![]() ![]() (Porter’s draft workout in 2018 remains the greatest one-on-zero shooting exhibition I’ve ever seen if he missed a shot, I can’t recall it.) At least one league insider wondered if Porter’s grim outlook played a role in Connelly’s decision, although all indications are that he wasn’t in rush to leave and that the giant bag of money from Minnesota was the deciding factor. He had already missed the entire 2018-19 season due to back surgery and most of his freshman season at Missouri due to the same.Įven in 2018, you’ll recall Porter’s health outlook was grim enough that multiple teams red-flagged him in the draft despite obvious lottery talent. The timing of this is unfortunate, as almost immediately after inking this deal, Porter started having back issues after nine pedestrian games, Porter underwent back surgery that knocked him out for the season. Next season, Porter begins the first year of a five-year, $173 million extension that is guaranteed for $146 million. situation hangs over this team’s future in a way that could force some decisions. He may also have seen the writing on the wall in another sense: Just because the Nuggets are set up to be a luxury-tax player in 2022-23 doesn’t mean they’ll end up there. 41 in 2014) and won four playoff series in three years without Denver paying a cent in luxury tax. On the day he left, his salary still placed him in the bottom half of league execs, according to sources, even after a nearly decade-long run in which he made arguably the greatest draft pick in NBA history (selecting two-time MVP Nikola Jokić at No. He knew any blockbuster deal for him was coming from someplace else and was unlikely to be matched by the Nuggets. This takes us back to Connelly, somebody who liked Denver and wanted to stay but also read his situation well enough to read the handwriting on the wall. but from Minnesota … a mid-sized market where each of the big four leagues operate. On the other hand, they just got blown out of the water financially by a rival offer, not from New York or L.A. They also haven’t been on local TV for three years, a staggering state of affairs that likely isn’t helping their bottom line. I’ve been told at various times over the last decade that Denver doesn’t exactly do gangbusters financially, playing in a mid-sized market where each of the big four leagues operate and the mountains always beckon. From the practice facility (if such a thing were to exist) to the staffing and infrastructure, the Nuggets invest as little in their basketball operations as any team in the league, a complaint that goes back at least a decade. It’s more accurate to say there is an organizational philosophy of not paying, period. That line of chatter would be more believable if it was the exception to the rule of how the Nuggets operate, but that’s not the case. Denver gave them both their first chance.) (Booth, incidentally, also would add to the league’s still-too-puny list of minority top executives, one that also includes Ujiri. The Nuggets, after all, survived the departure of Ujiri by tapping Connelly from New Orleans it’s quite possible they can do the same with Calvin Booth, a well-liked and respected Connelly lieutenant who is expected to assume the helm in Denver. As a former executive, I might be slightly biased toward overstating the value of these positions, but I can’t help but notice that none of us played in the games. I suppose one can spin this positively by saying the Nuggets under the ownership of Stan Kroenke have an organizational philosophy of not paying executives, and one can argue that individual point. Still, the Raptors offered Ujiri roughly triple what he was making at the time, and Denver barely flinched in response. Ujiri was at least a true “free agent” so to speak his contract was expiring at the time. Nine years ago, they let Masai Ujiri walk and take over the Toronto Raptors, another uncompensated loss. Of course, Nuggets fans have seen this movie before. (I’ve also been told the Wizards might have succeeded had they pursued this a bit more earnestly.) ![]() Kudos to him for writing his contract this favorably, but this was also a giant own goal for the Nuggets, especially since the Washington Wizards nearly poached Connelly three years ago. In this case, alas, Connelly had a contract with the Nuggets that basically allowed him to be a free agent even when he wasn’t, permitting him to entertain offers from other teams without the Nuggets getting in the way. ![]()
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