The Washington Wizards have been granted permission to interview Denver Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly for their vacant president position, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Connelly has helped transform the Nuggets into a contender in the Western Conference. They finished the 2018-19 season with the second-best record in the conference.
As Washington conducted their search and interview process for the position left vacant after Ernie Grunfeld was fired in April, Connelly has remained a rumored top choice. Presumably owner Ted Leonsis was waiting for the Nuggets’ season to end to get permission. Denver was eliminated from the NBA playoffs after losing Game 7 against the Portland Trailblazers in the Western Conference semifinals.
Connelly has ties to the Greater DC Area. He grew up in nearby Baltimore, Md., and attended Catholic University in Washington, DC. He got his start in the league with the Wizards, working with the team for 10 years. He ultimately became their director of player personnel before joining the New Orleans Hornets front office in 2010.
The Wizards had a second interview with Oklahoma City Thunder’s vice president of basketball operations Troy Weaver, according to Fred Katz of the Athletic. Weaver is a native of DC and worked the AAU circuit in the 1990s in the nation’s capital with Team Assault.
The Wizards’ search to replace Grunfeld has included interviews with Danny Ferry and Gersson Rosas, who has since been named the president of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Not to mention, Tommy Sheppard, the Wizards’ interim president who has been with the team for 16 years.
Whoever is named Grunfeld’s replacement will be tasked with rebuilding a roster that has been ravished with injuries and bad contracts — all of which are a byproduct of mismanaging by Grunfeld.
John Wall, a cornerstone player, is expected to miss significant time, if not, all of the 2019-20 season with a torn Achilles. His super max extension will start next season in which he will make an annual average of over $42 million for the next four seasons.
The team’s other cornerstone player, Bradley Beal, has two seasons remaining on his five-year deal, and could be eligible for a super max extension himself. However, the shooting guard has been non-committal publicly about re-signing with the Wizards.
Washington currently has five players signed for next season and already have $90 million tied into salaries with a $109 million salary cap. Of the five signed includes oft-injured Dwight Howard, who missed 73 games last season with a lower back injury that required surgery. He has already exercised his player option for next season at $5.6 million.
The Wizards had a dose of bad luck in Tuesday’s NBA Lottery, as they will draft ninth in next month’s draft despite entering the lottery with the sixth-best odds to get a top-four pick.
The next hire will have to have a strategy to reduce salary while making the team attractive to fans and potential free agents. And do so with Leonsis accepting change.
Connelly has the best track record of any known candidate, considering how he has worked to find great pickups to help transform Denver. That has included Nikola Jokic, who the Nuggets selected in the second round in 2014. And Jamal Murray, who they took seventh in 2016. Denver has arguably the deepest roster in the Western Conference which helped them soar to a 54-28 record in 2018-19.
Considering the Wizards’ salary constraints, he will need that magic building around roster around Beal and the injured Wall.
