On June 17 last year, the Nuggets announced that Tim Connelly had been tapped to take the helm of Denvers front office. In the month preceding his hiring, owner Josh Kroenke had overseen a turbulent start to Denvers offseason, and Connelly joined a Nuggets organization reckoning with the startling departure of Masai Ujiri for Toronto and the firing of Coach of the Year George Karl. Exacerbating the chaotic atmosphere, Andre Iguodala who the Nuggets clearly had expected to return opted out to become an unrestricted free agent just eleven days after Connellys arrival, and it quickly became clear that he did not intend to re-sign with Denver.
From day one, Connellys rookie year as general manager has been a trial by fire, albeit a fire he enthusiastically jumped into.
To many, including a fair share of the writers here at Roundball Mining Company, it seemed unrealistic that the Nuggets would be able to replicate (let alone surpass) the previous seasons success in the cutthroat Western Conference, and that therefore their best course of action would be to take the plunge into at least a partial rebuilding process, focusing on the development of their youth and the accumulation of assets which would become the building blocks of the teams future.
But Kroenke and Connelly had a different plan in mind. They were clearly intent on getting the Nuggets back into the playoffs. This was evidenced by a series of offseason signings favoring the acquisition of veterans who in the short term might help the team win more games, but likely at the cost of limiting the minutes of younger players in need of development. The use of payroll and roster spots on players of considerable experience but dubious trade value also seemed to hamper the organizations flexibility and leave few resources available for bringing in projects and draft picks.
