Penny-pinching move with Tim Connelly continues to haunt the Nuggets
The longtime NBA executive is continuing to have success, while simultaneously closing the Nuggets championship window, after haunting decision
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If the Nuggets could turn back time and fix the organization’s biggest mistake, what would it be? On the Wednesday edition of “The Drive with Zach Bye and Phillip Lindsay,” Bye has his answer.
He’s making sure the Nuggets never let Tim Connelly walk out the door.
In 2013, Dever hired Tim Connelly as their executive vice president of basketball operations. In 2022, they let him leave for a division rival — the Minnesota Timberwolves — for a bigger paycheck.
Connelly built the Nuggets’ championship core. Even though he didn’t get to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy in 2023 when Denver won the title, his fingerprints were all over that roster.
The following year, the man who built the Nuggets castle tore it down as they tried to defend your title. And this season, the roster he constructed in Minnesota embarrassed Denver and sent them home in the first round.
“That is the origin story of how the Denver Nuggets got to where they’re at today,” Bye explained. The Nuggets let Connelly walk “because they didn’t want to pay him what he was worth.”
Mishandling one of the most sought‑after executives in basketball may have cost Denver a chance at a true dynasty. And the responsibility now falls on the people currently in charge.
Josh Kroenke can’t jump into a DeLorean and undo one of the biggest mistakes in franchise history. So where do the Nuggets go from here?
In what has become the most-important offseason in team history, all eyes turn to Jon Wallace, Ben Tenzer and Nuggets ownership. Can they get this ship back on course, or will letting Tim Connelly walk forever remain the ultimate “what if” in Denver sports history?
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Comments
1 Comments
KSE is CHEAP!! Period.. They got lucky with Connelly, who is a genuine mastermind at building a roster! But they were too cheap to keep him and they are more worried about staying under the apron than they are about winning a title! They will unfortunately keep falling further behind Minnesota, OKC, even the Lakers are becoming a better team, really quick too. Smh, cheap, that’s the problem..