Mixed messaging is the name of the game from the end-of-season presser for the Denver Nuggets.
The Nuggets had four people represent them at once on Friday: Josh Kroenke, David Adelman, Ben Tenzer, and Jon Wallace. All four have played roles in Denver’s successes and failures up to this point, and all four were asked a variety of questions about the present and future of the Nuggets organization.
One thing is for certain though: Kroenke is being treated as the lead decision maker in the room with the most amount of power, and that’s by design.
Kroenke referenced his experience with those teams in the KSE family – the Rams, Avalanche, Rapids, Arsenal – as credentials for understanding what this Nuggets team needs.
“I understand it from multiple angles. I am blessed to have been a part of the championship team here with the Nuggets, championship team with the Avalanche, championship team with the LA Rams. And we’re fighting for championships over at Arsenal right now. So I know what it takes to get there, and I know how difficult it is to sustain that.”
Those teams won championships or have competed at the highest level; therefore, the Nuggets will find a way back to that point because of the decisions Kroenke and the Nuggets are going to make to steer the ship.
At least, that’s Kroenke’s framing. It’s not one that Nuggets fans will like to hear, almost certainly.
“If there’s a title or a responsibility that I guess I would give myself, that I take very seriously, it would be our chief culture officer,” Kroenke emphasized in his role to evaluate Denver’s championship potential. “I want to understand the humans behind what’s going on with our teams, and I think that’s where you get a real read of how competitive that we’re gonna be.”
So, what was Kroenke’s read on what actually ailed the Nuggets and why they didn’t win a championship this year?
Injuries and complacency.
“This season was, in a lot of ways, the season that never was,” Kroenke declared. “This group never fully got a chance to show any rhythm with the amount of turnover and change that we had last year.” Kroenke also specifically mentioned the injuries to Aaron Gordon, as did David Adelman.
The Nuggets know how valuable Gordon is to the vision of who they are, but there’s also a level of excuse making here. Many teams around the NBA, teams better than the Nuggets, have dealt with injuries to their top players and haven’t missed a beat.
Where the excuse making stops though is through the emphasis on complacency.
“I don’t want to say that we regressed,” Kroenke stated, “but complacency would be a key word that I think I saw in some areas, and some people this year.”
“When you win something, are you as hungry to achieve it as you were before?”
12 months ago when Kroenke delivered a similar message, he shared that he believed Denver’s championship culture was still intact. Now, while there’s still belief in many of the people around the organization and some of the things Denver has accomplished, this was a far less definitive answer than before.
Of course, if complacency existed inside the locker room, the organization must also ask whether it existed in the way the roster was built, maintained, and supported.
“I know what it takes to get there, and I know how difficult it is to sustain that. Going back-to-back and repeating things is very difficult. So few teams at the professional level are able to do that.”
Again, Kroenke is appealing to his authority on the matter as a steward for different organizations under the KSE banner. That’s not something that Nuggets fans want to hear. They want to know that what happened this year, especially with how the year ended in relatively embarrassing fashion, was unacceptable.
That was not the message Kroenke shared, though he did state plainly that changes could be on the way.
“I don’t want to mask my frustration for how the season ended,” Kroenke intoned. “I think that anybody that was a fan of the Denver Nuggets should be frustrated. And anything that a fan feels, I probably feel at 1000x.”
So, Kroenke’s messaging here is plain to see: I understand how much this hurts Nuggets fans. It hurts me even more. I have the experience to fix it.
As for the changes: Kroenke made two things clear: his commitment to Nikola Jokic and his belief in David Adelman.
“Everything is going to be on the table, outside of trading Nikola,” he shared. This was pretty obvious but shows Denver will look at all potential personnel changes except for one.
Kroenke also supported his first-year head coach and is giving Adelman another season.
“I have full faith in Coach Adelman. I think he coached a hell of a season, all things considered.”
Nuggets fans were caught off guard by some of the comments Adelman made after Game 4 of the Nuggets-Timberwolves series that didn’t call out Denver’s effort as much as fans thought he should. As a result, Adelman was booed in pregame intros before Game 5, the final home game of the Nuggets season.
“My job in this organization is to help make decisions without emotion,” Kroenke stated on Adelman’s return to coach the team for next season.
Adelman shared some thoughts of his own on what he learned from his first year:
“For me as a leader, I have to hear criticism from people I trust — people who know what goes on behind closed doors here, the players, those conversations. That makes you better. It’s a learning process in this position.”
“The toughest part for me as a coach was watching the group do what they did, play as hard as they did throughout the season, and then have it end abruptly like that. Those guys deserved better.”
“Self-reflection will happen throughout the whole summer.”
The Nuggets will need Adelman to be better. Whoever’s to blame for what happened: Nuggets fans are simply over the excuses and justifications. They want to see results. They want to see Denver rise to the occasion rather than fall early in the playoffs like they have the last three seasons.
In terms of outlining the issues though, Kroenke clearly drew a line in the sand today and stated that Adelman’s coaching and leadership of the players was not the problem as he saw it. After mentioning complacency and injuries as often as he did, it appears very clear to me that Kroenke and the Nuggets will attempt to make some personnel changes instead of coaching ones.
So, if everything’s on the table except trading the top guy, the next two names that naturally come up are Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon, the second and third highest paid players.
With regard to Murray, the Nuggets highlighted his leadership during last summer, his approach to this season, and his All-NBA caliber regular season performance as reasons to credit Denver’s second star. Those are all important factors, but not quite as important as playoff performance at this point. Murray’s numbers and effectiveness have gone down in recent years, and while his efforts helped Denver even reach that threshold, Murray’s playoff execution wasn’t what the Nuggets needed when the time came.
As for Aaron Gordon, the Nuggets brass spoke glowingly about him on and off the court too.
“Aaron is one of my favorite human beings I’ve come across in all of sports,” Kroenke declared. “What he’s been through as a human being since we won the championship is simply tragic and would be difficult for anybody to deal with.”
But on the flip side, the injuries are still a factor in the Gordon discussion.
“We all have to look in the mirror and say, ‘How can we help you?’ Because when he’s healthy, we all look better, from myself on down to the training staff…We’re going to have to have some challenging conversations about how we can all get better.”
If the Nuggets seriously explore a larger change, the discussions eventually lead to Murray and Gordon because of the money and assets situation. The Nuggets might be willing to go into the tax, but Kroenke certainly didn’t commit to anything when it came to an actual budgetary restriction. If money is a factor in retaining Peyton Watson and building out a deeper rotation going forward, breaking up Denver’s larger contracts will almost certainly be considered.
The other factor is the draft picks. On draft night in late June, the Nuggets will be able to trade their 2026 first round pick (26th overall) as well as a second round pick at 49th overall they acquired last February. That’s effectively it when it comes to building an enticing trade package. Denver may have to trade their valuable players if they want to receive anything of value back, which is one of the reasons why Kroenke stated plainly: everything is on the table.
So, what will the Nuggets actually do? That’s up to Josh Kroenke, until it’s time for Stan Kroenke to get involved to pay the bill. Josh wants to be at the center of this process imparting his wisdom based on championship experiences with other KSE teams, his college basketball experience, etc.
Whether this decision making structure is good for the organization is a major question itself. Ben Tenzer described the process as a collaborative effort, and maybe that’s true to a point. At the end of the day though, someone has to make the final call, and it’s been Josh Kroenke on several occasions for good or ill.
In a moment as delicate as this one for a franchise holding onto the last vestiges of a contention window, Denver can’t make a significant error. They have to get this right because their margin for error is essentially zero. The resources have been drained. The core is getting older. The young players may or may not be ready to step in and take responsibility.
It’s delicate. The guiding hands must be steady.
For better or worse, it looks like Josh Kroenke will be at the center of it.
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