team, you want them to be in place before the draft, so they’d have a say as to how things are going to come down.
“It’s not that it it’s never happened before. But it’s not typical at all.”
Babcock spent four decades running or advising NBA front offices. His CV includes a six-year stint with the Doug Moe/Alex English/Fat Lever Nuggets from 1984-90, one of the franchise’s high-water marks before the George Karl and Nikola Jokic eras. These days, he’s an adjunct at Emory University in Atlanta.
“On the surface, I would say it’s a highly attractive job,” Babcock said of Denver’s GM vacancy. “Because, first and foremost, your chance of winning goes up dramatically when you have one of the best players in the world on your team. So anytime you can align yourself with a player like Jokic, that’s a really positive place to start. Not every team has a player of that level. That’s a great starting point.”
Darn straight. And we hear what you’re saying:
The Nuggets don’t have a pick in the 2025 draft. What’s the rush?
You do know teams can trade more than just picks during draft week, right?
In June 2022, the Nuggets got the wheels turning on a deal that sent Will Barton and Monte Morris to Washington for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Ish Smith. That worked.
Last June 21, the Thunder acquired Alex Caruso. That landed, too.
Hey, if it’s Matt Lloyd, Connelly’s right-hand man and the general manager with the Timberwolves, great. Let’s get this party started.
This team needs a bench. Jokic needs somebody else to try carrying a franchise on their backs for eight or nine minutes on a given night.
“If they say, ‘You can try to build around one of the best players in the world with constraints,’ or, ‘You can try to build a team without the best player in the world,’ I think you’d take the best player in the world,” Babcock said. “I don’t know that it changes the pressure at all. It’s just that you’d certainly rather start with that as your baseline and do what you can to complement Jokic and build around him.”
Babcock splits his time between Georgia and New England these days, yet the Mile High City still holds a fond place in his heart. He joined the Nuggets from the then-San Diego Clippers in ’84, elevating to president, general manager and minority owner. Babcock eventually sold his shares and joined the Hawks as GM in 1990, where he spent the next 13 seasons.
“In terms of cap space, there are very few teams that have a lot of cap flexibility in today’s world. Looking at this job as a perspective GM, I would say that’s not a huge negative,” Babcock said. “Because how many teams have a lot of flexibility with their salaries? That’s just not the way the market is today.
“I just think Jokic, the city, the facility, good ownership — those are the things I was looking for in a job, those are qualities I would look for: Quality of life in a city, star player and really strong ownership group.”
OK, ownership. Ball’s been in your court since April. The Pacers made a trade Tuesday. They’re in the middle of the NBA Finals. What, the Nuggets can’t multitask?
“I love watching the Nuggets play, just because of Jokic and his style of play,” Babcock gushed. “When they won the championship, I thought it was great for the league (because) they played, in my opinion, the right way … the whole game wasn’t a 3-point shooting contest … I was pulling for the Nuggets. I thought it was great for the city. I know how much the city supports its sports teams. I thought it was great for Denver.”
Babcock thinks the Nuggets can be great again. But just because you don’t have any picks doesn’t mean you get to abandon the litter until July.
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