Denver Nuggets extending contract of GM Tim Connelly, staff right move for team

Ahead of Denver’s fifth game of their eight game home stand, Nuggets President and Governor Josh Kroenke announced the team has reached contract extensions with General Manager Tim Connelly, Assistant GM Arturas Karnisovas and the entire front office staff.

“Over the past few years Tim, Arturas, and the rest of our front office staff have worked tirelessly in reshaping our roster and our entire organizational vision for the future,” said Kroenke in the team’s press release. “Whether through the draft, trades, or free agency, we have an excellent mix of players and are extremely well positioned moving forward.”

Back on Sept. 18th and 21st I wrote a two part series detailing Connelly’s tenure with the Nuggets, and examined his case for a contract extension (Part 1 here and Part 2 here). This contract extension marks the first one given by the Kroenkes (Stan or Josh) to a front office team. The Kroenke family has owned the Nuggets since 2000 and had not given out an extension in the now 16 year ownership of the organization. It’s time that the Nuggets had some stability in the front office ranks, and this is a good move by the team.

Connelly is responsible for the player acquisitions of Emmanuel Mudiay, Gary Harris, Jusuf Nurkic, Nikola Jokic, Joffrey Lauvergne through the draft. Through trades he brought in: Randy Foye, Jameer Nelson, Darrell Arthur and Will Barton. He signed Mike Miller and J.J. Hickson in free agency and re-signed Nelson, Arthur and Barton this offseason and extended the contracts of Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler. His vision for this team will get more time, and that’s a good thing for Nuggets Nation.

It is this writer’s belief that Connelly has “hit” more than he has “missed” in a position where, as Connelly puts it, you have to make “educated mistakes.”

“We’re excited and honored by this opportunity to continue what we have started here in Denver,” stated Connelly in the team’s press release. “We have a locker room full of dedicated players and staff, led by head coach Michael Malone, who look forward to winning in this great city for years to come.  As a staff we would like to thank Josh and the entire Kroenke family for their continued support; we are unbelievably fortunate to work for such committed ownership.”

Connelly’s Front Office Staff: 

Being the GM of an NBA team means you’re responsible for the jobs of a lot of people. Here is a look at Connelly’s staff with the Nuggets.

1.) Arturas Karnisovas, Assistant General Manager. He came to the Nuggets from the Houston Rockets. Karnisovas was a legendary player in Europe from 1987-2002. He played college ball at Seton Hall from 1990-94, helped lead Lithuania to Bronze medals in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic games and the 1996 Atlanta Olympic games and is a key figure in his home country. Arturas, at 6-feet-9-inches, is a towering figure that brings a unique player perspective to the table and is a basketball lifer at just 44 years-old.

2.) Pete D’Alessandro, Senior Vice President of Business and Basketball Operations. After getting a taste of the GM life in Sacramento, D’Alessandro is back with the Nuggets and will be a major asset as a salary cap manager and more.

3.) Ben Tenzer, Director of Basketball Operations. The former University of Colorado graduate focuses mainly on salary cap operations for the team.

4.) Jim Clibanoff, Director of Scouting. He ran a successful NBA scouting service for 17 years before joining the Nuggets. Clibanoff was a highly sought after mind and is a major asset in evaluating young talent.

5.) Herb Livsey, Scout. He has been with the Nuggets since 2008 and notably scouted Kenneth Faried at Morehead State, among other players. He has worked in the NBA since 1998 when he broke in with the Portland Trail Blazers and he also worked for the Atlanta Hawks.

6.) Jared Jeffries, Pro Personnel Scout. The former Indiana Hoosiers star has done a bit of everything with the Nuggets. As he’s done in years past, Jeffries ran players like Justise Winslow through pre-draft workouts with the team. Jeffries is a bridge between player and front office and is still active enough to be a hands on member of the staff.

7.) Rafal Juc, International Scout. He worked his way up in the ranks of the scouting world to land a gig with the Nuggets. In addition to his job with Denver, he has worked with his native Polish national team. Juc acts as Denver’s boots on the ground overseas, where he spends the bulk of his time.

8.) Tommy Balcetis, Manager of Basketball Analytics. A native of Lithuania, who grew up watching Karnisovas play, and a Harvard graduate (where he also played a little basketball). If you want to know what the Nuggets number guy does, check out my detailed feature on him right here.

9.) Daisuke Yoshimoto, Head Video Coordinator. First season with the team after working in the same role with the Chicago Bulls last season.

10.) Ognjen Stojakovic, Video Coordinator. No relation to Peja, but the Serbian Stojakovic played some ball overseas and also acted as an interpreter for Jusuf Nurkic (mainly between player and coaching staff) and can do the same for Nikola Jokic and eventually Nikola Radicevic, too.

11.) Tommy Massimino, Video Assistant.

12.) Michael Malone, Head Coach. Malone and Connelly have a long standing relationship and we’ll see how the new coach develops in Denver (check out Harrison Wind’s piece on running and gunning). Malone has a massive eight man staff that includes the following assistant coaches: Ed Pinckney (has interviewed for head coaching jobs over the past few offseasons), Wes Unseld Jr. (basketball in his bloodline), Chris Fleming (German national team’s head coach, multiple titles in German leagues), Micah Nori (was the Nuggets head coach at Las Vegas Summer League this year), Ryan Bowen (former Nuggets player and coach), Dee Brown (told me at summer league he took this job to work with Emmanuel Mudiay), Noel Gillespie (holdover from George Karl and Brian Shaw, worked with Mike D’Antoni in Phoenix) and John Beckett (operated a player development camp in Atlanta, Emmy Award winner as a freelance producer with TNT’s “NBA on TNT” show).

Those are the main players on the basketball side for the Nuggets under Connelly, all together that’s 21 front office and coaching members that have their futures connected to Denver’s GM. So, when we’re talking about Connelly, we have to consider the team that he has assembled and how they work as a whole.