Sources: Nuggets’ Connelly turns down Wizards
Adrian WojnarowskiESPN
Tim Connelly, the Denver Nuggets’ president of basketball operations, has turned down a suggestion to run the Washington Wizards’ entrance workplace, league sources informed ESPN.
Josh Kroenke, the Nuggets’ president and governor, made an aggressive and compelling case to Connelly over the weekend to maintain him with the crew, which the 2 have helped construct right into a Western Convention contender.
Connelly’s deep household roots within the mid-Atlantic area and Wizards proprietor Ted Leonsis’ franchise imaginative and prescient gave Connelly important pause, however in the end, the possibility to proceed constructing the Nuggets into contenders saved Connelly in Denver, league sources stated.
Connelly met with Leonsis on Friday in suburban Maryland, sources stated, and Washington prolonged a suggestion over the weekend.
The Wizards’ search is now anticipated to return to the three finalists, together with Oklahoma Metropolis’s Troy Weaver, former Atlanta and Cleveland GM Danny Ferry and interim common supervisor Tommy Sheppard. Weaver and Ferry have every met twice with Leonsis, and Weaver’s candidacy had gained momentum earlier than Connelly agreed to speak with the Wizards.
Connelly, an NBA Govt of the 12 months candidate, methodically constructed a Western Convention contender that earned the No. 2 seed and superior to a Sport 7 towards Portland within the West semifinals.
Connelly is a Baltimore native and broke into the NBA within the Wizards’ entrance workplace as an intern in 1996. He rose to video coordinator, scout and personnel director earlier than changing into an assistant GM in New Orleans in 2010. His spouse is from Washington, D.C., and the couple’s prolonged household resides within the area.
The Wizards are changing former president Ernie Grunfeld, who was fired after 16 years on the job. Sheppard, a candidate to earn the everlasting job, is working the crew now. Weaver and Ferry have each had a number of conversations with the Wizards and likewise stay candidates for the job, league sources stated.
Connelly drafted a core of expertise, together with All-Star heart Nikola Jokic and guards Jamal Murray and Gary Harris, and signed former All-Star Paul Millsap to a free-agent contract.