Nuggets name Ben Tenzer executive VP of basketball operations, add Jon Wallace to front office

More than a month after their season ended and more than two months after firing general manager Calvin Booth the Nuggets have completely restocked their front office Ben Tenzer has been appointed as Denver s executive vice president of basketball operations multiple league sources recounted The Denver Post on Monday The Nuggets are also hiring Iowa Wolves general manager Jon Wallace to take over as executive vice president of contestant personnel The duo will collaborate to oversee Denver s basketball ops on a day-to-day basis reporting to crew president and KSE vice chairman Josh Kroenke Tenzer finished the - season as the unit s interim general manager after the Nuggets fired Booth with three games remaining in the regular season this April along with head coach Michael Malone Now two longtime members of the organization have earned promotions New head coach David Adelman was an assistant under Malone since Tenzer first worked for the Nuggets as a trainee intern during the - season while he was a junior at the University of Colorado He left the group in to attend Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles then returned full-time as director of organization operations in under then-GM Tim Connelly When Connelly left Denver for Minnesota in he took Wallace with him The former Georgetown star guard and burgeoning NBA executive had spent three years in the Nuggets front office preponderance in recent months as a scouting coordinator Now he s returning to Denver to collaborate with a fellow disciple of Connelly s tenure A former Basketball Without Borders instructor and Summer League operations coordinator Tenzer was the greater part in recent days the general manager of the Grand Rapids Gold Denver s own G League affiliate unit He has long been a salary cap and CBA expert for the front office spanning multiple regimes This is his first NBA general manager job He joins a short list of ongoing NBA general managers and presidents of basketball operations with backgrounds as a G League GM Sean Marks Brooklyn Mike Gansey Cleveland Elton Brand Philadelphia Trajan Langdon Detroit and Anthony Parker Orlando Ben and I have been spending a lot of time together talking about each individual athlete how we think we can improve them as individuals and within the context of the crew Josh Kroenke announced in late May early in the search for Booth s replacement Ben has a lot of great ideas of how we can improve the front office both internally and externally And I m also soliciting a lot of opinions outside Tenzer and Wallace are tasked with maneuvering the Nuggets out of a corner Their payroll is bogged down by high-dollar contracts that render it challenging to improve roster depth especially under the constraints of a new NBA collective bargaining agreement that took effect on July three weeks after Denver won its first championship Related Articles Dario Saric picks up performer option with Nuggets Nuggets Journal OKC Thunder s ascent felt inevitable but Nuggets and Pacers proved me wrong Keeler Nuggets don t have GM days before NBA draft Josh Kroenke better have cleanser not Tenzer Nuggets won t retain assistant general manager Tommy Balcetis sources say Grading The Week Russell Westbrook or Bruce Brown Even for Nuggets unit with interim GM it s an easy choice Since then the Nuggets have been eliminated in the second round of the playoffs two consecutive years both times in a Challenge Their bulk substantial roster casualties have been the losses of Bruce Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in free agency Still they fielded the seventh-most expensive roster in the league last season and they re projected to have the fifth-most expensive in - after a max contract extension takes effect for Jamal Murray Tenzer will have the taxpayer mid-level exception at his disposal this offseason allowing him to sign a free agent at a salary of up to million Other than that he s limited to veteran minimum contracts Denver is the only company in the NBA without a pick in the upcoming draft which begins on June Three roster spots are vacant as his tenure begins those filled last season by DeAndre Jordan Vlatko Cancar and Russell Westbrook who is declining a competitor option Among Tenzer s first decisions will be whether to re-sign any of those players or bring in newcomers Want more Nuggets news Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis