Josh Kroenke

Nuggets Notes: Kroenke, Jokic, Tenzer, Wallace, Holmes

June 24th, 2025 at 6:54pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Nuggets vice chairman Josh Kroenke said that Nikola Jokic will receive a contract extension offer this offseason, The Denver Post’s Bennett Durando tweets, though the superstar center could receive an even bigger deal by waiting another year.

“We’re definitely gonna offer it,” Kroenke said during a Tuesday press conference. “I’m not sure if he’s gonna accept it or not because we’re also gonna explain every financial parameter around him, signing now versus signing later.”

Jokic’s contract runs through 2026/27, with a player option for ’27/28. Jokic will become extension-eligible on July 8 and could sign for approximately $212MM at that time on a three-year extension that replaces his option — or he could wait until July 2026 and sign for four years and $293MM.

Here’s more from Kroenke’s presser, via Durando:

Kroenke made an ominous, perhaps inadvertent statement, regarding the Collective Bargaining Agreement and its implications. While discussing the second tax apron, Kroenke brought up a doomsday scenario in which Jokic could be traded. “There are rules around it that we needed to be very careful of with our injury history,” he said (Twitter link). “Wrong person gets injured, and very quickly you’re into a scenario that I never want to have to contemplate, and that’s trading No. 15 (Jokic).”
Regarding front office responsibilities, Kroenke indicated that Ben Tenzer, the new executive vice president of basketball operations, and former Timberwolves executive Jon Wallace, who was named executive vice president of player personnel, will share duties involving trades, free agents signings and contract negotiations. Kroenke will take a more hands-on role in the short run as the duo settles into their positions, then ease back and just check in with them every few days or on a weekly basis. (Twitter links)
According to Vinny Benedetto of the Denver Gazette (Twitter link), Tenzer said that forward/center DaRon Holmes II would participate in Summer League play. Holmes tore his Achilles in his Summer League debut last July after the Nuggets traded up to snag him with the No. 22 pick.

Ben Tenzer To Become Nuggets’ EVP Of Basketball Operations

June 23rd, 2025 at 8:21am CST by Arthur Hill

The Nuggets will name Ben Tenzer executive vice president of basketball operations and add Timberwolves executive Jon Wallace to their front office as executive vice president of player personnel, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). They will both report to vice chairman Josh Kroenke, Charania adds.

Tenzer has been serving as interim general manager since the team made the surprising decision to fire former GM Calvin Booth and head coach Michael Malone in the final week of the regular season. Tenzer joined the organization in 2012 and was promoted to vice president of basketball operations in 2023.

Wallace formerly worked for the Nuggets, joining the team in 2019 as a basketball operations associate and working his way up to scouting coordinator. He left for Minnesota in 2022 to become director of player personnel and general manager of the team’s G League affiliate, the Iowa Wolves. Wallace played college basketball at Georgetown and spent three years as an assistant on Patrick Ewing‘s staff with the Hoyas.

The Nuggets’ restructuring of their front office is now complete with the draft looming on Wednesday and Thursday, and free agency set to start next Monday.

Nuggets Face Important General Manager Decision

May 23rd, 2025 at 5:14pm CST by Eli Cohen

After firing Calvin Booth a week before the end of the 2024/25 season, the Nuggets are heading into an important offseason without a general manager. Whoever steps in to fill that role will be tasked with building out a roster around star Nikola Jokic, despite not currently owning a pick in the 2025 draft and facing a financial situation that could force changes to the starting lineup.

Based on vice chairman Josh Kroenke‘s track record, interim GM Ben Tenzer should be considered to hold pole position in the search, writes Bennett Durando of The Denver Post. Tenzer has served as the GM of the Grand Rapids Gold, Denver’s G League affiliate squad, for the past two years and has been with the organization since 2005.

Durando writes that current assistant GM Tommy Balcetis could also be a candidate if the team hires from within, though Kroenke has publicly stated there’s no guarantee that’s the direction he will take.

“I would be naive 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,” Kroenke said, per Durando.

Minnesota’s GM Matt Lloyd has been one name circulated in recent weeks, Durando reports. The Timberwolves have seen success while being aggressive on the trade market, including trading into the lottery last summer to select point guard Rob Dillingham. With the Nuggets experiencing a talent drain over the past few seasons, a willingness to take big swings could be viewed as a positive attribute by the team’s top decision-makers.

In addition to candidates currently employed by other teams, such as the Heat’s Andy Elisburg and Trent Redden of the Clippers, Durando notes that there are several high-profile names who might be available.

Bob Myers has been working as an ESPN analyst since leaving his position with the Warriors two years ago, and it’s worth wondering if he would be open to returning to basketball operations. It has been previously reported that league-wide belief is that it would take a “significant” offer and the perfect fit to lure him out of retirement.

David Griffin, Landry Fields, and Monte McNair were let go by the Pelicans, Hawks, and Kings, respectively, last month. Griffin struggled to put together a winning team against the backdrop of New Orleans’ constant stream of injuries, but showed himself to be a high-level drafter. Fields wasn’t able to get the Hawks out of the rut of roughly .500 ball they’ve been in for the past five seasons, but he did manage to put a coherent team vision around Trae Young, with a legion of lengthy, defensive-minded wings who can shoot threes and switch on defense.

Perhaps the most intriguing name floated by Durando is a familiar one to Denver: Tim Connelly. The former Nuggets president of basketball operations left Denver to build the back-to-back conference finalist Wolves, but he has an opt-out in his contract this summer. The expectation is that he will work out a deal with new ownership.

Even if Connelly is available, a reunion seems unlikely, Durando notes, given the Nuggets’ hesitancy to come close to Minnesota’s contract offer last time around. It would presumably take an even more lucrative bid this time to bring him back to Denver.

Nuggets’ Josh Kroenke Talks Depth, Adelman, Front Office, More

May 23rd, 2025 at 7:54am CST by Luke Adams

Following Denver’s elimination from the playoffs on Sunday, star center Nikola Jokic told reporters that the Nuggets “definitely need to figure out a way to get more depth” this offseason. Jokic pointed to Indiana, Oklahoma City, and Minnesota as examples of teams who have benefited in the playoffs from strong benches, whereas the Nuggets leaned more heavily on their top six players for most of the postseason.

In an end-of-season media session on Thursday, Nuggets vice chairman Josh Kroenke said he agreed with his superstar’s assessment, per Bennett Durando of The Denver Post (Twitter link).

“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.

“… I heard Jokic’s comments loud and clear. I mean, I think that I was thinking that before those words came out of his mouth. Just in how the playoffs, if you’re watching the games, you can see yourself, as well as watching our games, you can see where we leaned on a lot of guys for a lot of minutes in big-time moments. And that has a cumulative effect that when you play in a seven-game series,that can wear you down.”

Although Kroenke referred to the draft and the trade market as two ways the Nuggets might look to supplement their core, Denver is currently the only team without any picks in the 2025 draft and isn’t exactly loaded with trade assets. The team’s proximity to the tax aprons also means it will be difficult to make upgrades via free agency.

As Kroenke pointed out, that means the front office will have to get creative in terms of adding talent, while the coaching staff will have to do all it can to develop the Nuggets’ young players who are still on team-friendly contracts.

“The rules don’t allow certain (cap) exceptions to exist anymore the same way they did previously, for you to go out and get a veteran player, kind of a plug-and-play bench-type player,” Kroenke said. “I think those opportunities do exist if you’re smart and can find value where others might not see it. But I also think that whether it’s Oklahoma City, you look at some of the guys on the Pacers’ roster, these guys have been developed over a period of years. They understand their roles, they understand their responsibilities, and they’re accountable to that. Those are the teams that I see having a lot of success. So there’s a lot of ways to improve it, and we’re gonna be looking at all of them.”

Here’s more from the Nuggets’ vice chairman:

As we detailed on Thursday, Kronenke confirmed that Denver will retain interim head coach David Adelman, giving him the job on a permanent basis. Management is hopeful that Adelman will be able to get more out of some of the younger players on the roster than former head coach Michael Malone did, which might reduce the need for the team to find answers on the trade market. “I think a lot of our answers are internal right now,” Kroenke said, according to Durando. “With where we are from a roster standpoint, we have guys locked into contracts. We’re going into a coaching transition. And to be frank, that’s a huge change. Huge change. … DA’s philosophy, how he might use these guys slightly differently, there’s gonna be a lot of big changes throughout our organization already.”
Interim general manager Ben Tenzer has “done an unbelievable job” since taking over for Calvin Booth last month, according to Kroenke, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Tenzer is a lock to be named the club’s full-time GM. “I’ve promoted (general managers) from within for several cycles now,” Kroenke said, per Durando. “Am I going to do that again? I’m not 100% sure. But I know we have some very capable people in this organization, and they’ve made me rethink a few things that I’ve already been thinking myself, which is great. I don’t want an organization where everyone agrees. I want everyone to challenge people, and then when the door opens and we move out, we’re all moving in unison.”
While the Nuggets’ decision to fire their head coach and general manager with less than a week left in the regular season created the perception of instability, Kroenke pushed back against that notion, as Durando tweets. “I think the real instability would be if I just hid behind the curtain and allowed the plane to continue to go where it was heading, and probably, I think that plane would have landed in the play-in (tournament) and probably gone right out then,” Kroenke said. When Adelman coached his first game on April 9, Denver was in a four-way tie for fourth in the Western Conference. The Nuggets won their last three regular season games to secure that No. 4 seed.

Nuggets Notes: Adelman, Kroenke, Braun, Jokic

April 17th, 2025 at 10:58pm CST by Earnest Marshall

Nuggets interim coach David Adelman is trying to drown out the noise with the playoffs approaching, Bennett Durando of The Denver Post writes. He’s not thinking of the playoffs as an audition for a full-time role.

“You’re going to think I’m lying, but I haven’t thought about that,” Adelman said. “This thing has happened so fast, and my No. 1 concern was getting this team, this group of people [into] the playoffs.”

Denver was able to stay afloat after firing Michael Malone late into the season — the team managed to hang onto a top-four seed when it was at risk of dropping to the play-in.

“I see this as: This franchise, this organization already has given me a chance right here,” Adelman said. “I owe them that.”

We have more from the Nuggets:

Vice chairman Josh Kroenke said he considered making the coaching and general manager changes around Thanksgiving, as opposed to this late in the year, per ESPN. However, he allowed the team some time to come together after an up-and-down start before ultimately reaching the same conclusion. Kroenke, who vowed to continue instilling energy into this iteration of the Nuggets, also made an interesting comment about the team’s approach to the trade market: “I’m not going to be green-lighting any trades around here when I don’t see complete organizational cohesion and we’re not maximizing the group we got.”
Christian Braun enjoyed a career year for the Nuggets and attributes much of his success to the help and pointers Nikola Jokic has given him over the years. “It’s all credit to Nikola,” Braun said. “He’ll grab you during the game, and he’ll tell you, ‘I want you here because they’re gonna do this.’ He’ll know three steps ahead. The credit doesn’t go to me.” Jokic has a history of elevating his teammates, The Athletic’s Fred Katz writes, with former Denver guard Bruce Brown and former Serbian national teammate Bogdan Bogdanovic among those who spoke to Katz about the three-time MVP’s impact.
The clock is ticking on the Nuggets to get an extension done with Jokic, Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report writes. Jokic’s contract runs through 2026/27, with a player option for ’27/28. Jokic will become extension-eligible on July 8 and could add upward of $149.4MM in new money on an extension over three years at that time — or he could wait until July 2026 and add $230.6MM in new money across four years. Pincus explores all possibilities and angles of an extension and digs into what it would mean for Denver if the star center doesn’t agree to a deal.

Nuggets Name Ben Tenzer Interim GM

April 14th, 2025 at 1:47pm CST by Luke Adams

Speaking today to reporters, Nuggets vice chairman Josh Kroenke announced that vice president of basketball operations Ben Tenzer has been named the team’s interim GM (Twitter link).

Tenzer was a minor league coordinator for the Nuggets from 2005-09 and a legal extern in 2012 before being formally hired by the organization in 2013 as its director of team operations.

He has since worked his way up the basketball operations department, serving this past season as the general manager of Denver’s G League team (the Grand Rapids Gold) in addition to holding the title of Nuggets VP of basketball operations. According to Bennett Durando of The Denver Post (Twitter link), Tenzer is considered a salary cap expert.

A report last week indicated that Kroenke himself would serve as the Nuggets’ president of basketball operations – assisted by Tenzer and assistant general manager Tommy Balcetis – until the club hires a permanent replacement for GM Calvin Booth.

It’s safe to assume that Kroenke will still be the one signing off on any roster moves or personnel decisions Denver makes, but it sounds as if Tenzer will handle the day-to-day GM duties for now. With no trades or free agent signings permitted during the postseason, the Nuggets shouldn’t face any real roster decisions until this summer.

A full-fledged search for Booth’s replacement will be conducted once the Nuggets’ season comes to an end, Durando confirms.

Here’s more on the Nuggets:

During Monday’s media session, Kroenke disputed a report which stated the Nuggets have been reluctant to trade Michael Porter Jr. due to his ties to the University of Missouri (which Porter and Kroenke both attended). According to Kroenke, the Nuggets are willing to trade anyone to improve their roster, as Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette relays (via Twitter).
Kroenke also pushed back on rumors that Russell Westbrook caused any problems in the Nuggets’ locker room, telling reporters that he “can’t say enough good things” about his experience with Westbrook and referring to the veteran guard as a “spicy ingredient” the team needed (Twitter links via Benedetto and Durando).
Jamal Murray, who had only played for Michael Malone since entering the NBA in 2016, spoke on Friday about the dismissal of the Nuggets’ longtime head coach, as Durando writes for The Denver Post. “I think he’s done a great job of also setting the example for the group behind us — not just us but for the group behind us,” Murray said. “He always preached a lot of sacrifice and playing for one another and stuff, but I thought Coach always showed a lot of humility in himself. Always taking control of the room. Always hating to lose. He was always setting the tone in that regard. So it sucks to kind of see him go like that, especially the way it happened this late (in the season). But we’re still gonna remain in contact and stuff like that.”
If interim head coach David Adelman leads the Nuggets to at least the second round of the playoffs, the team should give him the full-time job, contends Troy Renck of The Denver Post.

Nuggets Notes: Malone, Booth, Jokic

April 12th, 2025 at 8:34am CST by Earnest Marshall

Nuggets coaches and staffers felt compelled to choose sides amid in-season conflicts between Michael Malone and Calvin Booth, according to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon and Ramona Shelburne and previous reports. With the focus shifting away from maximizing Nikola Jokic‘s stellar season, team president Josh Kroenke made the shocking decision to part ways with both head coach and general manager.

“Everybody in the organization was miserable,” a team source said to ESPN. “That’s what Josh felt. It’s a bad vibe. You can’t operate like that. He felt that if he removed those two people, everybody could just focus on doing their job. Change needed to happen.”

Once the team started losing, it made it difficult for the relationships in the organization to remain intact, MacMahon and Shelburne write. As previously relayed, Malone and Booth’s views on the roster were different, with the former preferring to have maintained veterans from the championship-winning team like Bruce Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Booth, meanwhile, planned to develop young players like Jalen Pickett and Christian Braun around Jokic.

“If you’re one of Calvin’s guys, Malone doesn’t want to play you,” a team source said to ESPN.

As for Jokic’s future, he has given no indication he wants to be anywhere other than Denver. Before the season, he expressed a belief in what the Nuggets had. Everything Denver will do moving forward, per ESPN, is centered around Jokic and even a slight hesitation to sign an extension this offseason would be difficult for the organization.

“I think people in general, they always want more and more and more, but they don’t know what they have,” Jokic told ESPN. “I’m really happy we have one title — a lot of very good players don’t win.”

We have more from the Nuggets:

The Nuggets offered Booth a contract extension during the 2024 offseason, MacMahon and Shelburne confirm. When he didn’t accept, the two sides played out the season to this point.
Malone and Booth seldom engaged with each other outside of meetings with Kroenke, according to The Denver Post’s Bennett Durando. Kroenke ultimately didn’t want to play intermediary or pick a side.
On the court, Jokic is putting the finishing touches on an MVP-caliber season. On Friday, he became the third player in league history to officially average a triple-double for an entire season, Arnie Melendrez Stapleton of The Associated Press notes. The only other players to ever do so are Oscar Robertson and Jokic’s teammate Russell Westbrook. Entering the final game of the year, Jokic is averaging 29.8 points, 12.8 rebounds and 10.3 assists per contest. Even if he doesn’t register a single assist, the Nuggets star will finish the season at 10.1 APG.

Nikola Jokic Discusses Nuggets’ Coaching Change

April 10th, 2025 at 10:54pm CST by Earnest Marshall

The Nuggets made the stunning decision to part with head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth earlier this week. Before the news broke, Denver did indeed inform its superstar Nikola Jokic that Malone, with whom Jokic had spent his entire career with, would not be continuing with the franchise, according to ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk.

“I knew a little bit before everybody,” Jokic said. “And (team president and governor Josh Kroenke) told me, ‘We made a decision.’ So it was not a discussion. It was a decision, and he told me why. So I listened and I accept it.”

In the wake of the move, the Nuggets picked up a win over the Kings under interim coach David Adelman. According to The Denver Post’s Bennett Durando, the coaching staff tried to give players more flexibility to be communicative, including Jokic explaining plays and using the whiteboard during the team huddle.

“People say that we are vulnerable, but the beast is always the strongest or the most dangerous when they’re vulnerable,” Jokic said. “Maybe (Kroenke) woke up the beast. I mean, when someone wants to wake somebody up or change the energy, that’s probably what they do. In my country, if somebody gets fired … probably you’re the next (to go). So I think it definitely changed something, and they got the reaction that they wanted, probably.”

Jokic added that the change simply reflected the nature of the NBA and that the Nuggets needed to process the move quickly with the playoffs looming. Still, the three-time MVP developed a close relationship with Malone and made sure to reach out and check on him afterward.

“It was a 10-year relationship,” Jokic said. “So it was just, it was a heavy day for everybody. Especially for him and his family.“

Josh Kroenke Serving As Nuggets’ Interim President Of Basketball Ops

April 10th, 2025 at 11:51am CST by Luke Adams

Nuggets vice chairman Josh Kroenke will serve as the team’s interim president of basketball operations for the rest of this season following Tuesday’s dismissal of general manager Calvin Booth, reports NBA insider Chris Haynes (Twitter link).

According to Haynes, Kroenke will be assisted in that role by vice president of basketball operations Ben Tenzer and assistant general manager Tommy Balcetis.

A “thorough” search for a new head of basketball operations is expected to take place once Denver’s season ends, Haynes adds.

Assuming the Nuggets name a new GM/president this spring fairly early in their offeason, Kroenke likely won’t make many basketball decisions in his new, temporary role. Denver has 15 players on standard contracts and none of the team’s three two-way players look like strong candidates for a promotion in the season’s final days, so the team likely won’t be making any roster moves until the summer.

It’s unclear whether Tenzer and/or Balcetis will be serious candidates to become the Nuggets’ new head of basketball operations or whether the club will target an executive from outside of the organization. It will also be interesting to see what the timeline of that search looks like, since it would make sense for Booth’s replacement to have a hand in the hiring of a new head coach.

After firing Booth and head coach Michael Malone, Kroenke figures to be heavily involved in both the GM and coaching searches.

Latest On Nuggets’ Dismissals Of Calvin Booth, Michael Malone

April 10th, 2025 at 9:45am CST by Dana Gauruder

Team officials and players had grown weary of the disconnect between Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth and head coach Michael Malone. That, plus a desire to audition top assistant David Adelman for the head coaching job, led to the dismissals of both Booth and Malone, The Athletic’s Sam Amick and Tony Jones report.

Booth wanted to fire Malone as the team struggled down the stretch but knew he no longer had the power to make that bold move because of his contract situation. In the last year of his deal after failing to sign extension with ownership, Booth figured he would have to wait until after the playoffs to dismiss Malone, depending upon how the team performed.

Instead, owner Stan Kroenke and team president Josh Kroenke chose to part with both of them. The Kroenkes had made previous efforts to repair the relationship between Booth and Malone to no avail and ultimately decided to get rid of the negativity that was affecting the team. The team’s most important players, including Nikola Jokic, had grown frustrated and weary by Malone’s fiery approach.

Having replaced Malone shortly before the regular season ended, Adelman will have a chance to show whether he should have the interim tag removed after the postseason. Adelman has the support of the team’s regulars due to his steady and calm demeanor.

The ownership group is also aware that Adelman, whose contract is expiring, could have other head coaching opportunities. The Trail Blazers are likely to pursue him if they decide to fire Chauncey Billups, league sources tell Amick and Jones.

Here’s more from The Athletic’s in-depth reporting:

It’s expected that the Kroenkes will mull a possible reunion with Tim Connelly, the former Nuggets GM who took over as the Timberwolves’ top exec in May 2022. Connelly has an opt-out in his contract for this summer. However, it’s believed that the Timberwolves’ new owners, Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore, will try to retain him. If the Nuggets can’t pry away Connelly, they could instead make a run at Minnesota GM Matt Lloyd.
Malone had more input on personnel decisions when Connelly ran the show. Once Booth took over, Malone had much less influence and that irked the head coach. Booth had considered firing Malone prior to the team’s 2023 championship run.
Booth had extensive discussions with the Kroenkes heading into the season but chose not to sign what he believed was a below-market offer. However, Booth believed that an extension was a mere formality. The Kroenkes pulled their offer when the club got off to a mediocre start.
As previously reported, Booth wanted Malone to give more minutes to the younger guys that he drafted, particularly Jalen Pickett and Peyton Watson. After the team was eliminated by Minnesota last season, Booth thought Malone should have expanded the rotation during the regular season to keep the top players fresher, while Malone thought Booth should have given him a more well-rounded roster.
Booth’s offseason decisions to give Zeke Nnaji a four-year contract and sign Dario Saric further strained the relationship. Malone hasn’t used either player in the rotation in recent months. Malone’s decision to stick with Russell Westbrook, another offseason pickup, over Pickett also caused considerable friction.
Westbrook’s future with the organization, even if he picks up his $3.4MM option, is uncertain. Adelman was quicker to sub out Westbrook for Pickett during the team’s win over the Kings on Wednesday. Jamal Murray is expected to return from his hamstring injury on Friday.

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