Denver Nuggets Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Draft History: Tim Connelly

May 29th, 2015 at 8:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The 2015 NBA draft is a little less than a month away, and for teams that aren’t still participating in the NBA playoffs, the focus is on using that event to build toward a better future. Now that the NBA Draft lottery is complete, the speculation can truly begin as to which player each franchise will pin its hopes on for the future. Of course, having one of the top selections in any draft doesn’t guarantee that a team will snag a future All-Star. Team executives and scouts still have the difficult task of making the correct call with their picks.

With this in mind we at Hoops Rumors will be taking a look back at the draft history of the primary basketball executive for each NBA team. Their names, reputations, and possibly employment will be on the line as a result of the decisions to come on June 25th, and we’ll be examining what they’ve done in previous years in charge of a club’s front office. Note that many of them have played other sorts of roles within a team’s executive structure, but this won’t take that into account. We’ll continue on with a look back at the calls made by Nuggets GM Tim Connelly.

Nuggets (June 2013-Present)

2013 Draft

No. 46 Overall — Erick Green*: 43 games, 3.4 PPG, 0.7 RPG, and 0.9 APG. .377/.298/.833.
No. 55 Overall — Joffrey Lauvergne**: 24 games, 3.9 PPG, 3.2 RPG, and 0.5 APG. .404/.188/.643.

*Acquired from Jazz along with cash in exchange for the No. 27 overall pick (Rudy Gobert).

**Acquired from Grizzlies along with Darrell Arthur in exchange for Kosta Koufos.

Notable players passed over or available at draft slot: Gobert (No. 27).

2014 Draft

No. 16 Overall — Jusuf Nurkic*: 62 games, 6.9 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 1.1 BPG. .446/.000/.636.
No. 19 Overall — Gary Harris*: 55 games, 3.4 PPG, 1.2 RPG, 0.5 APG. .304/.204/.745.
No. 41 Overall — Nikola Jokic: No NBA regular season appearances.

*Acquired from the Bulls along with a 2015 second-rounder in exchange for the No. 11 overall pick (Doug McDermott) and Anthony Randolph.

**Traded the No. 56 overall pick (Devyn Marble) and Evan Fournier to the Magic in exchange for Arron Afflalo.

Notable players passed over or available at draft slot: McDermott (No. 11), Zach LaVine (No. 13), Rodney Hood (No. 23), K.J. McDaniels (No. 32), and Jordan Clarkson (No. 46).

Western Notes: Rockets, Muhammad, Lakers

May 28th, 2015 at 10:37pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Now that the Rockets have been eliminated from the playoffs the franchise will begin working toward its offseason plans. Josh Smith, Jason Terry, and Corey Brewer, all of whom are set to become unrestricted free agents this summer, have indicated that they want to return to Houston next season, Jenny Dial Creech of The Houston Chronicle writes. “I like the future if we can keep all the pieces together,” Smith said. “I like what the future holds for us. You never know in free agency what may occur. The city of Houston and this team has definitely embraced me for my individuality and the way I play the game. It would be great to do something special for the city and for this team.”

Here’s more from around the Western Conference:

Wolves swingman Shabazz Muhammad has parted ways with agent Bill Duffy of BDA Sports Management and signed with Rob Pelinka of Landmark Sports, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports relays (Twitter link).
The Lakers held workouts earlier today for Justin Anderson, Askia Booker, Anthony Brown, Charles Jackson, Stefan Nastic, and Delon Wright, the team announced (via Twitter).
Arkansas forward Bobby Portis is scheduled to work out for the Thunder this Friday, Gary Washburn of Boston Globe tweets.
The Nuggets brought in Florida guard Michael Frazier for a workout today, Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops relays (Twitter link).
Center Andrew Bogut praised the Warriors‘ front office for keeping the core of the team intact and not going for a “home run” in the NBA draft, via trades, or through free agency, Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee relays (on Twitter).

Melvin Hunt Front-Runner For Nuggets Job

May 28th, 2015 at 1:14pm CST by Chuck Myron

Nuggets interim coach Melvin Hunt is the front-runner to take the job on a formal basis, a source tells Bleacher Report’s Jared Zwerling (Twitter link). The chances that Hunt would fill the vacancy have improved since season’s end, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported last week, and while Stein wrote that Mike D’Antoni was still in the mix, the long-ago Nuggets coach has yet to interview for the vacancy Denver created when it fired Brian Shaw, Zwerling adds.

The Nuggets are “not an option” for Tom Thibodeau, sources told Ken Berger of CBSSports.com last week, even though it had earlier seemed as though he would be the favorite once the Bulls let him go, as they finally did today. Alvin Gentry is reportedly a candidate for the Denver job, but reports have linked him to all four current NBA head coaching vacancies. Michael Malone, Scott Skiles, Fred Hoiberg and David Vanterpool are others who’ve been in contention, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.

Denver’s brass sees Hunt as a viable coach for a rebuilding team, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders wrote this week. The Nuggets are apparently contemplating major changes, but Hunt drew strong support from existing Nuggets players after he took over the team for the stretch run. That included plaudits from Ty Lawson and Kenneth Faried, who are otherwise losing confidence in the team and have let the Nuggets know that unless they make the right kind of coaching hire or pull off a significant trade, they’d rather be traded themselves than go through rebuilding, Kyler wrote.

Mutual Interest Between Mavs, Ty Lawson

May 26th, 2015 at 3:21pm CST by Chuck Myron

TUESDAY, 3:21pm: A pursuit of Lawson isn’t on the forefront of the Mavs’ priorities, reports Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com (Twitter link), citing the point guard’s off-court issues.

MONDAY, 3:08pm: Ty Lawson has been eyeing the Mavs and the team reciprocates the intrigue, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders hears (Twitter link). Lawson hinted at a desire to play for Dallas in a since-deleted Instagram exchange last month, but the Nuggets, who have Lawson under contract through 2016/17, hold sway.

Chris Broussard of ESPN.com reported shortly before the deadline that the Nuggets were trying to trade the speedy point guard, but Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports and Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post heard that Denver was merely listening to pitches. The Nuggets wanted multiple first-round picks if they were to part with Lawson, sources told Grantland’s Zach Lowe at the time. The Mavs already owe their 2016 first-rounder to the Celtics as part of the Rajon Rondo trade.

Rondo’s failure to take command of the point guard position in Dallas would no doubt be at the root of any push the team might make for Lawson. Mavs coach Rick Carlisle acknowledged even before the playoffs were done that the Mavs aren’t expected to re-sign Rondo, who’ll be a free agent as of July 1st. Dallas has Devin Harris on a long-term deal, and Raymond Felton reportedly told the team that he’ll opt in, but there’s no clear-cut starter for next season at the point in Dallas, particularly with J.J. Barea also set for free agency. The Mavs are reportedly poised to make runs at big men LaMarcus Aldridge and DeAndre Jordan, leaving little capacity for the team to sign a point guard of equal caliber.

The Celtics and Nuggets engaged in exploratory talks about Lawson before the deadline, as Lowe reported, which was around the same time that the Bucks were being linked to him as well, as Kyler wrote then. Kings coach George Karl would love for the Kings to acquire Lawson, a person familiar with Karl’s thinking told Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck in February, though that was before Vlade Divac took command of Sacramento’s front office. Lawson clashed with ex-Nuggets coach Brian Shaw, Karl’s replacement in Denver, Lowe heard, and there was tension and frustration between Lawson and the Nuggets at the deadline, according to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. Shortly thereafter, Nuggets GM Tim Connelly implored Lawson to “grow up.”

Latest On Nuggets, Ty Lawson, Kenneth Faried

May 26th, 2015 at 1:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

Ty Lawson and Kenneth Faried are losing confidence in the Nuggets, and both have let the team know that unless it hires an inspiring name to fill the coaching vacancy or makes a significant trade, they’d rather be dealt away than go through rebuilding, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders writes in his NBA AM piece. There was mutual trepidation between Faried and the Nuggets even as the sides signed a four-year, $50MM extension this past fall, Kyler hears.

Lawson and Faried, like many Nuggets players, were vocal in their support of Melvin Hunt after he took over the coaching job on an interim basis from the fired Brian Shaw, with whom Lawson had reportedly clashed. Lawson told Kyler in March that Hunt was “giving everybody confidence” and had all the Nuggets on the same page. Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post wrote around the same time that Faried was particularly ecstatic about Hunt and that he and his teammates would vote unanimously to remove Hunt’s interim tag and formally make him the team’s coach. Kyler writes in his latest piece that major changes to the roster might nonetheless bode well for Hunt’s chances of staying in the job, since Nuggets management sees him as a viable head man for a rebuilding team. Hunt’s chances of keeping the job have improved of late, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported last week. Team president Josh Kroenke said last week that a “period of transition” was on its way and that the club would take an “aggressive” approach to finding the roster it wants.

Some within the Nuggets organization weren’t on board with the Faried extension, as Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN.com reported in November, a few weeks after the deal was signed. Arnovitz added that Nuggets brass consented to the extension in part because of the positive publicity it would generate, in spite of their doubts about Faried’s ability. The Nuggets were nonetheless hesitant to include Faried or Lawson in trades as of January, as Chris Mannix of SI.com wrote then, though people around the league sensed as the trade deadline approached that the Nuggets would part with them for a strong offer, according to Grantland’s Zach Lowe. The Celtics and Nuggets engaged in exploratory Lawson talks, as Lowe reported at the same time.

The Mavs and Lawson have mutual interest, as Kyler reported Monday, though Lawson has two more seasons left on his contract, so the Nuggets have leverage. Kings coach George Karl would love it if Sacramento traded for his old point guard, a person close to Karl told Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck, as Beck wrote in February. Lowe heard at the deadline that Denver wanted multiple first-round picks if it was to relinquish the former 18th overall pick. That was in spite of the tension and frustration between Lawson and the Nuggets organization that Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders reported, as well as GM Tim Connelly‘s call, shortly after the deadline, for Lawson to “grow up.”

Draft Notes: Oubre, Porzingis, Greene

May 26th, 2015 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

Hoops Rumors has a full log of 2015 draft news that you can see anytime at the link here. You can also set that page up as an RSS feed to receive constant updates. All you’d need to do would be to add /feed to the url, like so: hoopsrumors.com/2015-nba-draft/feed. Here’s more on the draft:

Kelly Oubre had a disappointing freshman season at Kansas, but he’s still aiming high and is attempting to dispel misconceptions about his work ethic, as Moke Hamilton details for Basketball Insiders. Oubre, in speaking to Hamilton, added the Nuggets, Raptors and Knicks to the list of teams known to have interviewed him at the combine. “Some people say I’m lazy and some people say that I don’t work hard all the time,” Oubre said. “That’s not true. This year at Kansas I may have come off lazy because I really didn’t understand some of things that I was doing, so it kind of caused me to slow down.”
Latvian center Kristaps Porzingis joins Jahlil Okafor, Karl-Anthony Towns, D’Angelo Russell and Emmanuel Mudiay in the top five of Derek Bodner’s mock draft for USA Today.
St. John’s guard Phil Greene is set to work out this week for the Sixers, Clippers and Nets, sources tell Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops (Twitter link). Greene and Steve Lavin, his college coach, recently spoke with Zach Links of Hoops Rumors.
Pat Connaughton has fought the perception that he doesn’t have elite athleticism, and his 44-inch vertical leap at the combine, the second highest of all time at the event, helped move the Notre Dame shooting guard farther onto the draft radar. Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star has the details.

Northwest Notes: Saunders, Wolves, Nuggets

May 24th, 2015 at 5:44pm CST by Will Joseph

Despite an NBA-worst 16-66 record this year, Timberwolves coach and president of basketball operations Flip Saunders has the franchise moving in the right direction with some good fortune and solid return on past acquisitions, Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe writes. One positive is that Minnesota has the top pick in the draft. Saunders, who Wolves owner Glen Taylor expects to return next season, must now decide between Karl-Anthony Towns and Jahlil Okafor, Washburn adds. Saunders’ goal is to find the perfect complement to Andrew Wiggins, and trading the pick for an established veteran who may not match the team’s long-term plans is not an option, according to Washburn.

“When you talk about trading the pick, it would have to be a huge-type situation because I feel like there’s three or four players that will be All-Star, All-Pro-type players,” Saunders said. “You’re just not going to give somebody like that away. The positive from our standpoint getting the top pick — we’ve got two great 19-year-olds last year, we got [Adreian] Payne, and we’re waiting to see if [Anthony] Bennett can get healthy and Bennett can develop. They’re all going to be able to kind of mature together. Really similar to the situation Oklahoma City had. We’ve talked about what they’ve been able to do. They’ve been lucky and gotten the right players, and they were able to develop those players, so we’re hoping to follow suit.”

There’s more news from the Northwest Division:

With more on the debate of Towns versus Okafor, Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune examines which player would better suit the Wolves’ style and better fit the team’s needs. Kentucky’s Towns is the new generation big man — a mobile center who can shoot, while Duke’s Okafor is more of a throwback, low-post option, Zgoda adds. In theory, Zgoda writes, going with Okafor spreads the floor and creates open shots for Wiggins, Shabazz Muhammad and Zach LaVine. However, as Zgoda points out, the game has changed with more teams relying — and thriving — on shooting from beyond the arc, and Towns gives the team a way to keep up with everybody else in that regard.
Chauncey Billups wants to be a GM, and not a coach, and therefore the Nuggets would have to give him some say in player personnel matters if the team wanted to offer him the head coaching job, Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post writes in response to a question from a reader. The chances that Denver sticks with interim head coach Melvin Hunt are reportedly improving.

Northwest Notes: Nuggets, Wolves, Batum

May 22nd, 2015 at 1:32pm CST by Chuck Myron

The centerpieces for the Nuggets appear to be Danilo Gallinari and Jusuf Nurkic, as Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post sees it, and Kiszla finds it reasonable that the team will talk this summer about trading Ty Lawson, Kenneth Faried, or both. In any case, team president Josh Kroenke made it clear to Kiszla and fellow Post scribe Christopher Dempsey that he intends a strong push to find a star.

“There’s a period of transition that’s coming up, and we’re going to be aggressive … as an organization,” Kroenke said. “And continue to be aggressive until we feel we have the roster that truly can compete for something special.”

Kroenke judges by the volume of trade inquiries that he’s received from other teams, which include two calls since the season ended, that the players on Denver’s roster have plenty of value, Dempsey notes. There’s more on the Nuggets amid the latest from the Northwest Division:

The Timberwolves are tentatively planning a predraft workout with two-guards Rashad Vaughn from UNLV, J.P. Tokoto from North Carolina and Michael Frazier from Florida next month, reports Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter links).
The prospect of a Nicolas Batum trade seemed far-fetched last summer, but now it’s a realistic possibility, as The Oregonian’s Joe Freeman writes in a roundtable piece with other Blazers beat writers. Freeman would nonetheless bet on Batum staying in Portland and having a bounceback season in 2015/16, the last on his contract.
Thunder GM Sam Presti wants to re-sign Enes Kanter and Kyle Singler, and that has to do with the team’s cap situation as much as the talent and production of the pair of soon-to-be restricted free agents, The Oklahoman’s Darnell Mayberry posits. Let them go, and the Thunder wouldn’t have the cap flexibility to replace them, Mayberry points out.
Kroenke pointed to a lack of communication as the most unexpected shortcoming of Brian Shaw‘s tenure as Nuggets coach, as Dempsey writes in a separate piece.

Western Notes: Jordan, Lakers, Nuggets

May 21st, 2015 at 10:30pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Now that the Clippers have been eliminated from the playoffs, the team needs to look toward the offseason and find a way to improve despite the franchise’s challenging salary cap situation, Fran Blinebury of NBA.com writes. According to coach/executive Doc Rivers, Los Angeles’ first order of business this summer will be re-signing center DeAndre Jordan, Blinebury notes. “Our first priority is D.J.,” Rivers said. “That’s obvious. I don’t know how much I can say there. Can you tamper with your own guy? If that’s true I’m going to go tamper right now.” The Clippers will have competition for the unrestricted free agent’s services, and Jordan has already expressed through back channels that he’ll be “extremely interested” in signing with the Mavs this summer.

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

The Nuggets are taking their time looking for a new head coach, and a decision isn’t expected for another couple weeks, Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post writes. “It’s exactly how we thought it would go,” team president Josh Kroenke said. “We’ve had several conversations with a lot of people. I think that it benefits us to talk to as many people as we can. We have some people in the back of our mind that we think would be great fits. I’ve talked to enough people, and going through the process before, your coaching hire is probably going to be your hardest hire because there’s so much that goes into that role in today’s sporting industry.”
Kroenke also relayed that the Nuggets aren’t concerned about the length of time the coaching search has taken thus far, Dempsey adds. “It’s beneficial for us on some level to be patient,” Kroenke said. “I think more candidates have opened up since the end of the season. Based on different organizations wanting to go different directions with different guys, I think there was never a time when we wanted to rush into anything. Until you have that guy that you know is the one that you want, I think it really benefits you to talk to as many people as you can. Because also during the course of these interviews you’re getting to pick some of the best basketball minds that are out there. That’s an incredible benefit to the process.“
The Lakers aren’t 100% set on drafting either Karl-Anthony Towns or Jahlil Okafor, and the team is intrigued by D’Angelo Russell and Emmanuel Mudiay, Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com tweets.

Melvin Hunt’s Chances At Nuggets Job Improving

May 20th, 2015 at 2:45pm CST by Chuck Myron

2:45pm: The Nuggets are “not an option” for Thibodeau, sources tell Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, though it’s unclear if there’s a lack of interest from Denver’s side, from Thibodeau’s, or both.

12:46pm: The odds that the Nuggets will formally fill their head coaching vacancy with interim coach Melvin Hunt are getting better, though Mike D’Antoni remains in the mix, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Scott Brooks has dropped out of the running, as Adrian Wojnarowski reported today, and while the field of potential coaching candidates remains wide, the emergence of the Pelicans on the coaching market last week has given Denver more competition.

The Nuggets are apparently willing to spend, as Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post heard, and it’s believed that Tom Thibodeau is the front-runner if he becomes available, according to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. Of course, Thibs appears to be the front-runner elsewhere, too, so there are plenty of obstacles between the Nuggets and him. Alvin Gentry is a Nuggets candidate, too, but he’s already interviewed with the Pelicans, according to Wojnarowski. Gentry’s also an apparent favorite to replace Thibodeau in Chicago if he and the Bulls indeed part ways. Michael Malone, Scott Skiles, Fred Hoiberg and David Vanterpool are others who’ve been in contention for the job, as Wojnarowski reported last month.

The team’s search was to have intensified within the last couple of weeks, Dempsey wrote earlier this month, though it still seemed likely then that it would run through May. The Nuggets apparently prefer a veteran, according to Sean Deveney of The Sporting News, but GM Tim Connelly said last month that the team would indeed consider Hunt, who had never held an NBA head coaching job before taking over for the fired Brian Shaw in March.

D’Antoni has spent parts of a dozen seasons, including one with Denver, as an NBA head coach, and Stein first identified him as a likely candidate in the immediate wake of Shaw’s dismissal. Other names that surfaced at that time include Mark Jackson, Adrian Griffin, Avery Johnson, Vinny Del Negro, Nate McMillan, Pelicans assistant Brian Gates and Celtics assistant Jay Larranaga, though there hasn’t been much to advance the idea that any of them are indeed in the picture for Denver.