According to Adrian Wojnarowski of the Vertical on Yahoo the Nuggets made a big move to stem the tide of key departures from the Nuggets front office, and kept two extremely valuable front office executives who have shaped the course of the team the last 4 years.
Arturas Karnisovas was being actively courted by other teams, namely the Milwaukee Bucks. Karnisovas has been a very hot commodity in the General Manager and front office circles since coming over from the Houston Rockets to join Tim Connelly as assistant General Manager in 2013.
Much of the Nuggets success with international and European prospects has been down to the hard work put in by Karnisovas, a former star Lithuanian basketball player. He, along with head European scout Rafal Juc have been the backbone of the Nuggets success in finding diamonds in the rough in Europe.
Connelly, according to Wojnarowski, has been promoted to President of Basketball Operations. This will mean that Connelly fills a bit of the void left when Pete D’Allessandro left for the Orlando Magic a few short days ago. Connelly has been the Nuggets General Manager since replacing Masai Ujiri in 2013. His record of draft picks, including Nikola Jokic, have reshaped the Denver Nuggets and set the course for their future.
All in all, this is quite the powerful move by team Governor Josh Kroenke. What could have been a troubling sign of Nuggets departures has evolved into consistency. This means that the Nuggets getting a steady basketball operations hand and keeps the band together. So to speak.
