DENVER ā The Denver Nuggets have settled on their head coach, but they are still working on figuring out the leader of their basketball operations department.
When Denver ousted coach Michael Malone, they did the same to general manager Calvin Booth. Where David Adleman got the opportunity to lead on the bench and proved to keep it, Ben Tenzer was named the interim GM.
Tenzer has been with the Nuggets since 2005. First, Tenzer worked as a minor league coordinator for the Nuggets from 2005-09. Then he worked as a legal extern and then a legal analyst. He functioned as a cap guru and spent nearly a decade in the official role of director of basketball operations. In 2023, Tenzer was promoted to vice president of basketball operations. He had also served as the general manager of Denverās G League team, the Grand Rapids Gold.
Ben Tenzer has done an unbelievable job over the last six weeks getting things reorganized to a place, along with the rest of our staff. Ben has been with us for a very long time. I want to solicit his opinion, Nuggets owner Josh Kroenke said on Thursday. 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 Iām also going to be soliciting some outside opinion, so thereās going to be an extensive process um from a front office standpoint but a lot of our roster is locked in from a contractual standpoint um right now we donāt have a pick in the draft but weāre going to be very active in exploring how we can improve around that as well as free agency so itās all systems go.
Balcetis has been the assistant general manager for much of the decade and has spent almost a dozen years with the Nuggets, climbing the ranks as well. Both Balcetis and Tenzer are inside voices but can offer a different perspective. After all, Booth had a far different vision after being internally promoted than Tim Connelly did. So if the Nuggets are doing something similar, just three years later, in promoting Booth, itās not necessarily an indicator of the teamās plan.
There are a lot of different traits that go into different general managers and presidents of basketball, however you want to refer to them, but itās about finding the right mix, Kroenke said. Iāve promoted from within for several cycles now, am I going to do that again? Iām not 100% sure, but I know we have some very capable people in this organization and theyāve made me rethink a few things that Iāve already been thinking myself which is great, I donāt want an organization where everybody agrees, I want to challenge people and then when the door opens, and we move out, weāre all moving in unison.
Still, Kroenke hasnāt yet given the gig to either of the two candidates with the resume to do it. Instead, heās still keeping his eyes and ears open for now.
I would be naive if I didnāt think about soliciting opinions outside these walls, whether thatās 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 shared. āI got a lot of great relationships around basketball Iām going to be leaning on them heavily, Iāve already had a lot of people reaching out and I think that the way that our players responded over the last six, seven weeks or so really told the world that you know the Nuggets job, whether itās coaching or front office, is a really special one and especially with where we are right now. So, the pressure, back to the question about the pressure of a team with Jokic trying to win the title, we embrace it. Ten years ago, we would have killed to be in this position, and this was our goal: to be in this position, to be having this type of pressure year in year out. To be here and finally feel it is itās a lot, but itās itās energizing and itās right where we want to be.
Kroenke added that the Nuggets feel a lot more stable to him already than two months ago when he decided to fire the coach and GM.
