Tim Connelly is the first to admit that there’s a fair amount of luck that goes into his job.
Sure Denver liked Nikola Jokic heading into the 2014 draft and believed his unique skill-set could eventually land the Serbian squarely in the Nuggets rotation. But an All-Star who could very well find his name on the MVP ballot when the top-5 vote-getters for the league’s most prestigious award are revealed this summer? No way.
A certain Gary Harris slipping to 19th overall in 2014, or the Pelicans gifting the Nuggets Jamal Murray with the seventh pick in draft three years later, there’s a certain amount of good fortunate needed for those moves to come to fruition too. There’s also always bad luck, like injuries, that NBA franchises have to navigate. Denver knows about those all too well.
But the Nuggets’ remarkable climb up the Western Conference and subsequent playoff appearance didn’t happen by chance. It’s the result of a methodical and patient rebuild put on by an organization that didn’t take shortcuts and stuck to its original plan. After missing out on the playoffs by one game two seasons in a row, the plan finally paid off.
“You’ve spent all this time thinking about the playoffs I’m sure. What goes through your head now that you’re finally here?” I asked Connelly in the hallway outside of the Nuggets’ locker room around 20 minutes after Denver’s regular-season finale Wednesday night.
“It’s really exciting. It’s a culmination of a lot of trials and tribulations,” he said. “The players and coaches deserve all the credit for all the hard work.”
The Nuggets don’t have a ton of time to look back and reflect on their remarkable regular season, which saw Denver climb from out of the playoff picture to near the top of the conference, before Game 1 against the Spurs on Saturday. Maybe that’s a good thing for a group that could probably do itself a favor by not pondering what’s at stake in their inaugural playoff appearance, one that comes with one unknown after another.
How will the Nuggets react to the heightened intensity of the playoffs, especially on the road in the hair-raising AT&T center?
Will they feel the pressure that comes with the two seed.
Connelly and general manager Arturas Karnisovas have their fingerprints all over this roster. It’s a completely renovated version of the one Connelly took over in 2013, and not one player remains from the Nuggets’ 2012-13 57-win team. Connelly would have as good of a feel as anyone about about how his team will react when the games start to matter just a little bit more.
Our discussion continued.
What do you expect from your young guys on such a big stage?
It will be neat to see how we respond. We’ve never been in this situation besides Mason (Plumlee), IT (Isaiah Thomas), and Paul (Millsap). We have almost no playoff experience so it will be neat to see how our guys react under the brighter lights.
What about playoff pressure? Everyone talks about it, the fact that you don’t have a ton of postseason experience.
I don’t think we’re a team that really feels pressure. I think we’re probably at best when we’re playing free. I think having voices like Mase and Paul and IT will really help. So I don’t think the pressure is something I’m overly concerned about. It’s just an extra layer of competition, an extra layer of intensity and it will be interesting to see how we respond to it. And then we’re going against one of the most storied franchises in all of the NBA, one of the best coaches in any sport.
The Spurs will be a good test for you guys
They’re a fantastic team. They know how to win. They’ve got fantastic depth and two superstars. They’re a heck of a team and it will be a great measuring stick to see if we can compete with guys at that level.
You clinched a playoff berth nearly a month ago and then finished the regular season by losing four of your final seven. Was there a sense around the team that everyone was really eager to just get to the playoffs?
I think we were physically and mentally tired. We set certain goals. We wanted to get to the playoffs, and we achieved that. We wanted to win the division, and we achieved that. We were kind of in uncharted territory in terms of reaching certain goals and still trying to maintain the same level of motivation throughout the rest of the season.
Have you had a moment over the last few weeks to sit back and reflect on what you guys have accomplished this season considering your youth and the injuries you’ve had to navigate?
I think we will take the time to reflect. Right now though we’re still in that competitive mode. But when you reach those different benchmarks it’s cool to say, ‘Alright, we finally made it.’ I think our division is the toughest division in basketball. To have that feather in your cap, to have home court, all these things. We set some pretty lofty goals and when you check those boxes you take a moment and you really enjoy it but then the next game comes so quickly.
There’s got to be a sense of satisfaction around how your guys bounced back after what happened in Game 82 last year.
I’m unbelievably proud of the coaching staff and the players. It’s kind of a lot of guys that got here against pretty unique odds. We don’t have the most typical roster when you look up and down it so I’m super proud of everyone in the locker room, all the medical staff, the performance staff, everyone. It’s such a team achievement and everyone should feel great about what they’ve brought to the table.
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The Nuggets are slow playing their upcoming playoff appearance with those around the team quick to shoot down any notion of a potential run, to say, the Western Conference Finals even with a West bracket that broke in Denver’s favor. The uncertainties of what’s to come in the first round and how the Nuggets young roster will react are too great.
No matter what happens over the next two weeks, the Nuggets aren’t going anywhere. With the young core of Jokic, Harris and Murray, Denver’s foundation is strong. The Nuggets’ draft to rotation pipeline has produced Malik Beasley, Juancho Hernangomez and Monte Morris too over the last two seasons. Are rookies Jarred Vanderbilt and Michael Porter Jr. next?
Above all, the Nuggets have staying power at or near the top of the West. And their president of basketball operations?
“All I care about is the Nuggets,” Connelly said when I asked him about the recent reports that the Wizards are targeting him to be their next GM. “I’m focused on the Nuggets and the playoffs. It’s good to know that we’re finally focused on a certain team in the Spurs. We’ll huddle up and have a fun team dinner tomorrow. I can not wait until we walk into this building and we finally have another playoff game. Its been a long, long drought and then to have home court, it’s going to be awesome.”
It wasn’t surprising news that Connelly’s name was immediately brought up as the Wizards began a search for their next GM. He’s a Baltimore native and his wife is also from the area. Connelly got his start in the NBA with the Wizards as an intern in the mid-1990s and eventually worked his way up to director of player personnel. He took an assistant general manager job with the Pelicans in 2010 and arrived in Denver three years later. He’s also built what could be one of the Western Conference’s next titans from scratch and the Wizards could be in line for an overhaul similar to the one that Denver underwent in 2013 awfully soon. Connelly has the necessary blueprint put to memory.
The Nuggets’ reclamation project and the slow and steady timeline that’s been followed in Denver is a lesson in NBA team building: Don’t cut corners or stray from your long-term plans, and when you draft and develop well while fostering an organic culture you’ll be set up for sustained success.
Denver has followed those steps and the Nuggets are left with a playoff team that’s set up to contend in the West for years to come.
That’s not luck.
